SMC Recordings

SMC Recordings is an independent hip hop record label established in 2005 in San Francisco, California, by Ralph Tashjian, Will Bronson and George Nauful. The full-service independent record label SMC primarily signs and distributes established hip hop artists.

SMC originally grew out of a vision that Ralph Tashjian had in the early ’00s to launch a new kind of record label, one based in his hometown, that would be about hip hop music. Tashjian crossed paths with Will Bronson, and SMC came one step closer to being realized. An ambitious Bay Area-bred music fan and aficionado, Bronson was covering Northern California's colorful hip hop scene for a fledgling urban music magazine called Showcase at the time. Tashjian hired him as his partner and in the A&R position. His instincts were right—the first release brought in and shepherded by Bronson was Ya Boy's first cousins, Bay Area hip-hop artists San Quinn and Messy Marv. At one point, Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony was signed to SMC.