blockbuster success of modern US hip-hop. Habtemariam, alongside CMG topper Steve Barnett, led a transformative partnership with Atlanta-based Quality Control back in 2015, which has reaped huge dividends via releases from Migos, Lil Baby, City Girls and Lil Yachty, to name a few. Motown’s own roster today also includes priority acts like BJ The Chicago Kid, Chaz French and James Davis. Habtemariam’s certainly come a long way from the start of her career, interning at Elektra in her teenage hometown of Atlanta, having been inspired to enter the record business by LaFace Records’ head of promotion, Shanti Das... You’re fighting a fervent independent artist scene out there. What’s the value of a major record company in 2019? Good question: I remember when I was just working in publishing, before I made the transition into a label, I even questioned this notion a bit myself. During my time as a publisher, I also did some management for Keri Hilson, who I signed as a writer, and I had some frustrations with the label system not moving quickly enough. I’ve since learned that the value of a record label honestly comes down to its ideas and a team around the world that can execute your vision. With Migos, for instance; since we stepped in, what we’ve been able to do for them and their positioning, working with QC, has been game-changing. Our brands team here is incredible. We get to strategize and really figure out how to grow them and take things to the next level. A big part of that is global. We’re always thinking about streaming, how it connects the world; how people in Africa are listening to the same music we
are the moment it drops here. These kids, worldwide, are on the same wavelength – we have to strategize around that. Are artists noticing the value that major labels bring? There’s power in being signed today. And I’m feeling it more now than ever, because even some of these big artists who had the ‘f*ck major labels’ attitude for a minute are coming back now – because they appreciate the power and expertise that is here: the offices in all the markets, the intricate planning, the timeline of execution, and the artist development – knowing who the right people to connect you with are, creatively and business-wise.
“THE VALUE OF A RECORD LABEL ULTIMATELY COMES DOWN TO ITS IDEAS.” You say you had frustrations with major labels not moving quickly enough in the past. What did that teach you? That getting past those frustrations is all a matter of communication. Almost everyone is working in music because they love it – at least the people I work with. If you can acknowledge that when communicating with whomever you’re dealing with, it helps them buy into your [project] and become advocates for it. And then you can execute a great plan. You don’t hear things like ‘this is the precedent for how we do things’ [in major labels] so much anymore. This business is growing and changing all the time, and if you’re not willing to change and innovate on the way, you’re gonna be left in the dust. The good thing about arriving
here [Capitol Music Group] at the beginning of the rebuilding process [in 2014], was that we were all basically starting from scratch. Steve, Michelle [Jubelirer], myself; we were really given the opportunity to build something fresh, make new and innovative kinds of deals with artists, labels and other partners. It’s allowed us to be much more nimble, and do things differently. That Hot 100 stat from 2013 – with zero lead black artists at No.1 in a year – is shocking and fascinating. Was the industry that much more controlled even that short time ago? In a word: yes, but, I was having a lot of success as a music publisher at that time and was almost shielded from that reality. I was working with some of music’s most talented and successful writers and producers, black talent who were writing a lot of pop hits. So I never would have believed that black performers would be marginalized in that way. And then I started working on the label side and I got my first taste of, ‘Oh no. This artist and that R&B or hip-hop record aren’t going to get to No.1 without certain changes,’ or, in the case of R&B, without a certain feature. It was almost as if there wasn’t the confidence that black artists could get to the top. And if you don’t believe it can happen, it’s not going to happen. Then, in my first year as President of Motown, it was getting to the point that I was struggling to justify the investment in the roster because it wasn’t turning into anything immediately [lucrative]. But we always felt certain that, culturally, [urban] music was permeating and connecting to people, whether it be through the mix tape circuit, or through platforms like My MixTapez, Audiomack, etc. Then, when Spotify, Apple 29
