Friday, January 29
Urban Music Industry Conference: The Business of Urban Music
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front St. W.
(Upper Canada Room, 18th Floor, 12:00 noon - 8:00 p.m.)
The aim of the Urban Music Industry Conference is to foster and develop, support and champion a vibrant, dynamic urban industry in Ontario. The first day of the music conference targets urban businesses, artist-entrepreneurs, managers, indie labels, publishers, booking agents, graphic designers, event and concert promoters, and web masters. The conference will assist urban businesses and artist-entrepreneurs network and develop professional and successful business practices in this rapidly changing music industry and new digital age through panel discussions and networking opportunities. Panels include: Music Publishing, Managing for Success and Indie Labels. Keynote address by Al Branch, GM for the management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, whose roster includes Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Young Jeezy and the producers Noah “40″ Shebib and Just Blaze.
Admission: $25 (includes keynote address, conference & Networking Reception), two-day Conference Pass: $40 (includes all) available at the door.
Saturday, January 30
Urban Music Industry Conference: Urban Artist Boot Camp
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front St. W.
(Upper Canada Room, 18th Floor, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
The second day of the music conference will target independent urban artists. Panels include: Funding & Juries, Social Networks & Music, Festivals & Tours and Finding the Next Hot Producers.
Admission: $25 (includes conference & Networking Reception), two-day Conference Pass: $40 (includes all) available at the door.
Urban Music Industry Conference: The Business of Urban Music
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front St. W.
(Upper Canada Room, 18th Floor, 12:00 noon - 8:00 p.m.)
The aim of the Urban Music Industry Conference is to foster and develop, support and champion a vibrant, dynamic urban industry in Ontario. The first day of the music conference targets urban businesses, artist-entrepreneurs, managers, indie labels, publishers, booking agents, graphic designers, event and concert promoters, and web masters. The conference will assist urban businesses and artist-entrepreneurs network and develop professional and successful business practices in this rapidly changing music industry and new digital age through panel discussions and networking opportunities. Panels include: Music Publishing, Managing for Success and Indie Labels. Keynote address by Al Branch, GM for the management firm Hip Hop Since 1978, whose roster includes Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Drake, Young Jeezy and the producers Noah “40″ Shebib and Just Blaze.
Admission: $25 (includes keynote address, conference & Networking Reception), two-day Conference Pass: $40 (includes all) available at the door.
Saturday, January 30
Urban Music Industry Conference: Urban Artist Boot Camp
Fairmont Royal York Hotel, 100 Front St. W.
(Upper Canada Room, 18th Floor, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
The second day of the music conference will target independent urban artists. Panels include: Funding & Juries, Social Networks & Music, Festivals & Tours and Finding the Next Hot Producers.
Admission: $25 (includes conference & Networking Reception), two-day Conference Pass: $40 (includes all) available at the door.
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Leadership, in virtually every field of endeavor – politics, the arts, academia, athletics, industry – carries with it enormous responsibilities. The true measure of success is no longer merely winning the race, but bringing the culture forward and making an imprint on society. The brave entrepreneurs who follow their instincts and swim against the tide to navigate uncharted routes are, more often than not today, rewarded with degrees of achievement far more precious than gold. Or platinum. Or multi-platinum, to put the accomplishments of the full-service management firm known as Hip-Hop Since 1978 into real-time perspective.
Since its formation in 2002, by a triumvirate of veteran music business heavyweights – Kyambo ‘Hip-Hop’ Joshua (who also serves as president of Columbia Records’ Urban Music), Gee Roberson (who also serves as president of Atlantic Records’ Rap Music department), and Al Branch (who also serves as a senior marketing executive at Island Def Jam Music Group) – HHS78 has re-written every rule in the book. As a result, their highly-selective roster of artists (Kanye West, and Lil’ Wayne – with a cumulative total of 16 Grammy Awards between them, and over 40-times platinum music sales in the U.S. alone – and Young Jeezy, and newcomer Drake, the Canadian actor-turned-rapper, former star of tv’s Degrassi teen series) and producers (Just Blaze, and newcomer Noah ‘40’ Shebib) – have been able to pursue the kind of branding opportunities with Fortune 500 companies that simply did not exist for male African-American rappers a decade ago.
The partnerships that HHS78 has developed on behalf of its artists transcend the typical brand of celebrity endorsements to which American consumers have become so accustomed. When Kanye West’s Pepsi-Cola commercial (directed by Spike Lee) premiered during the 2006 MTV VMA broadcast, it was history. When Nike unveiled the Air Yeezys sneaker line that Kanye designed from scratch, that was history. And when Kanye followed up with a new premium-priced sneaker line for prestigious worldwide retailer Louis Vuitton, that was history as well.
Similarly, when Pepsico’s Gatorade brand chose Lil’ Wayne to provide the voiceover for their “Legends” commercials, featuring Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, and the greatest athletes of our lifetime, that was history. When Lil’ Wayne appeared in LeBron James’ Nike commercial, that was history. Belvedere vodka’s campaign with Young Jeezy was history. And Drake’s upcoming commercial for Sprite – that’s history.
Functioning as a kind-of ‘one-stop shop’ on behalf of their artists – providing experience and expertise from their collective backgrounds in product marketing, radio promotion, retail and digital sales, press and media, new technology and all the specialized areas that make a record company work – HHS78 is, above all, supremely proud of their astuteness when it comes to A&R, the lifeblood of every label, major or indie. Because of its intensive A&R focus, HHS78 is controlling production on new records by as many as four or five artists at any given time (their own clients and others).
Over the past two years alone, Gee has worked behind the scenes to organize some of the biggest hip-hop collaboration events on record. These include “Swagga Like Us” by Jay-Z and T.I. featuring Kanye West and Lil Wayne, produced by Kanye (from T.I.’s album, Paper Trail, 2008); and “Forever” by Drake featuring Kanye, Lil Wayne and Eminem (September 2009, Interscope) from the soundtrack album for More Than A Game, the high-profile documentary film about basketball megastar LeBron James.
In another world, another lifetime, it is impossible to imagine an artist (Drake) – just one or two singles into his music career, with his debut album as yet unreleased – being chosen for the “Forever” single. But HHS78 has developed a knack for being in the right place at the right time with each of its artists and producers, and mastering the fine art of starmaking machinery (as Joni Mitchell described it), those backstage, behind-the-scenes manoeuverings that cut through layers of corporate quicksand.
In that regard, HHS78 is blessed with several of the most savvy management partners in the urban music landscape. HHS78 co-manages Lil’ Wayne with Cortez Bryant of Bryant Entertainment, and it was Bryant who led the way to Drake, now signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment via Universal Music Group. (Although Drake is with Monte Lippman’s Universal/Republic division, as opposed to Lil’ Wayne, who is with Universal/Motown.)
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