If you search Google for pictures or interviews of Top Dawg Entertainment‘s CEO and namesake, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, you won’t find much. He’s a well-known and respected figure within the music industry, but he’s mostly kept a low profile. This recently changed when he sat down with Vibe for an interesting interview about his label’s history and its plans for the future. A key quote and a full link to the interview are provided below. It’s definitely worth your read. Label directors like Top Dawg are the figures who help artists create and maintain sustainable careers, especially in today’s carpetbagger-ridden music world.
Quote: Discussing the main lesson he learned from TDE‘s previous deal with Warner Brothers Records, emphasis added:
One thing I learned is don’t chase radio or follow the artists that the label follows. If it’s hot, that’s what they’re on. They make me fuck up my acts ’cause I’m telling them to follow that when they should be doing their own thing. Two, don’t depend on nobody else to things for you. The label is there, but they don’t know shit ‘cause they not in the streets. Spinning out of the WB situation, we realized that the Internet was really becoming big and that became our focus.
Stories like this abound, but major labels really don’t seem to have changed all that much. Luckily, execs like Top Dawg are largely forgoing label nonsense and forging different paths. The music itself tells the story. Read the full interview here and check out a mini-documentary on Black Hippy below.
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