LABEL WITHOUT
BORDERS
Kevin Liles
CO-FOUNDER/CEO, 300 ENTERTAINMENT
Rayna Bass
SENIOR VP MARKETING, 300 ENTERTAINMENT
Selim Bouab
SENIOR VP A&R, 300 ENTERTAINMENT
“We’re proud to say that every year, we break an artist,” 300
CEO Kevin Liles, 51, tells Billboard. But as 300 heads into its fifth
anniversary, the label has done far more than that. Capitalizing on
Gunna’s breakout hit, “Drip Too Hard” (with Lil Baby), which peaked
at No. 4 on the Hot 100 in October 2018, the label rolled out his
Drip or Drown 2 to a No. 1 debut on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
chart in March. Bouab signed Megan Thee Stallion last Novem-
ber, and Bass, 32, helped mastermind her explosive rise with the
meme-spawning “Hot Girl Summer.” (Megan has since trade-
marked the phrase.) The single, with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign,
became a top 20 Hot 100 hit. In August, the label guided Young
Thug to his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 and the best
first-week performance of his career. The LP, So Much Fun, earned
131,000 equivalent album units in its first week.
Along the way, 300 has restructured its organization. Breaking
down the barriers among its hip-hop, rock and pop departments
has made for a more versatile and nimble operation where, for in-
stance, Gunna appeared on a Mariah Carey album and Young Thug
sampled Elton John singing an a cappella “Rocket Man” on “High.”
It’s a bet on a “genreless” future, says Bouab.
“This is not a slapping-fives culture,” observes Bass. “You
know in Love & Basketball when the woman on the team hits the
[3- pointer], and then she’s standing there and somebody runs and
scores on her? That’s my worst-case [scenario]. Like, ‘Cool, we hit
this basket and we have these things going for us, but we can’t get
caught up.’ It’s always about what’s next and that everything always
could be better.”
The year also brought its share of heartbreak, however. Megan’s
mother died of a brain tumor in March just as the rapper’s career
was taking off, and the managers for Tee Grizzley and Sherwood
Marty were both shot and killed during the summer. (Compound-
ing the loss, Grizzley’s manager Jobina Brown was also his aunt.)
“These partners become more like family,” says Bouab. “So it has
been a tough year as well.”
But 300 kept its family grounded, which has paid off on the
corporate level. Liles says revenue has grown 20 to 25% year over
year, with 40-plus employees and 100 acts signed either directly or
through distribution partnerships. “Now, with a lot of the changes
that we made, the company is able to run where you might see
more than one artist breaking,” he says. “So this is not only a re-
emerging year for us, it’s not only an artist-development year for us,
it’s not only [about] breaking new artists. This is a celebration as we
go into our fifth anniversary.”
CLEAR EYES “The biggest thing I learned this year, with [Megan,
Gunna and Young Thug] specifically, is just staying the course,” says
Bass. “Megan set the tone for that. As we continued to grow, we
just stayed exactly on our path, and everything fell into place.”
FULL HEARTS “With success comes responsibility,” says Liles. “All
of us know that we’re raising other executives [with us], so our
responsibility to them is big brother, cousin, uncle — I’m Dad to a
lot of them. Every single department here has taken ownership of
their business.”
CAN’T LOSE “Everything moves really quickly,” says Bass. “But the
thing that I feel like we have to our advantage is, 300 was born in
the new era of the music business. That’s the biggest thing for us:
We’re nimble and able to keep up with any changes.” —DAN RYS
OCTOBER 19, 2019 • WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 55