Dreamer J. Cole invited over 100 artists and pro-
ducers to write and record songs, far surpassed the
chart performance of its predecessors, debuting
at the top of the Billboard 200 in July. (Dreamers II
peaked at No. 29, and the original, a mixtape, did
not chart.) Dreamers III also surpassed 807,000
consumption units in September. Meanwhile,
Dreamville’s breakout R&B singer, Ari Lennox, land-
ed in the top 10 of the Top R&B Albums chart with
her debut LP, Shea Butter Baby, and according to
Hamad, 35, the inaugural Dreamville Festival drew
40,000 attendees to Raleigh, N.C.
DREAM-VELOPMENT Hamad attributes the break-
outs of Lennox, EarthGang and J.I.D to the
importance that he and Cole, 34, place on artist
development. “You can’t have them try to do
what’s trendy or to [emulate] someone else and
expect longevity,” he says.
Phylicia Fant
CO-HEAD OF URBAN MUSIC, COLUMBIA RECORDS
Shawn Holiday
CO-HEAD OF URBAN MUSIC, COLUMBIA RECORDS AND
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING
Melissa Thomas
SENIOR VP INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, COLUMBIA AND
EPIC RECORDS
LIL NAS X-CEPTIONAL This trio helped make Lil
Nas X’s “Old Town Road” a global phenomenon
and the longest-running Hot 100 chart-topper
ever — 19 weeks at No. 1. Fant, 41, quarterbacked
Lil Nas X’s development, setting him up with a
performance coach and filmmaker Calmatic, who
directed the song’s viral video, a Quentin Tarantino
spoof that has amassed 350 million-plus YouTube
views. Holiday, 42, whose purview extends to
Sony’s publishing arm, was key in recording and
releasing the rapper’s debut EP, 7 , and in just three
months, 38-year-old Thomas, who was elevated
from a vp role at Epic to her current position in
September 2018, ensured that the smash also con-
quered the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.
POLO PLAYER Lil Nas X wasn’t Columbia’s only
Gen Z urban artist to break big. Polo G, a 20-year-
old rapper from Chicago, clocked his first Top
Rap Albums No. 1 with Die a Legend in June
and a No. 11 Hot 100 single, “Pop Out” (featuring
labelmate Lil Tjay). “He has pain in his voice,” says
Holiday. “If you drive the streets of Chicago, all you
hear is Polo G.”
Ghazi
CEO, EMPIRE
XXX LIVES ON Late rapper XXXTentacion — who
signed with EMPIRE just weeks before his murder
— continues to resonate with music fans. His
December 2018 album, Skins, debuted at No. 1
on the Billboard 200. Meanwhile, EMPIRE’s deals
with Robin Thicke and Iggy Azalea led to Thicke’s
“That’s What Love Can Do” topping the Adult R&B
airplay chart in July, and Azalea’s In My Defense
entering the top 25 of Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
ENTER THE DRAGON A decade into operation, Ghazi
says his onetime U.S. indie distribution business
has evolved into a “three-headed dragon” — a
hybrid distributor-label-publisher with outposts
in Europe, China and Southeast Asia, as well
as its original Bay Area location, and counts
BEST R&B/HIP-HOP COLLABORATIONS
“DILEMMA” — NELLY FEATURING KELLY ROWLAND
“It was my first No. 1 on the Hot 100 as a publisher.
To hear this song from its creation and see it win a
Grammy was very special for me.”
—SHAWN HOLIDAY, COLUMBIA RECORDS AND
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING
such names as Thicke, Azalea and Snoop Dogg
among its client roster. New ventures include
a 10,000-square-foot recording studio in San
Francisco and a push into the country market. To
those ends, EMPIRE has opened a new Nash-
ville office and hired Eric Hurt, formerly of Black
River Entertainment, as its vp of A&R. “We’re in a
different generation, where music is born through
different mediums,” says Ghazi. “I like to think
of EMPIRE as the green light where many other
situations are stop signs.”
Aubrey “Drake” Graham
CO-FOUNDER, OVO AND OVO SOUND
Noah “40” Shebib
CO-FOUNDER, OVO AND OVO SOUND; PRODUCER
Oliver El-Khatib
CO-FOUNDER, OVO AND OVO SOUND
Mr. Morgan
PRESIDENT, OVO SOUND
AN OMG YEAR FOR OVO Drake, 32, won his fourth
Grammy for monster hit “God’s Plan” (and actually
showed up to the ceremony to collect it). All 25 of
the tracks from the single’s parent album, Scorpion,
entered the Hot 100, breaking a record previously
set by... Drake, and Scorpion ruled the Billboard 200
for five consecutive weeks. But Drizzy didn’t rest.
He made his third mixtape, So Far Gone, available
on streaming services for the first time and dropped
the compilation album Care Package. El-Khatib
and Shebib, 36, served as co-executive producers
on the compilation, with an assist from Mr. Morgan.
Their contributions led to Care Package becoming
Drake’s ninth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200.
SOUND SYNERGY Toronto-based label OVO Sound
added Jamaican dancehall artist Popcaan to its
roster at the top of the year and featured his music
on the hip-hop-heavy soundtrack it curated for the
Drake-produced Netflix revival of To p B o y. Drake’s
expansion into TV and film also included execu-
tive-producer duties on HBO’s Euphoria (starring
Zendaya), which was renewed for a second season.
Dijon “Mustard” McFarlane
FOUNDER, 10 SUMMERS; ARTIST-PRODUCER-DJ
Meko Yohannes
CO-FOUNDER, 10 SUMMERS; MANAGER (MUSTARD,
ELLA MAI)
ELEVATED ELLA Thanks to his production on
protégée Ella Mai’s “Boo’d Up” — which broke
the record for most weeks at No. 1 on the R&B/
Hip-Hop Airplay chart for a song by a female artist
— Mustard, 29, won his first Grammy (for best R&B
song) in February, an honor the self-proclaimed
“ratchet hits” producer deems “crazy” yet “perfect.”
The Los Angeles native’s own 2019 album, Per-
fect 10, debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, the
highest-charting LP of his solo career. Its success
was driven in part by its platinum-certified Migos
collaboration “Pure Water.”
KICKIN’ IT OLD SCHOOL Mustard took a two-year
break from his solo music to focus on Mai, and
he plans to add more artists to the 10 Summers
“family,” which he says is now “three-people
strong,” including 34-year-old Yohannes, the brains
behind the label’s operations. Mustard’s strategy
for breaking new acts? “The labels sign these kids
because they got the hot new song,” he says. “I’m
following the old-school shit — development and
taking your time.”
COLE
HAMAD
FANT
HOLIDAY
THOMAS
GHAZI
GRAHAM
SHEBIB
EL-KHATIB
MORGAN
MCFARLANE
YOHANNES
58 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 19, 2019
COLE:^ JOHNNYNUNEZ/VMN^18 /GETTY^IMAGES.^ H
AMAD:CASSIDYSPARROW/GETTY^IMAGES.^ F
ANT:^JERRITT^CLARK/GETTY^IMAGES.^ H
OLLIDAY:BAUZEN.THOMAS:JOHN^RICARD.^ G
HAZI:^ BRYANBERRY.^ D
RAKE:^ KARWAITANG/WIREIMAGE.SHEBIB:^ STEVEGRANITZ/WIREIMAGE.EL-KHATIB:^ OVO.^ M
ORGAN:^ JOHNNYNUNEZ/WIREIMAGE.MCFARLANE:BRANDONWADE.YOHANNES:BRANDON^XAYARATH.^ R
OWLAND:^ ROBERT^MORA/GETTYIMAGES.&
POWER PLAYERS 2019