Soul Fire Records Truth & Soul was born out of Soul Fire Records, a label run by musician
Phillip Lehman. Lehman had previously run soul revival pioneer
Desco Records with
Bosco Mann, and founded Soul Fire in 1999 as a funk label; Mann would later open the soulful
Daptone Records. Between 1999 and 2003, Soul Fire put out numerous records by artists including
Lee Fields and
The Whitefield Brothers. In 2003, Lehman retired from the music business, leaving his studio to young musicians Jeff "Dynamite" Silverman and
Leon Michels, both former Soul Fire artists.
Formation and releases of Truth & Soul Silverman and Michels founded Truth & Soul with help from Lehman in 2004. Silverman and Michels ran the label with label manager Danny Akalepse, and were the in-house production team. The label has recorded and released the music of
El Michels Affair, Bronx River Parkway, Quincy Bright, The Evil D's,
Lee Fields and The Expressions, The Fabulous Three, Cosmic Force, The Olympians, Tyrone Ashley's Funky Music Machine,
Ghetto Brothers, The
Phenomenal Handclap Band, and Bama & The Family. In 2008, Truth & Soul produced and released the
Lee Fields & The Expressions album
My World to critical acclaim. The same year they produced
Aloe Blacc's sophomore record,
Good Things, which was released on Stones Throw records on September 28, 2010. A new studio, The Diamond Mine, was built in Long Island City 2014 by Michels and his frequent collaborators
Thomas Brenneck,
Nick Movshon, and
Homer Steinweiss. Truth & Soul has remixed "
Love Is a Losing Game" by
Amy Winehouse, the
Gabriella Cilmi single "Sweet About Me",
Dinah Washington's "Cry Me A River" for Verve Remixed 4, and Truth & Soul are credited as writers on
Adele's grammy nominated album,
19. Their records have been sampled by Ghostface Killah, Just Blaze, Jay-Z, Young Jeezy. Other venture included curating the in-game radio station of the same name in the 2009 video game
GTA: Chinatown Wars. Legacy: Big Crown Records and Mighty Eye Records Michels and Silverman dissolved Truth & Soul in July 2016 with
The Orchard acquiring the label and the distribution rights to its catalog. Soon after, Michels co-founded Big Crown Records with Truth & Soul manager Danny Akalepse. Some artists on the Truth & Soul roster moved to Big Crown at this time. In 2022, Mighty Eye Records began in collaboration with Silverman. == Artists ==