In our latest roundup, we present eight rising professionals from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.
This week's entrants will also find their faces in our latest mag. And if they don't care about that (because why should they?), we're told the pages make for semi-decent rolling trays.
Rich Foster
VP, Marketing, Epic
Foster fondly recalls positioning
GIVĒON’s
Grammy-nominated EP
TAKE TIME—at the height of the pandemic. He was also behind the fan-led
Change.org petition to get
21 Savage &
Metro Boomin to speed up the release of
Savage Mode II, which pulled in 100k+ signatures. The 2020 album debuted at #1. He’s now promoting U.K. rising star
Joy Crookes and gearing up for
Eddie Benjamín’s new album and tour with
Justin Bieber. Foster won a fourth-grade talent show performing
Biggie Smalls’ “Mo Money, Mo Problems.” We steer clear of talent shows, for obvious reasons.
Marissa Smith
Agent, Music, UTA
Smith is pumped to be playing a role in the burgeoning success of
GAYLE, whose
TikTok-assisted viral hit “abcdefu” has topped charts the world over (including in the U.K.). The music agent is currently booking 2022 tours for, in addition to GAYLE, clients like 2021 Grammy nominee
JP Saxe,
JVKE,
John Harvie,
Francis Karel and
Tristan Bushman. Smith is also building virtual worlds in the metaverse for her acts. She considered studying jazz guitar in college but went the business route instead. Unfortunately, that led to her having to deal with us.
Tuo Clark
SVP of A&R, Def Jam
A native of Harvey, Ill. (just south of Chicago), Clark—one half of the “gourmet ratchet” production duo
Da Internz—has seen artists he’s collaborated with score nine
Grammy nominations, including
Nicki Minaj with “Anaconda,”
Nas with
Life Is Good and
Justin Bieber with
My World 2.0. He’s presently working on new projects by
2 Chainz &
Lil Wayne,
Big Sean,
Jeremih,
Marqus Clae and new Def Jam signee
YBN Nahmir. Clark, who tells us he tap-dances, says a dime has 118 ridges around its edge and a quarter 119. Our own nickel knowledge is worth more like a penny.
Alana Dolgin
Head of Influencer Strategy, Homemade Projects
Dolgin is cultivating a digital talent/brand/music-marketing agency under the Homemade Projects banner. In addition to her efforts on behalf of social-media up-and-comers like
Anna Shumate (12.8m
TikTok followers),
Devyn Winkler (4.7m),
Sabrina Quesada (3.9m) and
Emma Brooks McAllister (3.6m), Dolgin has worked some of the biggest records on TikTok, among them
Cardi B’s “Up,”
SAINt JHN’s “Roses,”
Rod Wave’s “Rags2Riches” and
SpottemGottem’s “BeatBox.” Dolgin loves
Legos. We hear she’s building a barricade around herself to keep us at bay.
Katie Hill
SVP, Head of Music, Entertainment & Artist Relations, Global Citizen
In 2020 Hill partnered with
Lady Gaga for
One World: Together at Home. The broadcast—which came together in only three weeks (of 20-hour days) despite the participation of more than 100 artists—was seen by 300m viewers worldwide and raised $127.9m for the
World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. She’s now focused on Global Citizen’s 10th anniversary festival in Central Park, set for September. A world traveler, Hill has visited every continent but Antarctica, which is on her bucket list.
We can get a chilly reception anywhere.
J.R. McKee
CEO, MPR Global Distribution
McKee founded MPR only last year but he’s already enjoyed success with
Muni Long, whose “Hrs & Hrs,” from the independent EP
Public Displays of Affection, blew up on
TikTok and recently landed in the Top 40. At
Alamo Records, he oversaw streaming strategy and interfaced with the label’s DSP partners, advancing the careers of artist like
Rod Wave and
Lil Durk. McKee’s constructing a Web 3.0 platform through which fans can help fund artists’ work and lend input on their career decisions. We wish there were something like that to help with
our career decisions.
Aaron “Ace” Christian
Partner, Range Media Partners
Seeing his client
Cordae earn 2019
Grammy nominations for Best Rap Song and Best Rap Album was mos def a career highlight for Christian, who was equally proud to spearhead a partnership between the rapper and
Disney for an annual scholarship fund that puts students through
HBCUs—Christian himself was once a college-scholarship basketball player. The entrepreneurial ace, who’s worked in A&R and digital brand management, is also building the label founded by Cordae,
Hi Level.
We aspire to a high level. Aspiration is about as far as we’ve gotten, though.
Rahul Bhatt
Photographer/Videographer/Content Creator
Having spent the better part of a decade at
Simon Cowell’s
SYCO Entertainment and
Sony Music, Bhatt has seen his work for
Camila Cabello on a billboard in
Times Square and onscreen at the
Grammys. It likewise earned him an
iHeart Radio Award nod for Best Tour Photographer. He’s also collaborated with
One Direction,
Fifth Harmony and most recently,
Coldplay, crafting promotional posters. A native of Tanzania, home to safari mecca
Serengeti National Park, Bhatt probably never expected to encounter fearsome beasts in the music industry and yet, here we are.
