1
00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:04,080
Speaker 1: So he goes, listen, guys, I gotta tell you this company.

2
00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,680
Speaker 1: I'm already minus seventeen million for the year. I don't

3
00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:09,800
Speaker 1: know what to do with these records. I'm just gonna

4
00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:10,320
Speaker 1: let you go.

5
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:11,320
Speaker 2: He says.

6
00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:13,239
Speaker 3: I run out of money, and they're closing at the

7
00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:15,800
Speaker 3: end of the year, and we're living off of riches

8
00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:18,639
Speaker 3: credit cards right the second, and I think Rich is

9
00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:19,800
Speaker 3: having an anxiety attack.

10
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:23,160
Speaker 1: I am ready to jump off a building at that point.

11
00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,240
Speaker 4: Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's

12
00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:37,839
Speaker 4: most influential brands and the teams that build them. If

13
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,320
Speaker 4: you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the

14
00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:45,120
Speaker 4: power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week

15
00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,200
Speaker 4: as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture, because

16
00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:51,199
Speaker 4: the only way to truly understand success is to look

17
00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:56,040
Speaker 4: at it from all angles. Idea Generations All Angles is

18
00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:06,760
Speaker 4: a Will Packer Media podcast. In nineteen ninety one, Steve

19
00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,959
Speaker 4: Rifkin founded Loud Records, and in the decade that followed,

20
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 4: Loud would cultivate one of the most iconic rosters in

21
00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:16,600
Speaker 4: hip hop history, including Wu Tang, Clan, Mob, Deep, Big Pun,

22
00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:21,240
Speaker 4: three six, Mafia, Dead pres and the Alcoholics. But the

23
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,440
Speaker 4: label's success was a product of more than just one

24
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,000
Speaker 4: man's effort. Loud was the confluence of Rifkin's vision and network,

25
00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,880
Speaker 4: childhood friend and partner Rich Isaacson's iron fisted governance, and

26
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,960
Speaker 4: the impeccable taste, tone and tireless efforts of an ensemble

27
00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 4: cast of hip hop obsessed young staffers, not to mention

28
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:40,800
Speaker 4: the timeless art of some of the most talented rappers

29
00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:43,479
Speaker 4: and producers to ever pick up a mic or tap

30
00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:48,920
Speaker 4: on a beat machine. On this week's episode, we talked

31
00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:51,680
Speaker 4: to founders Rifkin and Isaacson, A and R's Mattie C.

32
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,920
Speaker 4: Scott Free and Shaun Sea Radio VP Mojo, as well

33
00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,360
Speaker 4: as Havoc from Mob Deep to hear the full story

34
00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:00,560
Speaker 4: of how Loud Records grew from a one room office

35
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,160
Speaker 4: on Melrose ab to one of the most successful record

36
00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,000
Speaker 4: labels of the nineties, and how the inspired chaos that

37
00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,600
Speaker 4: fueled their rise ultimately also contributed to the legendary labels undoing.

38
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:13,760
Speaker 4: But long before any of that happened, decades prior to

39
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,440
Speaker 4: Cloud selling a single record, there were just two best

40
00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,600
Speaker 4: friends driving home from soccer practice in Merrick Long Island.

41
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:23,840
Speaker 1: Steve and I grew up together in Merrick Long Island.

42
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,639
Speaker 4: This is Rich Isaacson, co founder of Loud Records.

43
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,919
Speaker 1: It was kind of one of those neighborhoods where everybody

44
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: played out in the street, so we knew each other

45
00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:34,519
Speaker 1: just from being kids in the same neighborhood.

46
00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:38,000
Speaker 2: So Marrick had a north side and a south side.

47
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,320
Speaker 3: The north side was all Irish, the south side was

48
00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:43,440
Speaker 3: mostly Jews and Italians.

49
00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,480
Speaker 4: This is Steve Rifkint, founder of Loud Records.

50
00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:51,720
Speaker 3: So there would be fights pretty much every day that

51
00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:52,840
Speaker 3: we went to school.

52
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:54,880
Speaker 1: Steve and I grew up a couple of blocks away

53
00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,640
Speaker 1: from each other, so kind of in each other's lives

54
00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:01,240
Speaker 1: since we were literally little kids. Teenage, then high school,

55
00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,840
Speaker 1: and we got really close, I would say in high school.

56
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:07,360
Speaker 1: He was a senior in high school when I was

57
00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:09,960
Speaker 1: in tenth grade. We were both on the soccer team.

58
00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:12,000
Speaker 1: He was on Varsie and I was on JB and

59
00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: you know, we knew each other, but he was like

60
00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:16,440
Speaker 1: the big kid and I was really little at that point.

61
00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,680
Speaker 1: So Steve was driving and I didn't drive yet at

62
00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:21,800
Speaker 1: that time, so he would take me home from practice

63
00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:24,000
Speaker 1: or pick me up, and he makes a joke that

64
00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:26,000
Speaker 1: I had to pay him, and he tells that story like, oh,

65
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,200
Speaker 1: Ritchie's to pay just to hang out with me.

66
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,400
Speaker 4: Though Steve was raised in a mundane suburb of Long Island,

67
00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:36,080
Speaker 4: his childhood was anything but ordinary. The Rifkin family was

68
00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,320
Speaker 4: a music industry dynasty. Steve's grandfather had run a popular

69
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:42,840
Speaker 4: nightclub on Queen's Boulevard, and Steve's father and uncle, Jules

70
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,280
Speaker 4: and Roy Rifkin, were hugely successful in radio promotion and

71
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:49,360
Speaker 4: early champions of R and B and soul music. Jewles

72
00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:52,640
Speaker 4: had been a senior executive at both MGM and Bang Records,

73
00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 4: was a confidant of James Brown, and would eventually launch

74
00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,040
Speaker 4: his own label under Polydor Spring Records. So it was

75
00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,240
Speaker 4: almost a given that and his younger brother Jonathan would

76
00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,560
Speaker 4: add onto the family's legacy and the music biz.

77
00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,400
Speaker 3: My house, we could only listen to WBLS. BLS was

78
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,480
Speaker 3: the only black station in the one or seven point five,

79
00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,440
Speaker 3: so everybody else was listening to the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Beatles,

80
00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:20,200
Speaker 3: Pink Floyd, you know, whatever the rock and pop stuff was.

81
00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:22,720
Speaker 2: I had no clue what it was.

82
00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:25,760
Speaker 1: His dad was in the music business, and that household

83
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,799
Speaker 1: was really pretty exotic for Merrick, Long Island.

84
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:31,919
Speaker 3: He had any given time, that could be a lomo

85
00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:34,000
Speaker 3: at the house and it could be James Brown, it

86
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,440
Speaker 3: could be Millie Jackson, it would be somebody from the

87
00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,400
Speaker 3: Fat Back Band. It could be Kenny gamble E Leon Huff,

88
00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:41,560
Speaker 3: who was the biggest producers.

89
00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,440
Speaker 4: Founded in nineteen sixty seven by Steve's father, Jules brother

90
00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,200
Speaker 4: Royd and friend Bill Spittalaski, Spring Records ushered in a

91
00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,799
Speaker 4: generation of classic R and B, funk and soul, including

92
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,039
Speaker 4: superstars like Joe Simon and Millie Jackson, and by virtue

93
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,680
Speaker 4: of kicking it in Jewels living room, even Rich got

94
00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:04,000
Speaker 4: front row seats to witness how the music industry really worked.

95
00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,800
Speaker 1: The Spring Records had classic, amazing R and B, and

96
00:05:07,839 --> 00:05:11,080
Speaker 1: then later on Steve and his dad put out what

97
00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,560
Speaker 1: many considered the first hip hop record of all time,

98
00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:15,800
Speaker 1: which was King Tim the Third by the Fat Back Band.

99
00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:20,200
Speaker 1: Steve wasn't exactly a student that didn't care about seeing

100
00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:21,960
Speaker 1: A student had a learning disability.

101
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:23,240
Speaker 3: I didn't know how to read a write till I

102
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:25,960
Speaker 3: was on to fifteen years old. I was majorly dyslexic.

103
00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:28,200
Speaker 3: Nobody knew what that was then, so they sent me

104
00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:30,120
Speaker 3: to Julie. I didn't have to sleep there. The little

105
00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 3: bus would come. They would come into the bus and

106
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:34,839
Speaker 3: then they would take me to a school. And my

107
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:36,760
Speaker 3: parents they tried their best with me.

108
00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:40,839
Speaker 2: They even believe me. I really thought.

109
00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:43,880
Speaker 3: Up until my senior year in high school, my dream

110
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,080
Speaker 3: was the NBA. My dad took me to a record

111
00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:48,560
Speaker 3: convention one time and it was a took him that hotel,

112
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,200
Speaker 3: and I was like, all right, this is kind of cool,

113
00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:53,840
Speaker 3: but it really didn't do anything into me.

114
00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,120
Speaker 1: I think he went to college for a day or

115
00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:58,120
Speaker 1: a week or something like that, and he's like, this

116
00:05:58,200 --> 00:05:58,719
Speaker 1: isn't for me.

117
00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,640
Speaker 4: Seeing Steve drop out of college without any plans prompted

118
00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:04,960
Speaker 4: Jewels and Grandpa Ripken to call a meeting with Steve.

119
00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,200
Speaker 4: And the outcome of that conversation, well, it would set

120
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:09,800
Speaker 4: off his career in the music industry.

121
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,000
Speaker 3: My grandfather called me, he goes, why don't you do

122
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:13,720
Speaker 3: what your cousin did. I'm like, what did my cousin do?

123
00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,960
Speaker 3: He goes, he went to visit radio stations. Two weeks later,

124
00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:19,240
Speaker 3: my grandfather called me, he just pick me up at

125
00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:21,520
Speaker 3: the airport and he goes, we'll haveing lunch with your father.

126
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:22,719
Speaker 2: We go to lunch.

127
00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,880
Speaker 3: They you're gonna go to visit some radio stations. You'll

128
00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:28,560
Speaker 3: fly back to Florida with Grandpa, and then from there.

129
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,160
Speaker 3: They gave me a route of where and there was

130
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:34,520
Speaker 3: always somebody there. My first off was Florida. I don't

131
00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:36,320
Speaker 3: know how to read a map. I got ten dollars

132
00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:38,800
Speaker 3: worth a quarters and forty grand and gash and my

133
00:06:38,880 --> 00:06:43,760
Speaker 3: father says, if you disappear, you're dead. First stop. I

134
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,000
Speaker 3: went from Fort Lada of Florida to Alabama, and I

135
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:49,280
Speaker 3: met a guy a name with Dave Clark. Dave Clark

136
00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,640
Speaker 3: ran the South from a promotion side of things, and

137
00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:56,080
Speaker 3: he's introducing me to like program directed and I just

138
00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,000
Speaker 3: really did a lot of listening and I introduced myself

139
00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:01,120
Speaker 3: and I just kept in touch.

140
00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:02,240
Speaker 2: Day didn't ask me.

141
00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:04,719
Speaker 3: To hang out with them, and I was like, where's

142
00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:05,640
Speaker 3: the local college.

143
00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,159
Speaker 4: Being much younger than the pds and radio vets, Steve

144
00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:11,760
Speaker 4: headed to the local colleges, both the work his dad's

145
00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:14,280
Speaker 4: records with the DJs, but also to party with people

146
00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:16,880
Speaker 4: his own age. This routine would continue for the next

147
00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:20,720
Speaker 4: couple of years. Steve would visit college towns, build relationships

148
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,080
Speaker 4: with the local DJs, and get his records played on

149
00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 4: their stations. Ultimately, this network of radio taste makers would

150
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:28,840
Speaker 4: become the foundation of Steve's career.

151
00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:32,520
Speaker 3: From mobile to making Georgia and then New Orleans and

152
00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,080
Speaker 3: I'd go back to the colleges again, and that three

153
00:07:35,120 --> 00:07:38,640
Speaker 3: weeks ended up being three years where I would zig

154
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:40,440
Speaker 3: zag all across the country.

155
00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:43,640
Speaker 2: So that's how the whole street Team concept came together.

156
00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,679
Speaker 4: After a few years on the road, Steve found himself

157
00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:50,600
Speaker 4: back in New York City surfacing records to Frankie Crocker,

158
00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,240
Speaker 4: a record breaking icon at WBLS, the number one black

159
00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,400
Speaker 4: music station in the Tri State. One Saturday night, Steve

160
00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,680
Speaker 4: got an opportunity to roll with Crocker that would both

161
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,240
Speaker 4: open his eyes and transform his business.

162
00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,000
Speaker 3: So this is when I'm around twenty twenty one. I'm

163
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,760
Speaker 3: at BLS Radio and then May James, who is the

164
00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:11,280
Speaker 3: music director, said Frankie wants to talk to you. He

165
00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,600
Speaker 3: goes hey, does your dad still get the limos My

166
00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:18,320
Speaker 3: dad definanced the limousine company Music Express. I'm like, I

167
00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:21,720
Speaker 3: don't know, let's call him. Frankie goes hey, Julie, do

168
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:23,760
Speaker 3: you still have the thing? He goes, yeah. He goes,

169
00:08:23,800 --> 00:08:25,800
Speaker 3: I need one for Saturday night. My dad goes, you

170
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,320
Speaker 3: have no problem, but let's Steven go with you. So

171
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:30,680
Speaker 3: I'm like, where are we going? He goes, We're going

172
00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:31,480
Speaker 3: to the garage.

173
00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,520
Speaker 4: The garage wasn't just any nightclub. This was the home

174
00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,720
Speaker 4: of DJ legend Larry Levine, who, from a later than

175
00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:41,360
Speaker 4: late night underground club in downtown Manhattan, broke the sounds

176
00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,000
Speaker 4: of disco and dance that would define pop music for

177
00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:45,360
Speaker 4: a decade plus.

178
00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:47,440
Speaker 3: It was a club and it opened up at six

179
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:49,920
Speaker 3: in the morning. Frankie's come to the house around three

180
00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:52,160
Speaker 3: in the morning, go to the house, we go to

181
00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:55,400
Speaker 3: Studio fifty four, We go to another club, Magique, and

182
00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:58,679
Speaker 3: now it's time to go to the garage. He's not

183
00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:02,559
Speaker 3: telling me anything, right, So around like an hour later,

184
00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:07,000
Speaker 3: he disappears. I'm by myself. He's by the DJ booth

185
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:10,600
Speaker 3: and he's not talking to Larry. He's just literally like

186
00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:14,520
Speaker 3: eyeing the tiger. I'm like, what is he doing? So

187
00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:17,440
Speaker 3: in between eight o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock

188
00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:20,679
Speaker 3: in the morning, whatever Larry played, Frankie was adding to

189
00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:21,439
Speaker 3: the radio station.

190
00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,080
Speaker 4: Having seen Frankie's system of music discovery, Steve got an

191
00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:29,120
Speaker 4: idea on how to capitalize on Larry's golden hour picks.

192
00:09:29,679 --> 00:09:32,679
Speaker 3: So I'm calling Atlantic Records or Epic Record. I'm like, hey,

193
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,760
Speaker 3: I could get your Shannon record. I'm just making up

194
00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:36,800
Speaker 3: a name. I could get your Shannon record. At it

195
00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:37,880
Speaker 3: to BLS tomorrow.

196
00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:38,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

197
00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:40,760
Speaker 3: See, there's no fucking way. I'm like, I promise you

198
00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:42,040
Speaker 3: who goes if you get it?

199
00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 2: How much you want? Five grand?

200
00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:47,400
Speaker 3: There was a label called Next Plateau. I called that

201
00:09:47,559 --> 00:09:50,480
Speaker 3: was seed Bank One more shot, and I nailed all

202
00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:54,880
Speaker 3: three records, So I made fifteen grand. Nobody knows. I'm

203
00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:57,160
Speaker 3: not telling my dad. I'm not telling anybody. I'm twenty

204
00:09:57,200 --> 00:09:59,319
Speaker 3: two years old. I'm making fifteen grand a week now,

205
00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:02,559
Speaker 3: so I'm making a name for myself. That PolyGram puts

206
00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:04,720
Speaker 3: me on retainer, not for a lot of money, for

207
00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:08,520
Speaker 3: like five hundreds a week, but I'm still getting those records.

208
00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:12,040
Speaker 4: By getting those records, Steve means that he would watch

209
00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,360
Speaker 4: the songs that Larry played during the peak hours on

210
00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:18,160
Speaker 4: Sunday morning, knowing that Frankie Crocker would likely add them

211
00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:22,200
Speaker 4: to regular rotation on bls that week, and then first

212
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,320
Speaker 4: thing Monday morning, he would call the labels behind each

213
00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:29,080
Speaker 4: song that Larry played and offer for a fee to

214
00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,800
Speaker 4: get those records in rotation, knowing full well that Frankie

215
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:37,360
Speaker 4: was about to do it. Anyways, Frankie he.

216
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,840
Speaker 3: Had two assistants, Delfina and Beth, and I'm like, just

217
00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:43,880
Speaker 3: tell Frankie every Saturday, I'm gonna go up to the garage.

218
00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:46,120
Speaker 3: I had a good run with that two three months

219
00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:50,880
Speaker 3: until I'm dropping off Popeye's Chicken to Frankie. It's a Thursday,

220
00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:53,600
Speaker 3: and I walk in and there's my father and uncle

221
00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,160
Speaker 3: and m and it's like a scene out of the Mafia.

222
00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:57,800
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what's up?

223
00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,360
Speaker 3: And my uncle has a temper and he slammed the

224
00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:02,679
Speaker 3: fucking a table and he's like, how long do you

225
00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:05,040
Speaker 3: think you could have done this without telling us? I'm like,

226
00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:07,440
Speaker 3: what do you mean? He goes, we know what you're doing.

227
00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:09,760
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, I didn't know I had to

228
00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:12,839
Speaker 3: tell you. And so Frankie's laughing and he said the

229
00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:14,960
Speaker 3: same thing, goes, man, you guys really think you're some

230
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:16,240
Speaker 3: mafia guys.

231
00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:19,040
Speaker 2: Frank He goes, when.

232
00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:22,480
Speaker 3: Did you realize I realized the first week, he goes, well,

233
00:11:22,640 --> 00:11:25,400
Speaker 3: how did you realize? I said, you was just staring

234
00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:28,160
Speaker 3: and listening and you weren't writing notes, but you were

235
00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,480
Speaker 3: like giving yourself a mental note and I just watched.

236
00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:34,520
Speaker 3: And then the next week you left me again. At

237
00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:37,760
Speaker 3: the same time, he goes, man, that's pretty brilliant you.

238
00:11:38,200 --> 00:11:40,240
Speaker 3: So my uncle says, well, how much did you make?

239
00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:42,440
Speaker 3: I said I was making around fifteen to twenty grand

240
00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:44,679
Speaker 3: a week, and they said, well, you got to give

241
00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:46,800
Speaker 3: us a piece. And I was like, you're out of

242
00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,160
Speaker 3: your fucking mind, like you're not getting a piece. I

243
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:51,960
Speaker 3: didn't give him a piece, but you know, we definitely

244
00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:54,600
Speaker 3: had words, and I mean after money was going up

245
00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:55,280
Speaker 3: my nose anyway.

246
00:11:55,360 --> 00:12:03,679
Speaker 4: In those days, will Steve played fast and loose, rich

247
00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:05,800
Speaker 4: walked a straight and narrow when it came to his career.

248
00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:07,959
Speaker 1: When I decided to go to law school, it was

249
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,480
Speaker 1: more like, Okay, I need to have a profession, you know,

250
00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:12,920
Speaker 1: I need to have some kind of security in life.

251
00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:15,920
Speaker 1: I was always more of a realist than I was

252
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,720
Speaker 1: a good student, and I figured this is a career

253
00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:20,440
Speaker 1: path for me, and it gives me a bunch of

254
00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:22,720
Speaker 1: opportunities to do different things. I went to an Ivy

255
00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,559
Speaker 1: League law school, I had student loans, I had debt.

256
00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:27,520
Speaker 1: Come out of law school, I worked for a big

257
00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:29,839
Speaker 1: corporate law firm. You know, I think I'm at the

258
00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:32,760
Speaker 1: pinnacle of the success that I was trying to achieve

259
00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,400
Speaker 1: as a kid. Making one hundred grand at the time,

260
00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:37,760
Speaker 1: which was in the eighties, I thought I was like rich,

261
00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,200
Speaker 1: and I think I've made it. And every day it

262
00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,040
Speaker 1: was just it was like being a professional student. You

263
00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:45,440
Speaker 1: have a homework assignment every night. You're never done and

264
00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,200
Speaker 1: it never stops. And I was working, you know, seventy

265
00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:51,160
Speaker 1: five eighty hours a week, writing briefs, doing research in

266
00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,440
Speaker 1: the library on the weekend. It was just awful. I'm

267
00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:56,840
Speaker 1: doing that. I have an apartment on the Upper West Side,

268
00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,280
Speaker 1: thinking it's the coolest thing in the world, even though

269
00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:02,359
Speaker 1: I hate my job. And Steve's now in LA.

270
00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:07,480
Speaker 4: Steve wasn't in La by happenstays. He and Fred Hiram

271
00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:09,560
Speaker 4: Hicks had gotten win at Mega R and b act

272
00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:12,640
Speaker 4: New Audition. We're in the market for new management, so

273
00:13:12,640 --> 00:13:16,320
Speaker 4: Steve moved to LA to cement a relationship with Mike, Ronnie, Ricky,

274
00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:18,679
Speaker 4: Johnny and Ralph I.

275
00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:20,280
Speaker 3: Decided I'm going to go out to LA for the

276
00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,440
Speaker 3: summer to just get closer to that. They love playing ball.

277
00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:25,480
Speaker 3: I love playing ball, and that's how I ended up

278
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:27,560
Speaker 3: in La. It's surely because a new addition. My best

279
00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:29,760
Speaker 3: friend was an actor and he was on a show

280
00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,079
Speaker 3: called Teditor Class. I moved into Brian's living room for

281
00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:36,080
Speaker 3: the sammer. One of the girls on the show lived

282
00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:39,120
Speaker 3: right above him, and I fall in love for the

283
00:13:39,160 --> 00:13:41,480
Speaker 3: first time, and I said, you know what, I'm moving

284
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,480
Speaker 3: So new audition that last around a year and a half.

285
00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:48,720
Speaker 3: The Stephen Rifkin Company just went into high gear quickly.

286
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:56,360
Speaker 4: While on the road working records, Steve had built relationships

287
00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,880
Speaker 4: with many college radio DJs and stations across the country.

288
00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:03,360
Speaker 4: He'd leveraged those relationships into the launch of SRC, the

289
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:06,960
Speaker 4: Steve Rifkin Company, his street marketing and radio promotion outfit.

290
00:14:07,559 --> 00:14:09,920
Speaker 4: As hip hop continued to grow, so too did the

291
00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,600
Speaker 4: opportunities to market it. And with access to the most

292
00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:15,640
Speaker 4: powerful college radio taste makers, Rifkin was able to break

293
00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:18,240
Speaker 4: records in local markets and charge labels handsomely.

294
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:22,320
Speaker 1: To do so, he used to come to New York

295
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,800
Speaker 1: to dum up business for his company. Because most of

296
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:27,720
Speaker 1: the labels were still in New York, and he'd sleep

297
00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,680
Speaker 1: on my couch and I'd do my law job, and

298
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000
Speaker 1: he'd go do what he did. I even really didn't

299
00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,160
Speaker 1: know what he was doing. And then at night we'd

300
00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:37,360
Speaker 1: meet up and he'd tell me what's going on, and

301
00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,360
Speaker 1: I would just be like, holy shit, what a cool

302
00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:41,120
Speaker 1: job he has. You know, the.

303
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,480
Speaker 4: Coolness of his job was not lost on Steve either.

304
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:45,960
Speaker 4: In fact, it was so cool that it bred a

305
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:48,600
Speaker 4: bit of complacency and tempered his ambitions.

306
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:51,280
Speaker 3: I got a name of Jerry Aid, who owned a

307
00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:55,000
Speaker 3: big talent agency. They were the premiere like urban agency. Goes,

308
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:56,520
Speaker 3: you need your own label, and I'm like, Jerry, I

309
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:57,520
Speaker 3: don't want my own label.

310
00:14:57,560 --> 00:14:59,360
Speaker 2: He was, why not? I said, I'm doing good.

311
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,280
Speaker 3: I'm making a few hundred thousand dollars a year.

312
00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:01,760
Speaker 2: I'm done.

313
00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:03,600
Speaker 3: At four o'clock. I go to the park and played well.

314
00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:05,200
Speaker 3: From five to seven a show. I go back to

315
00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,440
Speaker 3: your office. From eight to ten, I go home. I

316
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,560
Speaker 3: really don't have pressure. Goes, will you please meet Paul Marshall.

317
00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,320
Speaker 3: I go I know Paul, that's my dad's attorney. He goes,

318
00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,200
Speaker 3: Please Stephen, He says, I can get you this crazy deal,

319
00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:19,480
Speaker 3: this that or whatever. I figured I was going to

320
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:21,520
Speaker 3: just try and do everything myself. I had the money,

321
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:24,840
Speaker 3: and then the second I walk into Rich's apartment, my

322
00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 3: father calls. He goes, get to the house immediately, and

323
00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:30,120
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think to myself, what the fuck did

324
00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:32,000
Speaker 3: I do now? He goes, I heard you just turned

325
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,080
Speaker 3: down a label deal. I said, nobody will ever mean anything.

326
00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:36,680
Speaker 3: Your lawyers said you could get me a label deal.

327
00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:38,120
Speaker 3: I said, I know if I want one, I said,

328
00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,440
Speaker 3: I'm doing good. I'm making two three hundred thousand a year.

329
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:46,400
Speaker 4: But Jules saw the bigger picture and made sure that

330
00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:47,280
Speaker 4: Steve did too.

331
00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:49,360
Speaker 3: He goes, I know you don't listen to me, and

332
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,480
Speaker 3: I know you think you have every answer. What you're

333
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:53,680
Speaker 3: in is the service business. You're only as good as

334
00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:57,080
Speaker 3: your last contract. If you start a record company, you'll

335
00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,640
Speaker 3: be in the asset business and you'll be making money

336
00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:02,960
Speaker 3: when you league. So I spend a night, called up Paul.

337
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:04,840
Speaker 3: In the morning, I said, I'm ready to get a deal.

338
00:16:05,560 --> 00:16:07,480
Speaker 3: You guys, there are two places where I want to send.

339
00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:07,600
Speaker 4: You.

340
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,080
Speaker 3: Got the name of Irving days Off, who just started

341
00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,080
Speaker 3: Giant Records, and I got the name of Lumla. BMG

342
00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,680
Speaker 3: just gave me like twenty million dollars to start like

343
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,400
Speaker 3: the third major inside the BMG, I said, Irving is

344
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:21,200
Speaker 3: my first choice. And I didn't really know Irving, and

345
00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:24,119
Speaker 3: I was nervous, and I went there wearing a shirt

346
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:26,560
Speaker 3: tie and he said we have a deal, and it

347
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:28,560
Speaker 3: says next time I see like, I don't want you

348
00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,680
Speaker 3: wearing a tie like be you. So I thought we

349
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:33,880
Speaker 3: were doing this deal with Giant. So I'm like, all right,

350
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:35,600
Speaker 3: we got to come with a name that goes with Giant.

351
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:39,160
Speaker 3: Fate said Loud listening to the Urban Dialect.

352
00:16:39,560 --> 00:16:42,280
Speaker 1: The name Loud is an acronym for the listeners of

353
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:46,760
Speaker 1: an urban dialect, was created by Fabian Duruiney, who was

354
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:48,480
Speaker 1: Steve's like right hand man at the time.

355
00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:51,800
Speaker 4: Despite the handshake deal with Irving, had a perfect label

356
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,880
Speaker 4: name in Loud. Before the ink could dry. President of

357
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 4: Giant Records, Charlie Minor, would intervene and derail the negotiations.

358
00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:02,000
Speaker 2: So Charlie I let him rest in peace was the

359
00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:03,000
Speaker 2: president of Giant.

360
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,639
Speaker 3: Charlie didn't really want to be in the hip hop gang,

361
00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:07,680
Speaker 3: so we ended up at Zoo.

362
00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:10,840
Speaker 4: Although it wasn't his first choice. Steve did the label

363
00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,879
Speaker 4: deal with Zoo Records and began the process of building loud.

364
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,480
Speaker 3: Rich was miserable being a lawyer. He was like working

365
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:18,280
Speaker 3: in a closet and he was working from like seven

366
00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:20,280
Speaker 3: in the morning to like midnight, you know, and he

367
00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:22,800
Speaker 3: was miserable. And I said, Rich, why didn't you come

368
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,160
Speaker 3: here and work with me? You know, I need structure.

369
00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,000
Speaker 1: He said, dude, I got a label deal. This is happening.

370
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:30,679
Speaker 1: You're ready to come into business with me. I'm like,

371
00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,120
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? You know. He goes look

372
00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:34,760
Speaker 1: and he shows me a piece of paper. You know,

373
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,680
Speaker 1: it's like some deal memo. So I'm like, holy shit,

374
00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:40,600
Speaker 1: is this real? You know, it looks like it's real.

375
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:43,680
Speaker 1: He convinces me to come out to LA for two

376
00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,840
Speaker 1: weeks for my vacation from my law job. So I

377
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:50,719
Speaker 1: went out there. He picks me up in a BMW.

378
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:54,000
Speaker 1: We go to dinner at some cool place in Beverly

379
00:17:54,080 --> 00:17:57,480
Speaker 1: Hills or whatever. The girls are beautiful places pop and

380
00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,240
Speaker 1: then we go to some studio there's some new girl

381
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,760
Speaker 1: group that's doing dance rehearsals. And out of my head

382
00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:08,320
Speaker 1: spinning like this is ridiculous, we go back to his apartment.

383
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:10,960
Speaker 1: He has a two bedroom duplex. I'm sitting on the

384
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,320
Speaker 1: couch and he goes, how is your first day? I go,

385
00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:15,159
Speaker 1: what do you mean first day? He goes, we just

386
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,680
Speaker 1: worked like the last six hours. They go, that's not work.

387
00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:19,840
Speaker 1: We went for dinner and we checked out a studio. Goes, dude,

388
00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:21,120
Speaker 1: that's work. That's what we did.

389
00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:28,880
Speaker 4: The LAUD was still barely just more than a name.

390
00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:32,440
Speaker 4: SRC was doing independent radio promotion for all the majors

391
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:36,040
Speaker 4: working records across the industry, including those of One Legend

392
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:40,000
Speaker 4: in particular. More importantly, though, Steve's marketing company was paying

393
00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:41,600
Speaker 4: the bills to fund LOUD.

394
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:45,360
Speaker 3: At the time, and Scius to work in rspending with Tupac.

395
00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:49,639
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is crazy. I get totally sucked into this,

396
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:51,480
Speaker 1: you know. And then the next two weeks I would

397
00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:53,560
Speaker 1: just go to meetings with him, hang out, watch what

398
00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:57,120
Speaker 1: was going on, and he's introducing me to people as

399
00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,480
Speaker 1: his general manager, and I'm like, okay, Steve. Whatever in

400
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,080
Speaker 1: my eyes were like when I get back home, I

401
00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,720
Speaker 1: think it was like January. It's New York, dark, depressing,

402
00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,440
Speaker 1: my shitty little apartment facing the alley in my cubicle office,

403
00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:12,679
Speaker 1: and I'm going, why do I live like this? Like

404
00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,200
Speaker 1: what is wrong with you? You know, like what kind

405
00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:17,520
Speaker 1: of life is this? I could be there. He's like

406
00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:19,480
Speaker 1: on me. He's like, dude, you got to do this.

407
00:19:19,480 --> 00:19:22,520
Speaker 1: This is happening. So I figured out to like the

408
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: dime how much I needed to pay my student loans

409
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,840
Speaker 1: to pay an apartment in LA. I said, give me

410
00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:30,240
Speaker 1: fifty two thousand dollars and a piece of the company

411
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:35,119
Speaker 1: and I'll do it. He goes, no problem. So now

412
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,240
Speaker 1: I have to tell my parents. I was really worried

413
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,879
Speaker 1: to tell my dad. Surprisingly, my father, who was like

414
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:45,000
Speaker 1: a really blue collar guy, he was so thrilled that

415
00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,800
Speaker 1: his son was a lawyer. And he goes, you know what,

416
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:49,879
Speaker 1: if you're not happy, just go for it, you know,

417
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:52,159
Speaker 1: so I don't worry about you. You'll be fine. So

418
00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:55,160
Speaker 1: that really gave me confidence to just give it a shot,

419
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:57,120
Speaker 1: because that was the last thing I was expecting him

420
00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,320
Speaker 1: to say. So I gave notice at my law firm,

421
00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:02,760
Speaker 1: and I packed up and I went out to LA.

422
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,639
Speaker 4: However, when Rich touched down, he would quickly learn that

423
00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,960
Speaker 4: Steve's situation in La wasn't exactly as it seemed.

424
00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:16,680
Speaker 3: So he comes in on a Tuesday and Wednesday and

425
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,119
Speaker 3: we're having meetings. So that weekend Prim is having a

426
00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,439
Speaker 3: dinner at this restaurant Clote Gang is Con It's a

427
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,440
Speaker 3: Chinese restaurant in Fairfax. And I had a BMW three

428
00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 3: twenty five and I give the car to the valet.

429
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 2: His foot must have gotten stuck. The car goes in

430
00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:32,919
Speaker 2: reverse on Fairfax.

431
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 3: Lucky, how nobody dies, crosses over the divide a, swings

432
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 3: ran and returned back, going back into a gas station.

433
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,040
Speaker 2: What the fuck? And the car gets totaled. This is

434
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:45,720
Speaker 2: Rich's first few days.

435
00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 3: I was like, this really can't be a good luck

436
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,960
Speaker 3: And then that Monday, I get the clote from Minutescope

437
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:50,720
Speaker 3: that they're letting.

438
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,359
Speaker 1: Us go Interscope was paying him a lot of money

439
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:55,560
Speaker 1: and then they decided they're going to start their own

440
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:58,680
Speaker 1: wrap division, so they stopped paying him, and he was

441
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,600
Speaker 1: using that money to pay me. So I'm like shit.

442
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,119
Speaker 4: With s RC's income influx, Rich rolled up his sleeves

443
00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:10,919
Speaker 4: and immediately started trying to sort out Steve's businesses.

444
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,479
Speaker 1: The first week, I went to Steve's accountant's office and

445
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 1: I said, show me the books. I didn't even know

446
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,280
Speaker 1: what that meant. It sounded like, you know something you're

447
00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:21,359
Speaker 1: supposed to do when you're in business. They hand me

448
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,120
Speaker 1: this accordion file. Then I open it up and it's

449
00:21:24,119 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 1: just a bunch of bills that were unpaid. So I

450
00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 1: take out a legal pad and a pen and I

451
00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:32,480
Speaker 1: start writing down a list of all the bills and

452
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, where's the money coming in? You know

453
00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:38,840
Speaker 1: that much? I knew. Then they showed me this tiny

454
00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,639
Speaker 1: little book with a couple of outstanding invoices, and I

455
00:21:41,680 --> 00:21:43,760
Speaker 1: write that down and I look. I go, wait, I

456
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,920
Speaker 1: don't understand something. I go, he owes all these people

457
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,639
Speaker 1: money and he only has this much coming in. And

458
00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,000
Speaker 1: the accountant goes, well, what do you mean? What don't

459
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,119
Speaker 1: you understand? And I was like, holy shit, what have

460
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:56,200
Speaker 1: I gotten myself into?

461
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:59,439
Speaker 4: Things looked a little bleak. But while Rich was fixing

462
00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:02,639
Speaker 4: the finance, Steve was in the street sourcing talent, and

463
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:05,879
Speaker 4: through his SRC Street Team network, he would find Loud's

464
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 4: first act, a fast wrapping MC from Chicago who would

465
00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:10,520
Speaker 4: go on to become a legend.

466
00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 1: Steve had one artist signed, and it was Tongue Twister,

467
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,000
Speaker 1: who later became Twista so Loud Records at that time

468
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:22,879
Speaker 1: was one twelve inch, wasn't even an album yet. A

469
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,399
Speaker 1: first record was called No Peace Sign. Our deal with

470
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 1: Zoo at the time was they don't have to spend

471
00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 1: any marketing money until we sell fifty thousand albums. So

472
00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,560
Speaker 1: fifty thousand albums, there's a lot of albums just to

473
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: sell on its own, you know. So again, well, probably

474
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,240
Speaker 1: when Steve made the deal, he wasn't thinking about how's

475
00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:43,680
Speaker 1: this going to work? And I didn't make that deal,

476
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:45,720
Speaker 1: and if I did, I wouldn't have known any better

477
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 1: at the time.

478
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,320
Speaker 4: Anyway, in order to stay solvent as a business, Loud

479
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 4: needed to unlock that marketing money, so Steve and Rich

480
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:54,960
Speaker 4: went all in on breaking tongue Twister, known for his

481
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,639
Speaker 4: lightning fast wraps. The two applied to get Twisted in

482
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 4: the Guinness Book of World Records as the faster Rapper Alive,

483
00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 4: and believe it or not, they managed to pull off

484
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:07,760
Speaker 4: the extremely cheap but priceless marketing stunt live on YOUOMTV raps,

485
00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,840
Speaker 4: making their sole artist in overnight celebrity.

486
00:23:11,280 --> 00:23:15,679
Speaker 1: We miraculously sell fifty thousand albums without any money. You know.

487
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 1: We got him on in the Guinness Book of Records.

488
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 1: He breaks Daddy Freddy's record on Yo MTV raps. We

489
00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 1: got him on Power one oh six. It's pretty miraculous.

490
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,080
Speaker 1: The head buyer for Warehouse Records, which is a big

491
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 1: music chain on the West Coast, was this woman Violet Brown,

492
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 1: who is an unsung hero in hip hop. Violet was

493
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:38,480
Speaker 1: one of the early believers in hip hop music as

494
00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:43,440
Speaker 1: a lasting genre, and she was super powerful because her

495
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:46,960
Speaker 1: blessing and her buying a record, putting music in the

496
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,680
Speaker 1: stores was the only way to give an artist a chance.

497
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: Violet was based in la and she was tuned into

498
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: what we were doing. So Violet placed a huge order

499
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: for Tongue Twister, and I remember the head of sales

500
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,399
Speaker 1: for Zoo, this woman Jane Simon Rest in Peace, lovely lady.

501
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 1: She called me up and she's like, you're not gonna

502
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: believe this. Dyla Brown just ordered twenty five thousand. We

503
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,159
Speaker 1: have fifty thousand orders for Tongue Twisted, and I'm like,

504
00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:12,840
Speaker 1: holy shit, hang up the phone. I go into Steve's

505
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:14,959
Speaker 1: office like we just won the world series, you know,

506
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,560
Speaker 1: like we've been working on this for a year, and

507
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: we get to this magic fifty thousand unit threshold. Now

508
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,399
Speaker 1: we can go into Lou Malley's office and make some demands,

509
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: you know, like we can get some marketing money and

510
00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:28,160
Speaker 1: really do our thing.

511
00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:30,120
Speaker 2: So we hit the threshold.

512
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,200
Speaker 3: Lou clolls us well, high fiving each other like we're good,

513
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 3: you know, like we're get to see a few hundred

514
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,400
Speaker 3: thousand dollars in marketing. And he says, guys, I got

515
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 3: some bad news.

516
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: He goes, listen, guys, I gotta tell you I just

517
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: started this company. I'm already minus seventeen million for the year.

518
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 1: The Germans are killing me. Because that's what he used

519
00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 1: to call BMG, the Germans. They were the corporate owners.

520
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:57,359
Speaker 1: He's like, they're killing me. He goes, I don't have

521
00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: an urban staff. I don't know what to do with

522
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:00,959
Speaker 1: these records. I'm just going to let you go.

523
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:04,160
Speaker 3: He says, I run out of money, and they're closing

524
00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:07,440
Speaker 3: Zoo at the end of the year, and we're living

525
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 3: off of richest credit cards right the second, and I

526
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 3: think Rich is having an anxiety attack.

527
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 1: I am ready to jump off a building at that point.

528
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 4: While the loss of the deal with Zoo was gutting

529
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 4: for both Rich and Steve, it also presented a new opportunity.

530
00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 4: They were now free agents with a modest hit record

531
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 4: under their bill, so they headed to the Jack the

532
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 4: Rapper convention in Atlanta in search of a new home

533
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:29,879
Speaker 4: for Loud.

534
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: We go to Atlanta for Jack the Rapper, which is

535
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,119
Speaker 1: a big convention. Back then, this very important lawyer, Joel Katz.

536
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: If we go to meet with him, he's based in Atlanta.

537
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 1: Joel says, you know what's going on? Tell me a story,

538
00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 1: and Steven tells him, you know, we just lost our deal.

539
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: And Joel says, hey, do you know who Ron Urban is?

540
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 1: Ron is the CEO of RCAA Records. He's working out

541
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 1: of my office. He's here in town. You guys should meet.

542
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,320
Speaker 1: So Steve goes for drinks with Ron Urban that night.

543
00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:58,359
Speaker 3: He goes, all right, so this is going to be

544
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:01,399
Speaker 3: the deal. I'm going to give you five ten thousand

545
00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 3: a month, her budgets to seventy five thousand for our albums,

546
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,679
Speaker 3: and then you guys have funds for single deals, and

547
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,439
Speaker 3: then we're going to pay you a fifteen thousand a

548
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 3: quarter to promote our recond So.

549
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:14,720
Speaker 1: We went from three thousand dollars a month and overhead

550
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: to five thousand dollars a month, which was holy cow,

551
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 1: and RCA was going to give us a thirty thousand

552
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: dollars quarterly marketing fund to do whatever we wanted. So

553
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, wow, okay, this is a big stump up.

554
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: You know, we're in the major leagues. It's RCA. We're

555
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:36,760
Speaker 1: getting one hundred and twenty thousand in marketing, our overhead

556
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 1: sixty thousand. Now I'm like, okay, we're in business. So

557
00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:43,679
Speaker 1: Steve really pulled a rabbit out of his ass to

558
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,760
Speaker 1: make this happen. So we signed the Alcoholics, and the

559
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: Alcoholics debuted number seventeen on the R and B album chart,

560
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 1: and RCA hadn't had an R and B album chart

561
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:01,240
Speaker 1: in years, So we are being celebrated, like who are

562
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,280
Speaker 1: these guys? You know, all of a sudden, we are

563
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: like these two guys walking around the building too. Oh

564
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: I got I gotta have a relationship with Stephen Rich

565
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 1: because of the Alcoholics.

566
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,680
Speaker 4: The success of the Alcoholics put LOUD on the map

567
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:17,400
Speaker 4: and Steve and Rich were the new darlings at RCA.

568
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,280
Speaker 4: Not only were they signing artists and charting records, but

569
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 4: they were also handling radio promotion for their parent company,

570
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 4: Loud was finally starting to experience a real momentum, and

571
00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 4: this was just the beginning. Meanwhile, in Staten Island, a

572
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 4: hip hop of Systeen was forging connections that would make

573
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,560
Speaker 4: both him and his network of new friends extremely consequential

574
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:39,359
Speaker 4: characters in the Loud story.

575
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,160
Speaker 5: I'm from Staaten Island, so from Chatland around that time,

576
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 5: I was one of the few brothers to get off

577
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,119
Speaker 5: the island and then go away to school.

578
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,480
Speaker 4: This is Scott Free eventual A and R at Loud Records.

579
00:27:53,680 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 4: At this point, though, he was just an aspiring rapper

580
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:59,160
Speaker 4: from Staten Island in a group called the Legion of Doom.

581
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,560
Speaker 4: This would lead him to befriending other local MC's, including

582
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 4: a buddy star from an adjacent neighborhood named Prince Rakeem

583
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 4: better known to the world as the Rizza.

584
00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 5: Rizza was one of the one of the cats that

585
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 5: every now and then we get off the island, you know,

586
00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:16,360
Speaker 5: we take trips to Bronx River, we go to Brooklyn

587
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,040
Speaker 5: and we look for records stuff like that. I think

588
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:20,959
Speaker 5: he had a crib with ghosts. Him and Ghosts had

589
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,880
Speaker 5: a spot Stapleton. But you know, unlike the rest of us,

590
00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:28,240
Speaker 5: Rizz was pretty much living on his own, you know, hustling,

591
00:28:28,320 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 5: but he had he had the equipment, you know what

592
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 5: I mean. I went to University of Maryland, College Parking,

593
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:36,160
Speaker 5: continue my hip hop education however you want to put

594
00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 5: it down there. But you know, I still stayed in

595
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:40,920
Speaker 5: touch with my boys from from the Island.

596
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 4: Well Scott attended University of Maryland. He would make frequent

597
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,920
Speaker 4: trips with his friends to nearby Howard University. One weekend,

598
00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 4: the Rizza, then signed to Tommy Boy Records as Prince

599
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 4: Rakeem decided to join them.

600
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 5: Rakeem had come down for the Howard Hip Hop Festival

601
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 5: and me and the cru since we were down there

602
00:28:57,560 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 5: and we scooped them out from the am track that

603
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 5: someone whatever that was, he had dropped sexicapaides and Ooh

604
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 5: we love you Rakim, Ooh we love you. Rakim had

605
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 5: had a video Sessica page was like on the B side.

606
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 5: I could see what he was trying to do, you

607
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 5: know what I mean. He was trying to peel a

608
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 5: little bit more outside of the box or whatever. But

609
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,200
Speaker 5: it wasn't really what I was used to hearing from him.

610
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 5: What he was doing, you know, on a regular and

611
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,480
Speaker 5: you know what I was later on started to hear

612
00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 5: you know from him and his crew.

613
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,480
Speaker 4: While riz ahone did on his sound Howard Homecoming would

614
00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 4: introduce Scott to another main character in the Loud story,

615
00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 4: Maddie C, a young writer at the Source magazine. Maddy

616
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 4: penned the famed Unsigned Hype column, which would put a

617
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 4: spotlight on and ignite the careers of artists like Notorious,

618
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 4: Big Common and Mob Deep.

619
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,160
Speaker 6: So Scott Free at the time was in MC and

620
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 6: he was bringing me his demo material. We met in

621
00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 6: college through mutual friends, and so he started coming up

622
00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 6: to the Source a lot.

623
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 4: This is Matti C, future director of A and R

624
00:29:57,880 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 4: at Loud.

625
00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 6: First playing me demos by his group the Legion of Doom,

626
00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 6: and then a couple of other things from Staten Island.

627
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 6: Mainly he knew Rizza and had been to his crib

628
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 6: as just another Staten Island MC that was coming through

629
00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 6: to possibly record share music. And the first thing that

630
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 6: Scott let me hear was a song called Rugged and

631
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 6: Raw when the WU was just Rizza, Jizza and ODB

632
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 6: and it was just them three on the song.

633
00:30:23,960 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 5: This record was phenomenal to this, you know, to this day,

634
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 5: I still try to sometimes go through my tapes to

635
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 5: see if that record pops up right.

636
00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:32,720
Speaker 1: You know, it's old dirties.

637
00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 5: It's like it's rugged in roll, it's ruggoed in roll.

638
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 5: Then he comes in fook a fuck a fuck a

639
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 5: fuck of Foo from out of the Blue, first number two.

640
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 5: Theygas won a step to the Wu Tank, you know

641
00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 5: what I mean, Dirty had that whole that whole steeze

642
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 5: down pad at that.

643
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:53,040
Speaker 6: Point, and then a couple other people started showing up

644
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:55,240
Speaker 6: at my office talking to me about Wu Tang just

645
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:56,360
Speaker 6: kind of beat this buzz.

646
00:30:56,880 --> 00:31:00,040
Speaker 5: Wizza had blessed me with the protective next single and

647
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 5: was like, yo, yo, take this up to your boys

648
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 5: up there. Let them hear you know what we're working on.

649
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 5: So I took the joint to Matt. He would do

650
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 5: a write up on whatever new twelve inches were coming

651
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,880
Speaker 5: out at the time. That became the first, I think

652
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,920
Speaker 5: independent twelve inch to be profiled in the Source.

653
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,200
Speaker 6: The guys started coming up to the office to source

654
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 6: Rizza a Meth, all of them. Rizza would be the

655
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 6: main one who would come up as well as Meth

656
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 6: and just kind of play music, listen to music and

657
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 6: talk about the planet and we go into the stairway

658
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,680
Speaker 6: smoke weed, and he would talk about his plan to

659
00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:40,600
Speaker 6: get individual deals for each of these artists before I

660
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 6: think there was an actual plan for the whole group

661
00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 6: per se, you know, in place, and at this time

662
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 6: was when he was envisioning this all as an independent thing.

663
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 4: Matty's right up on Protecting Neck in the source of

664
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 4: shureshot single column, legitimize the record and put the very local,

665
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 4: very independent group in front of a national audience. With

666
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 4: Wu Tang gaining serious buzz. It wasn't long until the

667
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 4: track landed on the radar of Steve and Rich.

668
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:14,400
Speaker 1: We had a guy that worked for us named Trevor Williams,

669
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: one of our LA based guys who called the college

670
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 1: radio and he used to talk to this DJ named

671
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,320
Speaker 1: Jason Stateon. He's a college radio DJ, and Jason, just

672
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: as a hip hop fan, sent protect Your Neck and

673
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:30,320
Speaker 1: he flipped and he sent Trevor the viron. I'm like, dude,

674
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: you got to hear this record.

675
00:32:31,680 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 3: So trev gives me the record. I just quit smoking

676
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 3: like a week ago. I'm just like, I'm losing my mind.

677
00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 3: I go, there's no fucking hook to this song. Trevor

678
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 3: goes is the biggest record in the world.

679
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: Trevor plays it in the office just as you got

680
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 1: to hear this crazy shit, and everybody's like, WHOA, what

681
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 1: is that? Steve hears it, he what is that? We

682
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: make some calls, He makes some calls. Everybody's trying to

683
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 1: find out what the deal is in Wu Tang and

684
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:55,720
Speaker 1: Steve tracks down Rizza.

685
00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 3: So this is in January. I'm trying to get in

686
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 3: touch with Rizza. I've spoke to him once, but he

687
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 3: has no answering machine. I go to New York for

688
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 3: my thirty first birthday. I'm at RCA. The reception goes

689
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 3: print trak hemans here. I'm like really, and he comes up.

690
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,000
Speaker 3: He goes, the guys are downstairs, can we come up

691
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 3: and played the record? They come up, there's eight of them,

692
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 3: and the officers just picture what a guest office looks like.

693
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 2: It's a closet, and they stop performing the record. Some

694
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 2: guy comes.

695
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 3: Barging in and says, that's that shit, and I never

696
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,479
Speaker 3: seen him again. I signed not because I loved the record,

697
00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 3: I love the energy. Whatever that fucking guy was. And

698
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,080
Speaker 3: Trevor beating the fuck out of me. He's saying that's

699
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 3: that shit we start negotiating.

700
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:38,120
Speaker 1: Rizzi was kind of jaded in the music business because

701
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: he had a bad experience with Tommy Boy when he

702
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: put out his own record. So he decided, I'm going

703
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: to do this myself. You know, I guess he liked us,

704
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 1: felt secure enough to do this deal with us, and

705
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,520
Speaker 1: we said, look, this is all we can offer you.

706
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: You know, we're with the RCA. So we made a deal.

707
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 1: We get Protection Act at B side and the video

708
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 1: for Protecting Act for ten thousand dollars and eighteen boys,

709
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 1: and then if we sell fifty thousand units of the single,

710
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: we have to put out an album. We have to

711
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 1: give them the money to make an album. That was

712
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 1: the deal. Rizza said, Okay, I'll do it. One caveat,

713
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: Rizza said, he'll do the deal if he's allowed to

714
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:14,759
Speaker 1: shop the solo artist. I have to be able to

715
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: take the guys to different labels.

716
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 4: So the guys had a deal, or so they thought. Unfortunately,

717
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,320
Speaker 4: Rizzus one caveat was a much bigger ask that either

718
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:26,879
Speaker 4: Steve or Rich had anticipated.

719
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:31,399
Speaker 6: There's this inherent small print in every record deal when

720
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 6: you sign a group that if any of you guys

721
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:34,280
Speaker 6: go solo.

722
00:34:34,760 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: That stays with us.

723
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 4: So the idea that Rizza saw this guy Steve.

724
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 6: Rifkin as like, oh, you're gonna give me a deal

725
00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,600
Speaker 6: and we can go solo because that's unheard of, And

726
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,719
Speaker 6: so I think Steve didn't really know.

727
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:51,319
Speaker 1: That that was unheard of. So we go to RCA

728
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:53,760
Speaker 1: Business Affairs and say this is the terms they want,

729
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: this little caveat that they could sign the artists to

730
00:34:56,560 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: other labels, and they go no, no, no, no, no, not happening,

731
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: Like what do you mean? You know, there is the

732
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 1: thing in the music industry that standard called a leaving

733
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 1: member provision whatever. We could get this band for ten

734
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a song selling like not happening. We can't

735
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 1: change this precedent. This has been going on in the

736
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,640
Speaker 1: music industry forever. So from somebody who wasn't in the

737
00:35:15,719 --> 00:35:18,319
Speaker 1: music business to me, I'm like, this makes no sense.

738
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 1: Of course, Steve's apoplectic about this as well. How are

739
00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:24,160
Speaker 1: we going to not keep this band? And they kind

740
00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: of business affairs at RCAA, who was kind of like

741
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: a rabbi to me, this guy Rogers Skelton, Roger said

742
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:31,239
Speaker 1: I'll help you out. I'm going to come up with

743
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: a solution. So he goes and talks to his bosses

744
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 1: and he comes back and he says, Okay, here's what

745
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: we'll agree to do. If they agree that we have

746
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: a matching right to any offer that they get, and

747
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 1: if we match that offer, they have to stay with

748
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,239
Speaker 1: RCA loud so Rizza says fine, And so that was

749
00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: a great solution that had never been done before, believe

750
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:51,720
Speaker 1: it or not, in the history of the music business.

751
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,320
Speaker 4: Rich got the Wu Tang deal across the finish line,

752
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,200
Speaker 4: but in the process made a costly oversight by giving

753
00:35:57,239 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 4: Wu Tang Clan and astounding eighteen points.

754
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:05,960
Speaker 1: Steve's unbelievably good at relationships, drumming up business marketing himself,

755
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: connecting the right people, finding the right people, but no

756
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: clue as to the business side of things, and that

757
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,759
Speaker 1: was why he brought me in. Little did he know

758
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: that I didn't know anything. For instance, when we signed

759
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,320
Speaker 1: Wu Tang Clan, you know, I knew what our agreement

760
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 1: was at the time. I think we got fifteen points

761
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: for a single from RCA and I did the deal.

762
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:28,840
Speaker 1: You know, at that time, I thought I was learning

763
00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:30,960
Speaker 1: something and we had no money to pay a lawyer

764
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:34,680
Speaker 1: even so I was like, okay, I'll get a form.

765
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: I'll read the Donald Passman book. And I had a

766
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,319
Speaker 1: couple of friends that were lawyers in the business. At

767
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: that point, I said, can you send me a production

768
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:44,719
Speaker 1: deal form? So I kind of cut and paste a

769
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 1: production deal and stupidly, I ended up giving Wu Tang

770
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:53,040
Speaker 1: eighteen points for each single that they sold, and we

771
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 1: only were getting fifteen points. It didn't dawn on me

772
00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: to look until Wu Tang started selling. I remember I

773
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 1: looked at the contract that I drafted, and then I

774
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:05,759
Speaker 1: looked at the contract we had with RCA, and I

775
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: was like, holy shit, what an idiot. We're losing money

776
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 1: every time we sell a record. And I went to

777
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,359
Speaker 1: the head of business affairs at RCA and I told

778
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 1: him what I had done, and he's like, don't worry

779
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: about it. You know, we'll fix it. Because they were

780
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 1: making so much money, it was negligible and he took

781
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:21,800
Speaker 1: care of made it.

782
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,560
Speaker 4: In fact, the single for Protecting It, backed with method Man,

783
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 4: was selling so well the group's members started fielding solo

784
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:35,720
Speaker 4: offers long before Wu Tang's debut album Ever hit shows. Still,

785
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 4: despite all that buzz, the group couldn't get the attention

786
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 4: of RCA's top brass.

787
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: By the time we closed our Wu Tang deal, now

788
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,160
Speaker 1: def Jam offered method Man one hundred and eighty grand.

789
00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 1: We go to RCA and said, we're gonna lose nothing, man,

790
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 1: you got to give us one hundred and eighty grand,

791
00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 1: and they're looking at us like you're crazy. We're not

792
00:37:52,560 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: giving you one hundred and eighty grand for this unknown

793
00:37:55,760 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 1: hip hop gun. We'd sit around the table at RCA

794
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: and all the guys that were running the department's great people,

795
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,600
Speaker 1: great executives, but they all came from Nashville. The president

796
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 1: of the company was from RCA Nashville. The head of

797
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:10,239
Speaker 1: marketing was from RCA, Nashville. The head of sales was

798
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:13,959
Speaker 1: from RCA, Nashville. So they're like guys doing country music

799
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:17,040
Speaker 1: who are now running a major label in New York

800
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,080
Speaker 1: and we're coming to them with hip hop records by

801
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:24,080
Speaker 1: the Wu Tang Clan and ghost Face Killer and Jizz.

802
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,239
Speaker 1: So they would laugh. They would literally sit in the

803
00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: meetings and laugh when we'd say the names of the

804
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:29,799
Speaker 1: guys that were in the band. They're like, oh, it

805
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: sounds like Chinese food, and we're like how are we

806
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:34,759
Speaker 1: going to get these guys to understand what this is.

807
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 7: I was working at RCA LA and they weren't really helping.

808
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 4: This is Joseph Mojo Nicosia, a veteran New York City

809
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 4: club DJ turned radio promotion executive. Mojo worked at Loud's

810
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 4: parent company RCA and would become Louds inside man. As

811
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 4: Steven Rich's operation grew, they would eventually bring Mojo on

812
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 4: board as one of their vps of radio promo.

813
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 7: Steve and I Matt and he almost got a fight

814
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 7: with Terry Anzalder, who is my boss on the West Coast.

815
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 7: He was trying to talk to this guy to go

816
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:09,400
Speaker 7: to radio with Wu Tang Clan and he just wasn't

817
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,879
Speaker 7: hearing it, and Steve and him almost got in a fight.

818
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,160
Speaker 7: I like got in the middle of it and he left.

819
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 7: Terry looked at me as he's a piece worker. I've said,

820
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,600
Speaker 7: at least he gives a shit about his artist. We

821
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 7: should be helping him. And that's when I decided I

822
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 7: was going to help him.

823
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:27,279
Speaker 4: So while Steve was ready to physically fight people in

824
00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:29,920
Speaker 4: the office to get the machine behind his artists, and

825
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 4: he did start to make some allies in the building

826
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 4: along the way, it wasn't enough to hold on to

827
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,480
Speaker 4: most of the Wu Tang Solo deals.

828
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,680
Speaker 1: So they wouldn't agree to Method Man one hundred and eighty.

829
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,520
Speaker 1: So we lost Old Dirty and we lost Method Man,

830
00:39:41,800 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: and then you know, we kind of had a wink

831
00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:47,360
Speaker 1: and a nod understanding with Rizza at that point, and

832
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:49,759
Speaker 1: he said, look, I have a plan. I want to

833
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:51,760
Speaker 1: have my own label and I'm going to have ghost

834
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: Face signed to me, and if you guys can make

835
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:56,839
Speaker 1: us a good deal, you guys could keep Ray Kwan.

836
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 4: With Wu Tang soloists spreading out across the industry, Riza

837
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:02,319
Speaker 4: wanted to make sure that he was on top of

838
00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 4: everything going on with the group's debut project at Loud,

839
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:07,759
Speaker 4: so we hit Scott Free and asked him to be

840
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:09,759
Speaker 4: the group's A and R to ensure that he had

841
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 4: an inside man working at the label.

842
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 5: So once that started going down, Rizzarth told me, oh,

843
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 5: go get in touch with this guy named Steve Ifkin

844
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 5: go check him out. We need somebody up in the

845
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 5: office like watching our ass and helping us out with

846
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:26,319
Speaker 5: this with this shit. I gave Steve a call. He

847
00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 5: got back to me and was like, let's sit down,

848
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:32,160
Speaker 5: let's talk. He had told Stretch Armstrong that he was

849
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 5: gonna sit down with me, and Stretch was a good

850
00:40:34,200 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 5: good friend of mine, and Stretch definitely gave the co

851
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 5: sign or something like yo free would be good in

852
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:42,600
Speaker 5: helping you, you know, with A and R shit. He's

853
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 5: got good ears and good dude and this and this

854
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:47,120
Speaker 5: and that. So Stretch kind of gave me like a

855
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 5: real big co sign with Steve.

856
00:40:49,120 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 4: Armed with a co sign from underground radio DJ Stretch

857
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 4: Armstrong and a personal connection to Rizza. Scott became the

858
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:58,760
Speaker 4: first official New York employee at Loud Records. With Scott

859
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:01,239
Speaker 4: in place to help Wu Tang negate the loud system,

860
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,880
Speaker 4: Steven Rich would lean on Mojo to get the RCA

861
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 4: machine behind the group.

862
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 7: We went and saw Wu Tang Clan perform, and then

863
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:12,800
Speaker 7: I went into Butchwa's office and said, Okay, what's my budget.

864
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 7: He gave me the numbers and I said, I'm going

865
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 7: to put the whole thing on Wu Tang Clan and

866
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:20,560
Speaker 7: Loud Records. We had a big argument and I said,

867
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:22,279
Speaker 7: if it's my department, that's what I want to do,

868
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:22,960
Speaker 7: and he let.

869
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:23,239
Speaker 2: Me do it.

870
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,080
Speaker 7: I think it was within four days. I had them

871
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 7: in vans and we were driving all over the place

872
00:41:29,200 --> 00:41:31,840
Speaker 7: trying to break their record. In the van, they played

873
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,440
Speaker 7: Wu Tang clean all the time, entered the thirty six

874
00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:39,200
Speaker 7: chambers over and over and over and over. So at

875
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 7: one point it really hit me like how unbelievable it was.

876
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: I became possessed.

877
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:47,799
Speaker 2: Riza had this style of the way that he got me.

878
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 7: He would get everyone on the road, he would explain

879
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 7: what the metaphors in their lyrics were, and I remember

880
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,640
Speaker 7: he said, we're going to spread this like a virus.

881
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:58,919
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what they did.

882
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 7: Risa was all so he made milestones of where the

883
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:04,920
Speaker 7: p and ls and sales were going to be, and

884
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 7: he was pretty much right the whole way. They worked hard,

885
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:11,160
Speaker 7: They worked really hard. They were out there going for it,

886
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 7: and that's what really built LOUD was that we were

887
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:16,040
Speaker 7: just jumping vans and go.

888
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,160
Speaker 4: Just like Riza plan, Wu Tang was spreading like a virus.

889
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 4: The group and the entire staff at LOUD knew the

890
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 4: ensemble was special, but none of them had any clue

891
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:28,600
Speaker 4: how far The group's debut entered. The Wu Tang was

892
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,719
Speaker 4: about to take them all, but on the night of

893
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:33,640
Speaker 4: the album's release, both partners would be made fully aware.

894
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 1: The night of the Wu Tang album release party, we

895
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: had dinner with the president of RCA kind of to

896
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,400
Speaker 1: celebrate the success of the alcoholics, Like that was a

897
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: big deal, Like we're getting acknowledged. The President's giving us

898
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:48,879
Speaker 1: a dinner. We went from that dinner to Webster Hall

899
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:51,359
Speaker 1: and we were about three blocks away from Webster Hall

900
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 1: and all the streets are closed off. I'm like, what

901
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 1: is going on here? We think there's like a police issue.

902
00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: So we get out of the cab, so let's just

903
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,520
Speaker 1: walk because we're gonna be late for this party. And

904
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: we'd come around the block and we see the line

905
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,440
Speaker 1: wrapping around the corner and we look at each other

906
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:11,000
Speaker 1: and we're like, holy shit, this is for our event.

907
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: This was for the Wu Tang album release party. And

908
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 1: we're just looking at each other in disbelief. Like we

909
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:20,360
Speaker 1: knew Wu Tang was happening, but we had no idea

910
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,800
Speaker 1: what a big sensation it was gonna be until that night.

911
00:43:29,480 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 4: Steve and Rich had witnessed Wu Tang Mania with their

912
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,759
Speaker 4: own eyes, but neither could have expected the global phenomenon

913
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:37,719
Speaker 4: The group would become. From starting with the Novelty Act

914
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 4: to signing the greatest group in hip hop history. LAD

915
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 4: was now on its way to becoming the hottest label

916
00:43:42,719 --> 00:43:45,879
Speaker 4: in wrap. However, as quickly as the company would rise

917
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:48,399
Speaker 4: to the top, it would soon all come crashing down.

918
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:52,839
Speaker 4: But to hear the heights of the label's success and

919
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 4: how it all unraveled, you're gonna have to tune into

920
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,200
Speaker 4: Part two of the Lab record story right here on

921
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 4: Idea Generations All Angles. This episode was brought to you

922
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 4: by Will Packer, Executive produced by John Valachick and Helena Ox,

923
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:15,279
Speaker 4: original music by Valentine Fritz, edit and sound mixed by

924
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:19,640
Speaker 4: Nonsensible Production, and hosted by me Idea Generation founder Noah

925
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:24,840
Speaker 4: Callahan beveret. Idea Generation's All Angles is a Will Packer

926
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:25,759
Speaker 4: Media podcast