Mr Bongo

r Bongo started out as a specialist shop in 1989 handling South American music. With the growth in popularity of Brasilian music,championed by such characters as Gilles Peterson in 1989 and clubs such as Dingwalls, in the following years Mr Bongo started to establish itself as the leader and provider for the whole scene. This lead to a thriving Latin shop which was then complemented by a floor providing the best hip hop selection in the country.



It was with much sadness that the Mr Bongo hip hop shop had to close down in 2004. Due to falling record sales and rising rents the shop could no longer function profitably. This followed the closure of the Latin shop around the same time in 2003. We would like to thank all of the customers over the years for your support and loyalty to the store as you made it the legend it was.



The Mr Bongo record label was established as an off-shoot of this successful business and focused on putting out the best cutting-edge as well as classic tunes direct from Brazil. This then led to the birth of a sister label Disorient to showcase the best tunes coming out of Japan, in particular focusing on Japanese and Latin house. The record labels remain strong today and are now based by the sea in Brighton.



After a 2-year crusade Bongo's secured the soundtrack rights to the classic hip hop movie Wildstyle and released this as a double LP and a two 12"'s on their hip hop imprint Beyongolia.



The following are just some of the artitsts that have releases on the labels: Marcelo D2, Terry Callier, Tito Puente, Marcos Valle, Seu Jorge, Jazztronik, Masters At Work, Mr Hermano, Ben Mitchell & Russ Dewbury, Bukky Leo & Tony Allen, Ive Mendes, Novalima, Rubin Steiner...



Mr Bongo Records also started the legendary 'Brazilian Beats' series that has now reached installment number 6 and is still going strong.



And its not just music for dancing - Mr Bongo has been supplying music to the film, TV and advertising industries for the last 15 years and due to an inhouse studio are able to sync music to video for any type of pitch.



Please visit our website or contact us for more details.