Atlantic Records recently promoted music industry veteran Mar Brown to Senior VP of Urban Radio Promotion, after just two years as the VP of Urban Radio Promotion. The respected industry executive has wasted no time in utilizing his expertise and creative wit to help lead the charge in making Atlantic one of the nations top record labels for urban radio airplay in 2015.

Brown takes his leadership role seriously and says he’s learned from some of the best in the business on how to create success in every position he’s held. “I have personal relationships with the artists I work with. I protect them and they appreciate that,” says the Los Angeles native. “I’ve learned from my mentors that being a great leader requires being able to cater to everyone’s personality. They have to believe that you’re going to take them where they’ve never been before. It’s about leading by example. Plan the work and work the plan.”

He credits his mentors Juliette Jones (EVP Atlantic Records), John Platt (CEO Warner Chapell), and Mark Boyd (former Music Executive) for showing him the ropes in the industry early on.  As the new Senior VP, Brown oversees and cultivates effective methods to build relationships between urban radio stations across the country with the label’s artists. He’s currently working closely with Atlantic artists Wiz Khalifa, K. Michelle, Kevin Gates and Ty Dolla $ign to name a few.

Brown began his illustrious career in the industry 17 years ago as the West Coast Regional/National Mix Show rep of Radio Promotion at Virgin Records before landing the VP of Rap Promotion/National Mix Show Promotion at Interscope Records.  Brown then took the helm of Sr. National/Head of Mix Show Radio Promotion at Warner Brothers Records in 2012 and was then promoted to VP of Urban Radio Promotion of Atlantic Records in early 2014.  Brown has played a significant role in landing numerous #1 hit records on the Urban Radio Charts for notable artists including Wiz Khalifa, Omarion, Meek Mill, Wale, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, The Game, French Montana, Mary J. Blige,  and Janet Jackson.

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Pusha T ‘s “Crutches, Crosses, Caskets” is another hot track that will be included on his highly anticipated upcoming album, King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, which drops December 18. 

The golden-hued short follows Pusha around an American Horror Story carousel, shots of silent nuns, and captures his poetic performance. The CEO of G.O.O.D. he’s describes himself as “Yasiel Puig, I’m in another league”. 

Media mogul Diddy is credited as the producer for this wavy track and he provides Pusha, with a catchy backbeat to trash talk over. It’s all very nasty -in a rated PG type of way. The track comes after “Untouchable” and “M.F.T.R. (More Famous Than Rich)”, which features The-Dream. 

The album seems to be something special. King Push brings out some heavy-hitters for the collection. His guests include Kanye West, A$AP Rock, Jill Scott, fans-favorite Kehlani, and Re-Up Gang member Ab-Liva. Check out the tracklist below. Watch the video now directed by Kid Art.

King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude Track List

1. “Intro”

2. “Untouchable”

3. “M.F.T.R.” (Feat. The-Dream)

4. “CCC (Crutches, Crosses, Caskets)”

5. “M.P.A.” (Feat. Kanye West, A$AP Rocky, & The-Dream)

6. “Got Em Covered” (Feat. Ab-Liva)

7. “Keep Dealing” (Feat. Beanie Sigel)

8. “Retribution” (Feat. Kehlani)

9. “F.I.F.A.”

10. “Sunshine” (Feat. Jill Scott)

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In a recent interview for Yo! Raps Magazine, Young Noble of the Outlawz gets a little hyped up, and reveals his interpretation of the record industry, the hip-hop game in particular.

Yeah, it was just the most historical, most classical era [the early 90s] in hip-hop. It was a great time to be in the game. There was a lot of diversity. You had a lot of great artists making great music, from Pac to Snoop Dogg to The Dogg Pound to Ice Cube to Wu-Tang to Naughty by Nature to Mobb Deep to Nas to Biggie. There was an abundance of great talent being presented to the world. And all these guys were original. It wasn’t like Biggie was over there sounding like Snoop Dogg, or Tha Dogg Pound was over there sounding like Mobb Deep. Now, I live in Atlanta, and seven out of ten songs have the same tempo beat, talking about the same shit. Not to discredit anybody. I guess that’s just the nature of music today, but back then it was just a great era of music. I don’t know if there will ever be an era like that again. To me, the game’s getting worse. People claim that labels are going out of business, or you can blame it on the internet, bootlegging, downloading, but that’s really not the case. People are still buying records, yet record stores are about to go out of business because artists aren’t making the kind of records people would go and buy. I mean, hot club songs are hot for a minute, but what do you do in three months when it’s not hot anymore? A lot of these dudes never get heard again. You got the marketing guy, the A&R, they’re not even focused on music anymore, they’re focused on everything else, like your swag, the hairstyle you got, what kind of clothes you’re wearing. The A&Rs at these labels are looking at fads, instead of music that could be around for the next ten years. So they’re signing some guy out in Tennessee who’s got a hot record in the club, giving him $200,000, putting a single out, the shit does mediocre, and then they don’t get any money back from it, his album never comes out, and he’s shelved or kicked off the label. You might have Def Jam after a year or two, they may have signed twenty artists that you’ve never even heard about, and then two years go by and they’re cleaning house. They don’t want any of these artists anymore. They’re firing the people who signed them. It’s just crazy, man. People aren’t looking for real talent. They’re looking for the next fad. They’re looking for whoever comes out with the dumbest shit that might catch on, and get a million views on Youtube. They’ll sign him up, and the million views could have been an accident. They give him $400,000 and they’re not going to get any of that back. Labels are doing this consistently. One company goes under, so you got Def Jam ready to merge with Capitol.

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