Created by the singer in 1975 soon after re-negotiating his deal with Motown, the singer built the studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood as a spacious apartment-like complex, big enough to be a studio, home and, for a time, a dance club.
[1] There, Gaye recorded his late-1970s material including I Want You, Here, My Dear, the hit single "Got to Give It Up", his shelved Ballads album (later released as the Vulnerable album in 1997), and a shelved disco-styled album, Love Man, which was later re-worked and released in 1981 as In Our Lifetime.
Gaye's studio would often run parties where many of the Hollywood elite including Diana Ross and Muhammad Ali and other musicians and even politicians would be spotted.
[citation needed] In 1997, the studio was restored by former record company executive, John McClain, who purchased the studio saving it from being turned into a photo lab.
[3] Since then, artists including Prince, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and Drake have recorded there (with Drake naming his song "Marvins Room" in honor of the studio where it was recorded).