Urban (Records) was founded by Sascha Basler in 1993 as a sub-label of Polydor . In 1994 Urban became a sub-label of Motor Music. In 1995 it became the most succesful dance-label in . In 1999 Urban became part of Universal Records, due to the Polygram-Universal merger into Universal Music GmbH. In a later stage, things changed a little bit and Universal decided to merge Urban/Universal Records with the rap-label Def Jam into the Urban Def Jam label-group. Urban specialised in electronic dance-music, Def Jam into R&B, rap and hip hop. However, Urban is currently completely into the R&B, rap and hip hop-scene, sadly no dance-music anymore.

Urban Records had a lot of great artists in the past like Talla 2XLC, WestBam, Nalin & Kane, Robert Miles and Energy 52 (and more recently Paul van Dyk, Darude and Kai Tracid) and labels like Low Spirit, Strictly Rhythm and Vandit.