Take Fo' Records is an independent record label from New Orleans which specializes in Bounce music. The label was founded in 1992 and was operated by creative duo Earl J. Mackie and Henry F. Holden, until Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Prior to creating the record label, the duo teamed up to produce a cable access television program called Positive Black Talk, due to a need for positive African American leadership in the New Orleans community. After holding a fundraising concert for the program, Mackie and Holden became intrigued in the music industry, so they decided to put together a girl group called Da’ Sha Ra’. The newly formed group was created to make young people aware of the television program. Take Fo’s cornerstone was created one night while promoting the girl group at a high school dance at Walter L. Cohen High School, in the uptown section of New Orleans. Mackie and Holden met Eldon Delloyd Anderson and Jerome Temple a.k.a. DJ Jubilee, who was the school’s DJ at that time. Jubilee took the microphone to warm up the crowd and had the whole gym floor line dancing, as if they were on Soul Train. The duo were impressed, took Anderson under their wings. The label continued to expand from its base and broke new ground in the Texas and Arkansas markets thru Terry Wilburn who was intrigued by the growth and popularity of the label. Take Fo’ Records emerged and quickly became the center of the New Orleans hip hop movement and became New Orleans' third most popular hip-hop label behind only to Cash Money and No Limit Records. Bounce music was the new sound at that time and Take Fo’ without the help of the Internet or Social Media, was responsible for introducing this newest dance phenomenon to the nation and became known as The Bounce Music Capital of The World. The label have influenced and paved the way for many southern artists and several Billboard Top 10 nationally acclaimed songs in the music industry. Several significant mainstream records was influenced by Take Fo’ music including Beyoncé "Get Me Bodied", "Formation" and most recently Drake “In My Feelings” and “Nice for What”. Take Fo’ has launched the careers of hip-hop and R&B greats such as DJ Jubilee -King of Bounce, Choppa -Choppa Style, Baby Boy-Da Prince, The Beat Doctor -7th Ward Soulja, TEC-9 from U.N. L.V., Chef Reero from Da’ Sha Ra’, P-Town Moe, Lisa Amos, K.C. Redd, 2-Sweet, Bigg Ramp, The Hideout, Willie Puckett, 5th Ward Weebie, Katey Red, and Big Freedia, just to name a few. The labels first releases featured Da'Sha'Ra' and DJ Jubilee, respectively.
