Big Crown Records is a record label from New York City founded in 2016 by Leon Michels and Danny Akalepse.

The two got to know each other at Truth & Soul Records – a record label co-founded by Leon Michels, where Danny Akalepse worked. Especially known for Funk and Soul, the label managed to work for a niche, but this was not enough for Michels and Akalepse. »We had outgrown Truth & Soul. The label was well known for one thing and we had enough of it. So we started Big Crown, because we love to make records, and needed a new label, on which we could make a fresh start with a broader range of musical styles.« For Akalepse and Michels this implies, making a place for not only the well-established analogue sound Retro-Funk, but rather also reissues, Indie-Rock, or R’n’B on Big Crown Records. Continuity is maintained through the taste of the owners: »Our only requirement for the music on the label is that we like it. When a record is dope, then it is dope, it doesn’t matter how it is made. I don’t know, whether a common theme is noticeable, but it is there.«

A couple of months down the line, it is clear, that the two do really mean it. »By now we have published 14 releases, but still have 50 in the pipe line.” Even though Big Crown is a new thing, some known protagonists from Truth & Soul are of course also on board, for example the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band from Hamburg, or El Michels Affair, whose leader is Leon Michels. There won’t be a shortfall of new publications: »We have heaps of reissues in the planing, we certainly want to go a step further and work together publishing newly recorded music.«