While Perry Bradford attended Atlanta University from age 12 to 15 he also toured with the New Orleans Minstrels, singing, dancing, and playing piano.⁷⁵ From this prodigious beginning Bradford went on to become a legendary manager, producer, publisher, and blues and jazz songwriter. Bradford claimed to owe his introduction to the blues to black prisoners at the Fulton Street Jail in Atlanta. In his youth he lived next door to the jail, and reflected that the folk and blues songs of prisoners were influential in his musical development.⁷⁶

From 1908 to 1919 Bradford toured as part of the vaudeville team, Bradford and Jeanette. As part of this act, Bradford popularized the refrain, "Whoa, mule!," which garnered him the nickname Perry "Mule" Bradford. Bradford's early songs, The Bullfrog Hop, Messin' Around, and The Baltimore Buzz contributed to the vogue of the dance song. Messin' Around became a hit after he persuaded Ethel Waters to perform it in her 1912 Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A) tour.⁷⁷

In 1920, Bradford made music history when he persuaded Okeh records to allow Mamie Smith to make a test recording of his songs, That Thing Called Love and You Can't Keep a Good Man Down. This was the first time blues record ever recorded by a black singer. Although Okeh refused to release the record, it leaked to record dealers. The underground copies sold so well that, upon Bradford's further urging, they agreed to release her recording of his Crazy Blues (known at first as Harlem Blues). Crazy Blues smashed records for music sales, making it difficult for Okeh to press enough records to keep pace with demand. It is estimated that the record sold nearly a million copies in one year. Within two years record companies scrambled for a piece of this "new" market, and began to sell the so-called race records at the rate of more than five million copies annually. They were targeted at an exclusively black market and were given special labels or recording numbers including Victor's Bluebird label, Columbia's 16000 series, Decca's 7000 and 8000 series, and Paramount's race record series.