Seattle’s acclaimed Emerald Street Boys’ first concert, held at the historic Washington Hall in 1981, set the tone and amplified an entire region — marking the expansion of Hip Hop in the Pacific Northwest. Decades later, the impact of their contributions is still felt widely, as generation after generation has followed the path they helped pave.

“Edward ‘Sugar Bear’ Wells Jr. was the epitome of Hip Hop in Seattle, a true legend in his own right.” — James “Captain Crunch” Croone Sr., on his lifelong friend, crew mate, and visionary behind The Emerald Street Boys and The Emerald Street Girls

In an effort to celebrate the life and legacy of Sugar Bear, who passed away in June 2019, 206 Zulu memorialized its community-driven, state-of-the-art recording studio at Washington Hall by naming it Emerald Street Studios — at the very location where it all started, nearly four decades earlier.