The Story of Ghetto Records Episode 1: El Lobo Solitario

VMP Anthology

Welcome to this season of the VMP Anthology Podcast, I’m your host Andrew Winistorfer. This season, our 14th, unbelievably, is devoted to telling the story of Ghetto Records, a short-lived latin-jazz, soul, and boogaloo label founded by latinx music legend Joe Bataan. Collecting literally everything the label ever released–six albums, and a brand new compilation featuring loose 7-inches and unreleased material–this is the complete story of a small slice of the rich history of New York latinx musics. We partnered with Now Again records to make this box possible, and are excited for these albums–many of which sell for hundreds of dollars–to be back in circulation and on streaming for the first time ever.

Because this label and music are both not that well known, we thought we’d focus this season around telling brief overviews of the albums, and then playing a bunch of music for you. My co-host though Ghetto Records is Pablo E. Yglesias, a DJ, writer and latin music historian who wrote the extensive liner notes for this box set. We still have a few copies of this box left, so go grab it if you haven’t already.

In this episode, we’ll talk the background of Ghetto, how Joe Bataan used spite to launch Ghetto Records, and at the end, we’ll talk the first album in the box, Ghetto Records Presents Eddie Lebron.