Regaining "The Hustle" kicked off a seven-month campaign by the company to raise awareness of McCoy's work and rekindle interest in his catalogue, an effort that peaks with Saturday's "25 Year Legacy Tribute to Van McCoy" at Theodore Roosevelt High School (4301 13th St. Van McCoy Music, headed by McCoy's sister, Mattie Taylor, did just that, as it had been doing for several years with the rest of McCoy's 600-song catalogue. In January of this year, McCoy's heirs reclaimed copyright on "The Hustle." The song's initial copyright (held by Warner-Chappell) dated from publication, and copyright law gives heirs the right to reclaim a work after 28 years. Sadly, the composer didn't get to enjoy his best-known song's amazing durability: On July 6, 1979, McCoy died of a heart attack in Englewood, N.J., at age 39. It won a 1975 Grammy (for best pop instrumental) and almost three decades on, continues to pop up all over the place, from disco-themed compilation CDs to television, where "The Hustle" has been used on "Ally McBeal," "The Drew Carey Show" and "The Simpsons," as well as in Old Navy's 10th anniversary spots, which featured a reunion of the B-list '70s celebrities who'd appeared in its ads over the years, including Morgan Fairchild, Erik Estrada, Joan Collins, Sherman Hemsley and the late Isabel Sanford. He continued to record and release albums on Dope House, including When Devils Strike - his highest-charting album, released in 2006 - and The Last Chair Violinist, issued in 2008.WASHINGTONIAN Van McCoy's classic, "The Hustle," sold 10 million copies, making it the biggest dance record of the '70s. Finally, Coy met his fate on May 18, when a Houston jury convicted him for aggravated sexual assault in June the same jury sentenced him to 45 years in prison. His 2002 release, Reveille Park, a collection of freestyles, proved no different, especially since Universal chose not to release it. Big marketing budget or not, Coy's hardcore rapping proved to be too harsh for the masses. Though Universal heavily marketed the album, as it had done with Time Is Money, the results were similar - no crossover. The following year, he returned with his second album for Universal, Never Change. His two 1998 albums - Hustle Town and Power Moves - established him in the South as an up-and-coming rapper and his rigorous touring throughout Texas won him even more fans.Ĭoy won a deal with Universal following releases in 19 - 3rd Wish to Rock the World and The Purity Album, respectively - and had his Time Is Money album on the streets by the end of 2000. At first he did what he could, hustling tapes for five dollars apiece in his neighborhood, and by the late '90s, he was putting out his own CDs on his label. Even though he had never really rapped before, he started his own record label and began honing his rhymes. It was at this time in 1994 that Coy turned to a new hustle: the rap game. Around the same time, his daughter was born, causing him to re-examine his priorities. After several years of hustling on the streets, he finally got out of the dope game after a deal went bad. Born in Houston's predominantly Hispanic South Park neighborhood, he committed his first felony at the tender age of ten and continued on a path of crime, eventually getting involved with drugs by his teens. First, his releases for Universal failed to top the charts in the early 2000s, and then he went to prison in June 2002 after a Houston jury convicted him of sexual assault.īefore he became South Park Mexican, Carlos Coy spent years in the dope game. Unfortunately, he never fulfilled his promise. With the promising deal in place, SPM stood on the verge of extending his reach outside of the South and becoming one of the first Mexican-American rappers to attain national success. Originating in the Southern rap mecca of Houston, South Park Mexican (SPM) slowly built up his own personally run record label, Dope House Records, for years before eventually signing a distribution deal with Universal Records.
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