RHONE:ARIELLEBOBB-WILLIS.ADAMS:^ JOHN^RICARD.^ T
AYLOR,CARTER:^ COURTESY^OFSOUTHCOASTMUSIC^GROUP.^THOMAS,^ LEE:^ LESTER^COHEN.TIFFITH:^ CHRISTOPHERPOLK/GETTY^IMAGES.^ H
ENDERSON:^ KRISTINSOMIN/THEOLA^BORDEN.^ B
.^ W
ILLIAMS:GABRIEL^OLSEN/GETTY^IMAGES.^ R
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ILLIAMS:TOMMASO^BODDI/WIREIMAGE.HUSSLE:^ GREGG^DEGUIRE/GETTY^IMAGES.^ M
ILLER:MAURICIO^SANTANA/GETTY^IMAGES.third solo album, Arizona Baby, which peaked
at No. 4 on R&B/Hip-Hop Album Sales in May.
Meanwhile, Bivins and Pitts helped work label
stalwart Chris Brown to No. 5 on the Hot 100
with “No Guidance” featuring foe-turned-pal
Drake. Bivins says that the first time he heard the
song, “I’m like, ‘I want to cry right now because
this shit is amazing.’ ”
LONG TIME COMING “Fall” by Atlanta-born, Lagos,
Nigeria-raised singer Davido — whom Balogun
signed — took its sweet time to become a
top 20 radio hit. Released in June 2017, the
track peaked at No. 13 on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay
in April.
Sylvia Rhone
CHAIRMAN/CEO, EPIC RECORDS
Traci Adams
EXECUTIVE VP PROMOTIONS, EPIC RECORDS
“SICKO” SUCCESS With nearly 8 billion streams
in 2019 alone credited to the label’s hip-hop
artists, Rhone — who was promoted to her
current title in April — and Adams helped
mastermind the release of five albums that
debuted in the top three of the Billboard 200:
Future’s Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD,
21 Savage’s I Am > I Was and Travis Scott’s As-
troworld, all of which topped the chart; and DJ
Khaled’s Father of Asahd and Rick Ross’ Port
of Miami 2, which hit No. 2. “I believe in the
challenge of bringing music that’s on the edge
into the mainstream,” says Rhone, who adds
that streaming played a crucial role in the suc-
cess of Scott’s “Sicko Mode.” The track “defies
the rules of a ‘hit at radio’ because it doesn’t
have a simple sing along hook,” she says. “But
it pierced through at streaming,” eventually
leading to Scott’s first Hot 100 No. 1, which also
spent 32 weeks in the chart’s top 10.
DOCTOR RHONE Rhone, who got her start at Bud-
dah Records in 1974 after graduating from the
Wharton School of the University of Pennsyl-
vania, received an honorary doctorate from the
Berklee College of Music in April.
Arnold Taylor
CEO, SOUTH COAST MUSIC GROUP
Daud “King” Carter
EXECUTIVE VP, SOUTH COAST MUSIC GROUP
HONEY, THEY BLEW UP DABABY DaBaby has
become rap’s rookie of the year, and both the
self- proclaimed “OG” Taylor, 47, and “artist
whisperer” Carter, 35, were integral in his
ascension. They’re also proud to have put
Charlotte, N.C. — the trio’s home base — on
the map. After signing DaBaby in 2016, Taylor,
who refers to the rapper as “the LeBron James
of the label,” brought his debut album, Baby
on Baby, to Interscope Records to cement
their partnership. Both the LP and its standout
single, “Suge,” peaked at lucky No. 7 on the
Billboard 200 and the Hot 100, respectively.
COMBING THE CAROLINAS High on South Coast’s
checklist is developing more artists from the
Carolinas, such as new signees Blacc Zacc and
Toosii. But Taylor stresses that he’s not trying to
find another DaBaby: “Each artist should bring
something different to the table,” he says.
Pierre “P” Thomas
CEO, QUALITY CONTROL MUSIC
Kevin “Coach K” Lee
COO, QUALITY CONTROL MUSIC
#CITYGIRLSSUMMER Thomas, 40, and Lee ended
2018 strong with nine album releases in the fourth
quarter, including solo LPs by Migos’ Quavo and
Takeoff. (Offset followed in February.) Among the
Quality Control acts whose success carried over
into 2019 were City Girls. The Florida rap duo
of JT and Yung Miami scored their first Hot 100
entry in late December with the “Twerk” remix
featuring Cardi B, which peaked at No. 29. The
duo’s 2019 follow-up, “Act Up,” then topped the
Rhythmic airplay chart and generated 439.1 mil-
lion streams, while JT served a prison sentence
for credit card fraud. “We didn’t know how that
was going to play out,” says Lee. “Yung Miami
really stepped up.”
FAMILY BUSINESS No matter how big their artists
become, Quality Control’s principals stress
one guiding mantra: Don’t forget about family.
“We started out in a small studio with just the
Migos,” says Thomas. “It is business at the end
of the day, but we’re rooted in our artists’ lives.”
Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith
FOUNDER/CEO, TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT
Terrence “Punch” Henderson
PRESIDENT, TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT
GOLDEN YEAR When it comes to awards, 2019
was TDE’s year. Kendrick Lamar and SZA
clinched an Academy Award nomination and
four Grammy nods for “All the Stars” from
the Black Panther soundtrack. And Jay Rock,
the first act TDE signed in 2005, scored a
best rap performance Grammy, along with
Lamar, Future and James Blake for “King’s
Dead” (which appeared on the soundtrack
and Rock’s 2018 LP, Redemption). “He fucked
around and won a Grammy 10 years after he
started releasing music on a major label,” says
Tiffith. “That was a full-circle moment for me
and Team TDE.”
ALL IN In a year without a new Lamar album —
and one that also brought the quiet departure of
co-president Dave Free — Billboard estimates
TDE still accounted for a healthy 1.9% of 2019’s
U.S. R&B/hip-hop market to date.
Ronald “Slim” Williams
Bryan “Birdman” Williams
CO-FOUNDERS/CO-CEOs, CASH MONEY RECORDS
JACQUEES, OH! The Williams brothers saw Atlanta
R&B singer Jacquees hit No. 3 on the Top R&B
Albums chart last summer with 4275 , which
featured Birdman, Young Thug and Trey Songz,
and racked up 499.3 million streams — the
cherry on top of another extraordinary year for the
label. Meanwhile, new signee Blueface, whose
“Thotiana” rocketed to the top 10 of the Hot 100
in March, has generated 1.5 billion career streams.
MINAJ MIRAGE? Cash Money’s stacked roster,
which includes superstar Drake, took a hit when
one of its marquee artists, Nicki Minaj, unexpect-
edly announced her retirement in September. But
Birdman, 50, says, “I definitely believe she’ll be
back ... Sometimes you have to take a break.”
“The losses of Nipsey Hussle and Mac
Miller have shown the importance of giving
artists their flowers early. We go so crazy
about them after they leave, and that’s not
fair to them.”
—IBRAHIM “IB” HAMAD, DREAMVILLE
“Ownership is important. Nipsey Hussle
preached about that a lot, and it’s very [cru-
cial] to moving around in the industry. You’ll
make a lot of money, but if you don’t own
anything in the long term, it doesn’t really
mean anything.”
—QUINCY “QP” ACHEAMPONG, HIGHBRIDGE THE LABEL
“[Their losses] teach us the importance
of family, helping our communities and
surrounding ourselves with people that we
should uplift — not degrade or bully.”
—TIM GLOVER, INTERSCOPE GEFFEN A&M
“Their [deaths] gave us an in-depth look into
artists and how what we see is not always
what is. People elevate artists as if they
have no problems because of their lifestyles.
But when it comes down to it, with all the
success in the world, if you have personal de-
mons that you don’t explore, it can hurt you.
It’s important for the consumer to know that.
They have the same problems the average
kids have — just magnified.”
—KATINA BYNUM, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
“I worked with Nipsey Hussle when he was
first signed, so I knew him personally. And
I also had a very close death this year: my
brother. Live in the moment because tomor-
row might not come. I wish I had had another
time to see Nipsey and say, ‘Wow, I’m proud
of you and how much you’ve done for your
community.’ To have that one more time to
say ‘I love you’ to my brother would have
been amazing. We need to really honor our
heroes [instead of] spending so much time
trying to knock them all down.”
—MARLENY DOMINGUEZ-REYES, REPUBLIC RECORDS
NIPSEY AND MAC
THE LESSONS
OF LOSS
ADAMS
TAYLOR
CARTER
THOMAS
LEE
TIFFITH
HENDERSON
B. WILLIAMS
RHONE
R. WILLIAMS
Hussle (left)
and Miller
&
POWER PLAYERS 2019