Ber'lin Records is named after a party Cris is Bliss promoted in Harlem, NYC called Berlin. The record label was formed around that time in 1997 to specialize in House/Dance music, while the Rough Luxury Records brand, the parent company, would continue to concentrate on Hip Hop, R&B and related genres.
The Club Ber'lin was located at 1 west 125th street in central Harlem in the space that housed Papa Charles' One West Dinner Theatre. After leaving that location the party bounced around to three venues in Harlem, with its longest and most remembered stay at the Lenox Lounge on Tuesday's nights. Ber'lin was named to evoke the spirit that existed during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's and in Berlin, Germany during that same time period. It was a time when people of different groups were, for the first time and on a large scale, mixing with each other on a social level (Social Networking in the physical world).
In Harlem, USA and Berlin, Germany of the 1920's, the Jazz Age was in full swing and people were enjoying a new freedom of dancing that was not seen before and would not to be seen again for nearly fifty years later in the Disco Era of the 1970's and early 80's.
Berlin Records looks to capture that feeling of serious joyous dancing and the emotions that those rhythms produce.