BEST R&B/HIP-HOP
COLLABORATIONS
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that she connects Paradigm’s music artists with
other agents they should meet. “That cross-disci-
plinary approach is important to our hip-hop artists
because the culture thinks in an entrepreneurial
way, from fashion to sports to technology.”
BRAND MANAGER Following this approach, DiStasio,
29, landed and extended Smokepurpp’s brand am-
bassadorship with Puma sportswear, facilitated Nor-
mani’s performance at HBO’s World Pride Day event
and partnered Gucci Mane with the Gucci fashion
brand and Swisher Sweets. Zahedinia, 30, grew his
roster, signing Shoreline Mafia, Machine Gun Kelly,
$uicideboy$ and Blueface within a 12-month period.
Robert Gibbs
PARTNER/AGENT, CONCERTS, ICM PARTNERS
Yves Pierre
Jacqueline Reynolds-Drumm
AGENTS, CONCERTS, ICM PARTNERS
DREAMVILLE DELIVERS “It has been the year of
Dreamville,” says Gibbs of the J. Cole-affiliated
crew that ICM represents: Ari Lennox, Bas, J.I.D
and EarthGang. “To see the growth and devel-
opment of these artists on the road — selling out
globally in support of their individual albums — has
been incredible,” he adds.
YEAR OF THE WOMAN Both Reynolds-Drumm, 33,
and Pierre say they’ve had much satisfaction in
signing and developing female artists. They share a
roster that includes Baby Rose, Yung Baby Tate, City
Girls, Rapsody, Justine Skye and Layton Greene.
The latter three “have released new albums or EPs
that tell their stories and experiences of what it
means to be a black woman in music,” says Pierre.
“[It’s] what keeps me going.”
Mike “Mike G.” Guirguis
Chris Jordan
Cheryl Paglierani
MUSIC AGENTS, UTA
POSTY AND MATES When Jordan, 32, began working
with Tierra Whack, she was new to the festival cir-
cuit; now she’s a veteran of Coachella, Lollapalooza
and Outside Lands. Guirguis, 43, has raised Burna
Boy’s international profile, and client Social House
is opening for Ariana Grande’s Sweetener tour and
landed a 12-school 2020 college tour. Paglierani, 35,
is thrilled that Post Malone’s Posty Fest will double
its size in its second year by moving to Dallas’ AT&T
Stadium in the artist’s home state of Texas. She
says, “Ever since he was a child, Post always had
wanted to perform at that stadium. It was the best
feeling to be part of such an incredible event and to
help him fulfill his lifelong dream.”
RALLYING FOR R&B Guirguis says it’s high time that
“R&B music becomes a higher priority with major
labels, digital sound processors and radio program-
mers. It’s a timeless style of music that appeals to all
ages, and it needs to reach more listeners.”
Brent Smith
Kevin Shivers
James Rubin
PARTNERS, MUSIC, WME
DRAKE, GAMBINO AND JUICE WRLD, OH MY Smith’s
blue-chip roster of hip-hop artists made big bank
in the live sector. He says Drake had the high-
est-grossing hip-hop tour of 2018-19, raking in
$145 million, while Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick
Lamar sold out his 2018-19 global arena tour.
Childish Gambino, who won four Grammys this
year, grossed $23.3 million from arena dates in 2018
and 2019 and doubled that total headlining a run of
top festivals that included Coachella and Outside
Lands. Juice WRLD grossed $6.5 million on a
30-day North American tour, and, says Smith, the
seventh year of Tyler, The Creator’s sold-out Camp
Flog Gnaw festival moved 80,000 tickets. Rubin,
40, and Tyler’s 4 Strikes Management arranged for
the artist to return to the United Kingdom for three
sold-out shows five years after he was banned from
the country due to the content of his lyrics.
MISSING MAC “As Mac [Miller’s] agent and friend, I
witnessed firsthand his lesson that kindness and
honesty will always prevail in music and in life,”
says Rubin, who, with Smith, Shivers, 43, and WME
partner Michele Bernstein helped Miller’s family
and 4 Strikes produce a benefit concert for the Mac
Miller Circle Fund.
LIVE
Omar Al-Joulani
SENIOR VP TOURING, LIVE NATION
Colin Lewis
VP TOURING, LIVE NATION
GRIST FOR MILL In addition to promoting longtime
client JAY-Z’s Made in America festival alongside
Roc Nation, Al- Joulani, 41, crafted global long-
term deals for future arena headliners including Lil
Uzi Vert and Meek Mill. He also promoted 40 dates
for Mill, including a co-headlining tour with Future,
and over 25 dates for Logic’s fall arena tour.
POST GRADUATE Lewis, 44, worked with Post
Malone’s team, UTA agent Cheryl Paglierani and
managers Dre London and Austin Rosen to take the
hip-hop star from ballrooms to arenas and create the
first-ever Posty Fest, which grossed over $1.7 million
in October 2018. “In May and June of 2018, Post
Malone sold over 200,000 tickets in Live Nation am-
phitheaters, stunning the concert world with unprec-
edented demand and an average ticket price typically
reserved for veteran arena-level artists,” says Lewis.
Tariq Cherif
Matt Zingler
CO-FOUNDERS, ROLLING LOUD
FOUR CITIES, 500,000 TICKETS The fifth year of Rolling
Loud marked the hip-hop festival’s New York debut,
with a two-day concert headlined by Travis Scott
and A$AP Rocky at Queens’ Citi Field on Columbus
Day weekend. Now held in six cities worldwide —
including Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; Hong Kong;
and Sydney — the Miami-born experiential event is
on track to sell 1 million festival tickets by the end of
2019, according to the company.
LIVING LOUD Rolling Loud merchandise has become a
cultish streetwear brand, with limited-edition pieces
often out of stock on a festival’s first day. “Seeing
someone wearing our merch still trips me out,” says
Cherif, 30, who also manages Ski Mask the Slump
God. “We see the future of our company as a lifestyle
brand, which is way cooler than just a music festival.”
Jocelyn Cooper
PRESIDENT/CO-CEO, AFROPUNK
10 YEARS STRONG Cooper, 55, celebrated her 10th
year at the helm of Afropunk, which itself turned
15 in 2019 and drew 60,000 people to its flagship
two-day Brooklyn festival in August, according to the
company. This year also brought the return of spinoffs
in Johannesburg, London, Atlanta and Paris, where
she says attendance numbers have doubled annually
— all part of Cooper’s mission to be “the first global
music festival that focuses on people of color.”
FROM BROOKLYN TO BRAZIL Afropunk will launch in Bra-
zil in 2020, marking its sixth city and fourth continent,
and bringing its global audience to 175,000 annual
attendees, says Cooper, adding, “Not bad for a little
company that started out as a passion project.” The
former head of A&R at Universal Records says the in-
augural Brooklyn event in 2005 drew just 250 people.
JORDAN
PAGLIERANI
SMITH
SHIVERS
RUBIN
CHERIF
ZINGLER
COOPER
AL-JOULANI
GUIRGUIS
LEWIS
OCTOBER 19, 2019 • WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 6 3
“You have to put
BEYONCÉ
AND JAY-Z’S
‘CRAZY IN LOVE’
in the conversation.
It’s a classic.”
—WALTER JONES,
UNIVERSAL MUSIC
PUBLISHING GROUP