Wednesday, August 2, 2023
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. Thankfully, they can lament this mortifying experience from the comfort of their air-conditioned spaces.
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Natalie Dodge
VP, A&R,
Astralwerks/
Capitol Music Group
When Dodge inked
Surf Mesa to
Astralwerks in 2020—after which his “ily (i love you baby)” f/
Emilee went double platinum, scored 2.6b streams and hit #2 at Top 40—she could never have imagined that he and her dad would write a song together and perform it at her wedding. Today she’s A&Ring releases by not only Surf Mesa but
Dillon Francis,
Chris Lake,
Bob Moses and
ACRAZE. She’s also busy with new music by her signee
EMELINE, who’s earned 380m+ streams and sold out headlining shows in N.Y. and L.A. Dodge is a lefty and a Scorpio. We consider ourselves warned.
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Karina Puente
VP, Promotion, Sony Music Latin
Puente has helped SML take the #1 slot in Latin Airplay for seven consecutive years. She’s also played a role in
Shakira’s
Guinness World Records haul, including the most #1s for a female artist on the Latin Airplay chart. Puente is currently gearing up for
Marshmello’s first Latin-collab LP (f/
Manuel Turizo,
Farruko and more) and
Becky G’s regional MX project with
Edgar Barrera. Early on, she quickly rose to a programming role at a Dallas radio station—using her gut to pick hits. Our guts only suggest late-night snacks.
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Marco Rojas
Senior Manager, Radio Promotions, The Syndicate
From getting
Central Cee’s “Doja” played on U.S. radio to watching him perform the now-gold track at
Rolling Loud Toronto for a crowd singing along word for word, Rojas is proud to have played a role in breaking the London rapper stateside. These days he’s promoting songs by acts like
Metallica,
Portugal. The Man,
K. Flay,
Chad Tepper,
MAGIC!,
Scowl,
Planet Giza,
REZZ and
George Clanton. Rojas went to the same North Bergen, New Jersey, high school that produced rapper-singer
070 Shake and actor-comedian
Joey “Coco” Diaz.
We napped through homeroom.
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Jen Morgan
VP, Creative & Imaging, BMG Nashville/New York
Morgan, who was introduced to
Jelly Roll’s music more than 10 years ago through his 10-minute freestyle (Google it), will always cherish the experience of watching his sold-out 2022
Bridgestone Arena show with 20,000 other fans. More recently, she was honored to orchestrate creative for a
Judds tribute record. She’s also pumped to be working on upcoming albums by
Jason Aldean,
Dustin Lynch,
Frank Ray and
King Calaway. When Morgan was 19, she won a Dodge Dakota, which she says wasn’t actually “all it was cracked up to be.” People say the same about us.
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Brooklyn DiMartino
Label Manager, R&B, Hip Hop & Reggae, Ingrooves
Among DiMartino’s career highlights, when she was at
Mass Appeal she supported
Nas’ 2018
Kanye-produced
NASIR album―including a release party under the Queensboro Bridge with
Kim Kardashian,
2 Chainz,
Pusha T,
Chris Rock and other such luminaries in attendance. More recently, she’s had her hands full with
Tech N9ne’s new album,
BLISS, and upcoming projects by
Slum Village,
DJ Premier,
Tinashe and
Jacob Banks. DiMartino won numerous first-place plaques on her 1979 Suzuki PE 175 (her dad is still motocrossing).
We’re known for our many participation trophies.
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Ryan Erickson
Director, Tour Marketing, Live Nation
In 2016 Erickson was responsible for launching
Red Rocks Amphitheater’s
Instagram to coincide with its 75th anniversary. He’s attended 200+ concerts at the storied venue. During his six-year career with Live Nation, he’s worked on 142 tours (that’s 2,758 shows). This year alone, he’s wrangled 14 tours (354 shows) for artists like
Drake,
ODESZA,
Dead & Company,
Fall Out Boy,
Zac Brown Band,
NF and
RÜFÜS DU SOL. Erickson once bought a
Fenty shirt from
Rihanna herself—she took his credit card from behind the register at a pop-up shop. We genuinely can’t relate.
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Inga Kan
Producer, Content Development, Columbia Records
Kan got to celebrate the release of
Tyler, The Creator’s 2021 #1 album
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST with a show at New York’s
Music Hall of Williamsburg (capacity: a mere 650). This year, she was part of the team behind
Miley Cyrus’
Endless Summer Vacation and
Labrinth’s
Ends & Begins. A
Parsons School of Design graduate and
Girl Scouts Lifetime Member, Kan practices self-care by giving herself a nail art gel mani every other week, sometimes even coordinating them with releases she has coming out. We can’t even match our socks half the time.
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Genesis Garcia
Associate Director, Publicity, RCA Records
Garcia’s peak career moments include
Steve Lacy’s winning a
Grammy for his album
Gemini Rights and performing the chart-topping “Bad Habit” on
Saturday Night Live. She’s presently advancing the careers of emerging artists like
Khamari, who released his debut album,
A Brief Nirvana, in May, and working on projects with
Victoria Monét (her upcoming
JAGUAR II) and
Teezo Touchdown (his debut LP). She’s also mighty excited about new music from
Miguel. This college rugby player owns a rice farm in the Dominican Republic, a place she can only hope we never find.