About Street Sounds
Founded in Britain in 1982 by Morgan Khan, Street Sounds brought the Soul, Funk and emerging club sounds heard on dancefloors to a far wider audience. Its compilation albums made sought-after records — including music from across the Atlantic — easier to find, afford and share, often in the full-length versions listeners wanted to hear.
The Street Sounds Electro series became a gateway into Hip Hop and Electro for a generation. The albums travelled from record shops into bedrooms, schools and streets, connecting listeners with the music, DJs, dancers and styles of a growing movement. Street Sounds and its sister label Streetwave continued to champion artists and sounds that the mainstream industry had overlooked.
Street Sounds is more than a brand or a record label. For many, its albums were a rite of passage — an introduction not only to new music, but to a new culture. The sleeves and records still recall the moment they discovered a sound, found their people and felt part of something bigger.
Today, that spirit lives on through our music, radio, events and gear. We celebrate the records that shaped us and share the sounds that will shape what comes next.
The box sets
Street Sounds also looked beyond the sound of the moment. Its ambitious box sets included Essential Electro: The Business, The Dance Decade, The Philadelphia Story and The Solar Box Set. Through the wider family of labels, Morgan also released The House of Hits: The History of House Music on Westside Records. These collections invited listeners to explore a sound in depth, hear connections across artists and eras, and keep that music together. That was part of the vision: making extraordinary music accessible and giving it the attention it deserved.
About Morgan Khan
Legendary music mogul and entrepreneur Morgan Khan heard the future in records other people were overlooking. His passion for music and the next great sound continues to drive him to evolve and create.
Morgan began working for Pye Records in 1978, having started out as a DJ. At a time when much of the industry treated music of Black origin as a specialist market, he heard its power in clubs and recognised an audience hungry for more. He helped bring the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” to the UK, an early sign of the instinct that would define his career.
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In 1981, Morgan established his first record labels: R&B Records to develop UK talent and Excaliber to release international music. Through R&B Records, he championed the British group Imagination. The following year, he founded Street Sounds.
Morgan’s ear for artists was just as important as his ear for records. He gave Dina Carroll an early recording opportunity and signed a young Jay Kay to an early deal with Street Sounds before the rise of Jamiroquai. His work also embraced emerging House music and UK electronic sounds, including Humanoid.
Morgan went on to work across record labels, artist development, publishing, events and major compilation projects, including Universal Music’s Back to Black: 100 Years of Black Music and The Definitive Electro & Hip Hop Collection. From Streetwave to Westside Records, he continued to follow new sounds and seek wider audiences for them.
Across those ventures, Morgan has followed the same conviction: find extraordinary music, believe in it and help it reach the people who will love it.
His story is inseparable from Street Sounds, and from the generations who discovered their sound through it.
Morgan’s previous labels include R&B Records, Streetwave, Westside Records, Radical Records and World Dance Records, which were the exclusive licensors for the successful US labels, B-Boy Records (DJ Scott La Rock & KRS One), DJ International (Tyree, Fast Eddie, Joe Smooth, Daryl Pandy) and TRAX (Marshall Jefferson, Frankie Knuckles, Ralphi Rosario, Maurice).
Morgan has worked with most of the major record companies and music publishers including; CBS/Epic, Universal Music, Sony-BMG, Warner/Chappell Music. Projects have included the critically acclaimed Universal Music’s “Back To Black - 100 years of Black Music” 10 CD box set; the most significant black music compilation project ever undertaken in the UK and the hugely successful TV compilation “The Definitive Electro & Hip Hop Collection”. It is with this vast experience of running record companies, publishing houses and managing artists which has created his reputation for innovation, originality and dynamism.
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Some of the artists Morgan has worked with
DINA CARROLL · MAZE · TODD TERRY · JAMIROQUAI · IMAGINATION · FRANKIE KNUCKLES · ROSE ROYCE · HUMANOID · THE FATBACK BAND · HI-TENSION · EDWIN STARR · CHERYL LYNN · DONNA SUMMER · BRASS CONSTRUCTION · ADONIS · MANTRONIX · THE REAL THING · ANTHONY THOMAS · PETER BLACK · POSITIVE FORCE · BARBARA MASON · BARRY WHITE · CERRONE · THE GAP BAND · CANDIDO · THE SOURCE feat. CANDI STATON · CARL ANDERSON · ROYALLE DELITE · FONDA RAE · ALTON EDWARDS · D.J. FAST EDDIE · VIOLA WILLS · ARNIE’S LOVE · GIBSON BROTHERS · AL GREEN · TYREE · THE BAND A.K.A. CROWN HEIGHTS AFFAIR · GLADYS KNIGHT · YOUNG & COMPANY · MASQUERADE · PHYLLIS HYMAN · JON CUTLER · J SEALY
Hip Hop acts
SCOTT LA ROCK · KRS-ONE · THE SUGARHILL GANG · PUBLIC ENEMY · ROXANE SHANTÉ · KURTIS MANTRONIK · JUST-ICE · BEASTIE BOYS · RUN DMC · DR. DRE (AND WORLD CLASS WRECKIN’ CRU) · ERIC B. FEATURING RAKIM · GRANDMASTER FLASH AND THE FURIOUS FIVE feat. GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL & DUKE BOOTEE · KURTIS BLOW · WHODINI · JVC FORCE · CAPTAIN ROCK · THE B-BOYS · STETSASONIC · AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE SOUL SONIC FORCE · ALEEMS · DAVY DMX · THE REAL ROXANNE · EGYPTIAN LOVER · DR. JECKYLL & MR. HYDE · 2 LIVE CREW · OVERLOAD X · FAZE ONE · DEREK B. HASHIM
Press
The Guardian
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Electrofunkroots
Interview with Greg Wilson Read the article →