September 17, 2002 — Now that Universal/Motown and Erykah Badu have agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement for sampling the entire musical track for Badu's Grammy-nominated platinum hit, "Didn't Cha Know" (and releasing it without permission), S.O.S. Productions d/b/a Chiaroscuro Records has announced the launching of a new contemporary world-beat jazz label called Downtown Sound. As one of the oldest independent jazz labels in existence, New York-based Chiaroscuro Records has an extensive catalog of traditional mainstream jazz dating back to the early '70s. Its roster features many legendary jazz musicians. In addition, in the late '70s, founder/producer Hank O'Neal encouraged and recorded musicians he felt were "pioneers" of the jazz, r&b, funk/rock fusion sound that was emerging. At that time, many of them were young sidemen and opening acts for Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and Roy Ayers. O'Neal opened the doors of his Greenwich Village recording studio to them. The studio (still well-known among mainstay New York musicians) was called Downtown Sound, hence the name for the new label. Downtown Sound plans to embark on new recordings and reissue music that has influenced much of the pop/r&b and electronica trends of today. According to VP of Operations, Jon Bates, "It is our mission to present exciting diverse music, and bridge the gap for younger audiences who can enjoy discovering where much of today's music comes from."

Appropriately, the debut release on the new Allegro distributed Downtown Sound label will be Tarika Blue, a self-titled compilation of music from two LP releases by the band Tarika Blue. The CD will feature "Dreamflower," the original music for Erykah Badu's #1 hit "Didn't Cha Know." It's scheduled for release October 1st.