Caron Veazey

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This week, Jeffrey sits down with the incomparable Caron Veazey — a music industry force whose career has spanned MCA, Epic, RCA, Island Def Jam, global marketing at Sony, and nearly a decade managing Pharrell Williams. Caron shares her journey from growing up in the DMV to discovering the music business at NBC’s Saturday Night Live, championing artists across genres, and helping shape landmark moments like Rage Against the Machine x Wu-Tang Clan, Christina Aguilera’s Stripped era, and Pharrell’s “Happy.” She opens up about navigating a male-dominated industry without being pigeonholed, the global impact of music, the founding of Black Music Action Coalition, and what it means to create space for artists — and executives — to be their full, multidimensional selves.

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Mixed and Mastered is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio, and hosted by music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to the discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @MixedandMasteredPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://mixedandmasteredpod.buzzsprout.com/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on Mixed and Mastered, we're talking with
Karen Vesey, a music executive,talent manager and a connector
who has spent more than threedecades shaping culture.
Karen held marketing roles atRCA Island, def Jam and Sony
Music before joining PharrellWilliams as his manager, where

(00:20):
she helped orchestratecareer-defining moments like
Happy, blurred Lines and GetLucky.
Karen's work has bridgedfashion, music, art, brand
partnerships, has led to Grammynominations, grammy wins, oscar
nominations, cannes Lion Awardsand a lasting footprint.
Karen's also the co-founder ofthe Black Music Action Coalition

(00:42):
, fighting for equity andopportunity across the music
industry.
This is Mixed and Mastered withKaren Vesey.
Welcome to Mixed and Mastered,the podcast where the stories of
the music industry come to life.
I'm Jeffrey Sledge, bringingyou real conversations with the
people who have shaped the soundof music.

(01:03):
We're pulling back the curtainon what it takes to make it in
the music business.
These are the stories you won'thear anywhere else, told by the
people who live them.
This is Mixed and Mastered.
Mixed and Mastered podcast withanother big dog, big wig,

(01:26):
phenomenal person Karen Vesey.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Thanks for that, jeff .
Hello, I love the phenomenalperson part better than the big
dog.
Okay, yeah, right, becausethat's at the end of the day,
that's the stuff that matters.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
That's what counts.
That's what counts.
You know, I was thinking, I wastrying to remember the first
time I met you.
I don't remember.
I can't remember either.
I can't remember how we crossedpaths.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I mean just put in our day.
I mean we all, just, we wereoutside, yeah, and everybody
just knew each other bumped intoeach other, yeah, you know a
friend of a friend, we just kneweach other bumped into each
other.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, you know, a friend of a friend, and then
that's just how that went.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
He started talking, and then we'd see each other at
the same spots.
There you go so yeah, there yougo, so I kick it in.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
And then you know, in our day we go by each other's
offices and talk and hang out.
That's right, yeah, well,obviously it was good.
However, it was good becausewe're still connected.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It might have been Vanessa.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
It could have been Vanessa.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
And Vanessa and Lisa, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
And Vanessa and Lisa yeah, yeah.
Whatever it was, it was good.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Who knows, who knows yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
So, starting off, I did some research on you and I
read that research that you wereborn and raised in the DMV.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Montgomery County.
I thought it was PG County butyou corrected me on that because
, again I said in the text theyare very different.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
They are very different and and we just, I
think, when it's DMV and if it'snot DC, you just expect it as
PG.
County, that's the next thingyou just yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
The kind of school.
Montgomery has its own thing.
I worked in.
Montgomery County, out ofcollege at IBM Rockridge Drive.
I still remember that address.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Where was that?
In Rockville or something.
It was in Bethesda, oh okay,which is where I went to high
school, but that was at ChevyChase.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
DCC.
There you go, there you go.
So tell me about growing up inMontgomery.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, I mean first of all, I mean it was a great
upbringing.
It was a great, you know,lifestyle.
I was born in DC and grew upfor the first until I was seven
or eight, in Southwest.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
DC.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
My mother was a native Washingtonian and my
father had come from Memphis togo to seminary at Howard.
So that was back way, way, wayback in like the 50s.
So you know they lived in thedistrict, as they call it.
And then you know she was fromAnacostia, so she was from the
hood, and she, her dream, wasokay, let's move out to the

(04:06):
suburbs, let's go out toMaryland, so Montgomery County,
way out, which isn't way outtoday, but it felt like then it
was yeah, yeah, it felt like youknow the drive was forever.
yes, exactly so.
So then that's where really Igrew up until 12 and then we
moved closer into, you know,back to the city essentially,

(04:28):
and that was Chevy Chase andyeah, and I was always like how
soon well, I should say, afterthey took me to New York for the
first time, which was when Iwas 13, I was like how soon can
I get out of here and go thereand go there.
And, you know, finally made it.
But yeah, that was my after.
I had a taste of that.
Dc felt very, very small andvery parochial.

(04:51):
I got you and I couldn't waitto go.
Much different than DC is nowMuch different.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Well, DC is completely different now than it
was a year ago.
Several changes from then.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I also read that you were aBaltimore club head.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Ah well, I went to college in Towson, which is
Baltimore.
I went to.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Moore, I don't know that, I don't know, but that's
why the Baltimore club thingcaught me.
I was like, okay, odell's andall the clubs.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but growing up in DC and you know
how different DC and Baltimoreare, night and day People think,
because the proximity is closethat they're the same, two
different planets.
Yes, exactly.
So you know, coming from rightoutside of DC, you was go-go for
us and obviously R&B and Iremember KYS and WKYS and Donnie

(05:52):
Simpson playing all sorts ofmusic, so it was an R&B station
or urban station, but theyplayed back then Elton John, all
in Oats live, variety stuff, soit was go-go or it was that.
And going to Baltimore I waslike what's this whole new world

(06:14):
of house music?
So that was a beautifulopportunity to expand my palate.
Yeah, so that was awesome.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So was that kind of your first.
What's the word I'm looking for?
I don't know, just kind ofgetting introduction, getting
into house music just gettinginto music in general, was it
kind of in that era of your lifewhere you kind of kind of start
saying I love this music thingand you know nothing.
I don't know if you want to doit as a career, but like it was
a kind of like, did it sparksomething?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I always, as many people do, loved music I didn't
really think of it.
There wasn't a moment in timewhen I was like this is what I
want to do until later.
But like you know, high schoolcollege I just love music music
fan.
I majored in communications atschool and I got an opportunity

(07:07):
to be a page at NBC.
So I thought so that was how Igot to New York.
So I thought you know I'm goingto be, you know, a newscaster.
You know Karen Veazey,reporting live from the, you
know, from whatever spot in NewYork, but not to be, because as
a page you work on all the shows, whether it was Nightly News or

(07:27):
whether it was the Today Show,and we all worked on Saturday
Night Live.
So this particular SaturdayNight Live, whitney was the
musical guest, whitney Houston,and you're there all day, as we
know, like from the afternoonall the way through 1 am.
So, I'm talking to the teams,yeah, I'm talking to the teams,

(07:48):
all of that.
And I realized ding, ding, ding, ding ding.
Oh, there can be a career Likethis is actually a career,
because we didn't have you knowmusic business school of you
know music and music businessschool and courses and classes.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
I tell people that all the time you say music,
business schools and thesemultitudes of internships.
It was very different back thenTo get in.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
You were either usually the funnels were, you
were a promoter at school, oncampus, maybe booking bands,
booking artists, or maybe youwrote for the school paper in
some way, so it was maybe musicjournalism, or you worked at
Tower Records, so you worked onthe sales side and you came in
through that way.
But you know there were limited.

(08:36):
I mean, that was never even athought, Like there was never a
discussion about that being acareer.
We didn't know it, we never sawit.
So I felt like that was one ofthe God shots, as I call it.
That Saturday I was like oh myGod.
And then that, yeah.
And then that Monday, two dayslater, I was looking for a job
and I got a job at MCA, andthat's how it all started.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
So who'd you work for at MCA?

Speaker 2 (08:59):
I worked for the head of marketing and two product
managers, so Renee Givens, whowas the urban product manager,
and then Pam Marcello, who wasthe pop product manager, and
then Randy and you're going tomake me forget his last name,
randy who was the head of, youknow, head of marketing.
So, yes, it was a big job tostep into and I was only

(09:22):
supposed to temp a couple ofdays and then they hired me on
the second day.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Wow, right away, they liked you that much.
Right away you was in.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, I mean, they were like, oh, she's not phased,
she doesn't care.
You know, because at that timeyou know how it was, like all
the artists were always up atthe label, like it was that's
where everybody hung out, thatat the label, like it was that's
where everybody hung out, itwas a completely different vibe
than you know what it is now.

(09:52):
So, you know, we had Rakimwould come up all the time, you
know, to the office and my bosswas his, you know, was Eric Van
Rakim's product manager.
It was heavy deal Down, thehall was Uptown, so you had
Jodeci and Mary and you know.
So all of that, and yeah, itwas a, it was a special, special
time and I felt like that wasdefinitely written.
Even though we have free will,I believe that was definitely,
you know, faded, that was in theplan.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
It was your destiny.
It was your destiny.
Wait, before we go on.
I want to get this correctbecause I have a special memory
attached to this artist I readsomething about are you a huge
Joni Mitchell?

Speaker 2 (10:29):
fan.
Yes, okay, yes, I am a JoniMitchell fan.
Introduced to Joni Mitchell andthis is how music and artists
work introduced to Joni Mitchellthrough Prince, like through
Prince's music With him.
I think it's the Sign of theTimes record when he's talking
about and it was Joni sayinghelp know with him.
I think it's the Sign of theTimes record when he's talking
about and it was Joni singing.
I was like who is that?

(10:51):
And I went and researched andfound Joni and I was like oh my.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
God.
And from that moment, yeah, yeah, I met, I got introduced to her
in a weird way.
I was dating this girl, I wasdating this girl and we was
dating this girl and we were outaround the Upper West Side and
it started to pour rain, likethe sky was opened up and so we
had to like we weren't prepared.
So we ducked into this likelittle small little restaurant

(11:17):
thing and you know, we weretrying to wait the rain out, so
we got something to eat and wewere talking and they were
playing the hissing of summerlawns.
Yes, you're playing that albumin the restaurant and I was like
by the second or third song Iwas like what is this?
This is crazy.
And the guy called the waiterover and he was like, oh, this

(11:38):
is johnny mitchell hissing ofsummer lawns.
He brought the cd over becauseit was the time it showed me the
cover and I went on and boughtthe CD.
It was almost like a rom-comhow I discovered her.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh, that's so cool.
It was crazy, it was reallycrazy, I love that.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, but anyway, enough about me.
I want to talk about you, no.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I love these.
No, you got to participatebecause you got stories have
intersections and stuff, so sohow long?
Were you at mca, like maybe ayear, a year?

Speaker 1 (12:12):
and a half, and then dallas austin his name comes up
on this podcast so much I swearto god.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, I'm sure, with lisa too.
You know, just recently yeah, sodallas was, and just so many
people are tagged by him he'ssuch a spirit and he and I
immediately clicked kind of likespiritually, musically, because
even though at that time he wasthe you know the king of you
know king r&b producer but hereally had love for like rock

(12:40):
and you know some pop, so untilwe, like, would sit in my office
.
So, to fast forward, I metDallas because Rocky Buchano,
who was managing an artist atthe time at MCA, was talking to
Dallas about coming to run Rowdy.
Records.
And then so.
So Rocky said Karen, you knowyou want to.
I think you'd be great for this.

(13:01):
You know, for this JV, and youknow why don't you come talk to
Dallas and see?
So so that's how that happened.
So we connected.
I went to Rowdy.
We'd sit in my office andlisten to Alice in Chains and
Soundgarden, and you know allthe bands.
Rage Against the Machine, andso that was the other side of
him.
So we definitely clicked there,because I've always been very

(13:23):
eclectic with you know, in mymusic taste and which wasn't
really understood back then buthe's the same, he was the same,
so you know we saw it.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah, I missed.
Um I again.
The kids today, right, theydon't really understand like,
what trl and and stuff did forpeople, people's musical taste
back then.
Because kids right, like youknow, jodeci, and they were like
ll and they were like paparoach and they were like britney

(13:55):
spears yeah, and they were likesound garden and they would
like.
You know yes, you know, jay-z itwas it was like just a blend of
the Foo Fighters.
It was like a blend of thegenres were very they all was on
genres.
It was just like what was dope?
What was dope?
You know, tlc and Hole werejust dope.

(14:16):
It wasn't like and I missedthat.
I think it's kind of changingnow with playlisting, but I
think for a long time kidsmissed out on experimenting in
different genres of music.
A thousand percent Peoplecouldn't understand it really,
and I couldn't get them yeahyeah, yeah, so you worked with

(14:40):
Rodney for a while.
I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, so I worked for Dallas for several years he
probably like two years in maybe.
He office was on 19th Streetbetween 5th and 6th, and he
decided, like I'm coming up hereevery week, you know, and
spending all this time where allmy whole setup is in Atlanta,
so why don't we move everythingto Atlanta?
So he asked a few of us to moveand so I went to Atlanta.

(15:05):
I was like, yeah, I mean, youknow, it was up for the
adventure and we always used tohave the best time in Atlanta.
You know when we go for theweekends.
So Vanessa and I moved and wewere roommates.
We got a little house in.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Little Five.
Wow, that was dope.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
And yeah, so it was a beautiful time.
And and yeah, so it was abeautiful time and I was down in
Atlanta probably like a yearand a half and maybe going on
two years, and then came back toI was itching to come back to
New York.
I came back to New York andstarted working at Epic.
Back then I felt like I neededto work for a major to have my
to get my respect, get mystripes.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Now, who was running Epic at that time?

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Dave Glue was running Epic with Jed Doherty and
Richard.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
Dave Glue, I can't remember his last name because I
worked at Epic too for a while.
I worked at Epic a couple years, 96-97.
So Dave was there, pollyAnthony was there.
Richard would come over from UK, Vivian Scott.

(16:11):
She hired me.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
And Vivian was there when I was you know, and she was
the first woman, black womanwho I saw.
I was like oh, she's anexecutive, she's incredible,
she's executive, she'sincredible, she's beautiful,
she's brilliant, you know.
So she was a huge inspiration.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
I worked with Ron Sweeney.
Yeah, sweeney is on the podcastas well, yeah, yeah, I didn't
know you worked with him.
So what actions did you workwith over there?

Speaker 2 (16:38):
So here's the thing.
So you know I'm coming from,you know with my eclectic taste,
but steeped in, so farcareer-wise, steeped in R&B.
Monica was my, you know, was myproject at Rowdy right.
So, coming from, yeah, I tookher actually Vanessa, and I took

(16:58):
her to get her hair cut Goodshortcut, or hair done.
Dallas wanted to fire me.
We're playing so dope.
Nobody has this.
Nobody.
She's going to be sodistinctive and it turned out to
be, true and to be the rightthing.
Yes, that's right, and we usedto pick her up from school, like
you know, and then go to thestudio and the whole thing.
But anyway, so I'm coming fromthat, you know, to Epic, and I

(17:21):
have Terry and Monica, I have umCool D Rap, I have a gospel
project and I have Groove Theory, and that's actually how I got
to Epic, because Bryce had given, you know, we had the music,
you know the demo, and we wouldlisten to that, like all that

(17:42):
particular summer it was allgroup theory.
I wrote this plan and I gave itto Bryce and I was like they
should do your project like this, you know, because it was a
little alternative from what wasyou know what was happening in
R&B at the time, and he passedthat on to Jimmy, who passed it
on to Dan Beck, who was the headof marketing, and Dan called me
and that's how I got the job,that's how I got introduced to

(18:03):
them.
But so, yeah, so groove theorywas my thing and at that time,
you know, with street teamsbeing what they were, you know,
just, you know the beginning ofstreet teams and that kind of
marketing, there was a huge RageAgainst the Machine fan still
in and I said, well, we shoulddo the same, we should put the
street teams on Rage.

(18:24):
And they were like what, whywould we do that with this type
of music?
I said because it's there's somuch crossover, you don't know
it.
So it's still the streets.
So that's what they did and itworked really well.
And so when they got ready fortheir I'm just going on with-
these stories because okay.

(18:46):
So when they were ready fortheir next album, the head of
A&R, president of A&R and theentire team that worked on Rage
asked me to come to the planningmeeting.
So I came to the planningmeeting, got to hear I think it
was Bulls on Parade to hear thatalbum.
I was listening, you know,didn't contribute.

(19:07):
And then at the end he sayswell, karen, what do you think?
So I'm like a junior productmanager, I'm young, I'm like, do
I speak up?
I don't know what to do.
Everybody turns and looks at meAnother God moment for sure,
because it just came to me in aninstant.
I said you know what we shouldlook at putting Rage and Wu-Tang
together, because that would bea dope combination and I think

(19:33):
RZA would be into Zach and Ithink Zach would be into RZA.
And so he said that's amazing,you're going to make that happen
.
I wasn't saying that.
I was like oh yeah, I wasn'tsaying that, but that's what I
did.
I drove out to and I've nevereven told this, I don't think I

(19:55):
drove out to Staten Island, tothe studio and brought the music
he didn't know about Rage, gavehim the music, played some
music, told him what they wereabout politically and all the
things, and he was like dope, somade the introduction.
They got together Next thingyou know they are on SNL

(20:16):
together and announced the tourthat they were doing together.
Somebody the next week tookcredit for all of that.
You know I wasn't as upset,being a young person, I was like
, okay, well, that just meansthat my ideas are good or that
I'm on to something.
So that was just kind of avalidation.

(20:36):
But I definitely felt proudbehind the scenes, when I would
see all the visibility from that.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's funny.
It's funny real quick.
When I worked at Epic, celineDion was really starting to blow
up and I remember sitting inthe meeting they were playing
some of my music and stuff and Ijust said, like you, I'll just
blurt it out I was, like youknow, black women, really like
Celine Dion, and everybody inthe room laughed.
Everybody in the room laughed,that's right.
So I'm not joking, I'm notplaying.

(21:09):
Like black women, really likeher, like she has a huge black
audience.
They had no clue, they had noclue.
When you get back again, backthen, you know, when you get
into these big rooms, a lot ofthose people were just so
disconnected from other parts ofgenres and other parts of
culture.
I was like this, is it athousand percent?
They didn't even pay attentionto anything outside of that

(21:30):
little circle.
And you said something like yousaid with Rage and Wu, or I
just blurted out the thing withCeline.
They were almost like what itwas, like they were in the
hearing, like aliens talk, likewhat are you talking about?
I'm like yo y'all have no cluewhat's going on around, you know
.
So anyway, back, to you, so youget to RCA after Epic.

(21:54):
Much later, much later.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
After Epic, I went to V2.
So at that point in time Ireally wanted to.
I was exploring the world.
I would go to London all thetime.
This is when, like Turpop was,you know, a drum and bass.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Is this Portishead era Over there?
Okay.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yes, Portishead.
Air.
Massive Attack, tricky, youknow all that, so I would go all
the time.
And then I heard that RichardBranson was starting the second
Virgin right.
Because he had sold a Virginrecord and he wanted to start
another label and so it wascalled V2.
And I wanted to work in Londonand so we had met someone there

(22:35):
the executive there, nrexecutive who really wanted me
to come to London.
Paperwork was taking a reallylong time, wasn't working out,
so the US company US V2, askedme to come there and to be the
head of product management, andthe person who did that is my
mentor to this day because hewas at Arista when I was at

(22:58):
Rowdy and Rowdy went throughArista.
So he was the person that wedealt with all the time, richard
Sanders and so he was like no,just come here, come to the New
York office.
Okay, cool.
So that's where I went for afew years and that was
incredible, just forenlightening, seeing the world
in a different way.
Going to France, seeing that,you know, the biggest export in

(23:23):
music doesn't really matter asmuch as it does other places
because they had their own thing, happening.
so it was like, okay, you knowyou could have, um, you know, a
huge artist, a hugeinternational artist, they would
call it, but they had their ownlocal artists who were yep, and
20 times bigger um, and justthe culture around that.

(23:44):
So I learned so much there,learned how it worked in each
territory, um, and, you know,got to spend a lot of time in in
the UK, which was great.
Cause that's where it was based.
That's dope, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
So that's fed my my, you know, wanderlust and uh yeah
, and the opportunity to getinto different kinds of music
you go over there as a youngperson and you think, whatever's
rocking in the US at that time,whatever it may be, you think
it's going to be rockingeverywhere.
And then you go over there andyou're hearing all this music

(24:18):
and all these groups, bands,whatever, and you're like I
don't know who's that, who'sthat, who's that, who's that.
It's like, yeah, again the UK orFrance or all the territories.
They got their own thing goingon and sometimes some of the US
thing permeates it, but they gottheir own thing.
They don't release.
They're not just waiting on theUS releases.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
A lot of times it does.
That's right, and now actuallyeven more than then, because you
know we look at the studiesthat have come out.
You know the reports for thisyear how the US export is
diminishing and the localmarkets and the local music is
what's raining right now.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
So we're seeing that more and more, so tell me how
you get there.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
So after V2, actually Vanessa Vanessa.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Levy.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday Vanessa.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
BFF.
Happy birthday, vanessa.
We were like we like thisdifferent kind of music and we
like black music, whatever youknow, however you want to call
it, but we also like all thisother stuff.
Why don't we do somethingindependent, create something
like progressive urban culture?
So that's what we called.
Our company was called caravanc-aA-R-O, and then Van for

(25:28):
Vanessa putting our namestogether, and that's what we did
.
We did marketing, progressiveurban culture marketing.
So that meant, for example, theDido record had just come out
and so we worked the Dido recordto this Black alternative demo
right, and it was the same kindof thing.
When we would sit to pitch, youknow the executives, they would

(25:51):
be like, yeah, Like Blackpeople are gonna like this.
I said we're not a monolith,we're not a monolith, yes, yes.
So we had success with that, Agroup of Sto same thing and
Artful Dodger coming from the UKat that time, and we did that

(26:14):
for two and a half years or so,maybe three.
9-11 happened during that lastyear of our company, which was
obviously impactful in thecraziest way.
And then we said, you know what, maybe we want to go back to
labels.
So she went to Mercury and Iwent to RCA and again Richard
Sanders, who I've talked abouttwo times previously, from the

(26:35):
Rally Arista and then from V, hebrought me to RCA and
specifically for the, you havean eclectic, diverse POV that
nobody else over here has andyou know that's where your
contribution would be so and Ihad an incredible diverse roster
.
I had Christina Aguilera, I hadCitizen Cope, I had Avril

(26:58):
Lavigne, I had Heather Headley.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
You had Mark Bronson as well, right.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
We were all over the.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
And did you have the strokes and Mark?
Yes, the strokes.
How?

Speaker 2 (27:06):
can I forget them?

Speaker 1 (27:07):
I did.
I'm here to do the research?
But that's one of the thingsI've always admired about your
career is you would not allowyourself to be pigeonholed
musically.
That's right, you know you're ablack girl, for sure, for sure

(27:28):
you know what I'm saying.
But you, you know you, youblack girl, for sure for sure
you know I'm saying but but youwouldn't allow yourself to be
like I, only like.
You know this type, you, I'monly going to work with these
type of artists.
You, your, your, uh, musicalpalette was always very varied
and I appreciated that about you, because a lot of us didn't get
it.
You know, I don't know, I don'tmake a victim thing, but a lot

(27:48):
of us either didn't get a chanceto do that or maybe didn't have
the palate.
So, you know, I appreciatedthat you were like a guiding
light, to be like nah, you don'tgot to just do that.
I mean, you could do that too.
That's dope, dope as hell.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
But there's other things you can do as well.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
You don't have to have your skills just
pigeonholed to this one type ofgenre.
It only works here because youknow what?
they weren't doing that to theother that always killed me as
an A&R person.
We only were supposed to bringin like rap or R&B, blah, blah,
blah.
But you know the white catsthing, who, the white rock a&r

(28:31):
guy, would always be like yo,but he's, he signed, you know
whatever, and it blew up.
We never, we know.
And if it went the other way wefound a group like that they
would kind of slowly but surelytake it from us.
But that's cool, we we're goingto call.
In our head you find thatthere's meetings that you

(28:51):
weren't invited to and themanager is only calling him.
It's very frustrating.
I'm glad.
I appreciate that you didn'tallow that.
You were pioneering that,because that was very important.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well, thanks, that was the only way I knew how to
be so the naivete.
You know, coming to New York andyou know, starting at MCA, that
was how I was from jump, Like,so I didn't really know another
way to be and I thought it wasludicrous that it should be
another way, and that alwayshelped me to be you know

(29:27):
singular.
You know singular in a sea ofothers.
So, yeah, that is one of thethings that is so important to
me that we are never put in aposition where we are in one
lane.
We are multitudes, we containmultitudes, and now more and
more executives and labels andso forth are seeing that.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
Yeah, but it's taken a long time.
Tell me a little bit about I'mgoing to pick two RCA acts that
you work with.
Tell me about working with theStrokes.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
The Strokes.
I worked with them for theirsecond record.
I mean that was super funrecord.
I mean that was super fun.
They were the kings of downtown, they were the kings of garage,
they were the, and I reallyliked the music as well the head
of marketing at RCA, daveGottlieb.

(30:24):
He had originally worked withthem and then he brought me into
the project, so that was superfun.
That leave, he had originallyworked with them and then he
brought me into the project, sothat was super fun.
I remember going to Salt LakeCity for one of their shows.
It was the first time I thinkit might be the only time that
I've gone to Salt Lake and againexperiences where your eyes
open.
I was like why are all thesepeople walking across the street

(30:45):
holding hands?
What's happening?
Happening and how come they'regiving me a license?
I need a license, a permit togo get a drink, like it was.
Just the whole culture in saltlake was, yeah, you had to, you
had to, like, fill out thislittle thing to to drink alcohol
.
I don't know if that's stillthe case, but and they played
the show and they were sowelcoming and so you know they

(31:07):
were so dope because, you.
they're eclectic too, and theirworld wasn't just white people
it wasn't homogenous, you know,yeah, so that was, that was a
good time.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Did you work on the first Christina Aguilera album
or later on?

Speaker 2 (31:22):
I worked on when she busted out with Dirty.
Tell me about that.
I worked on when she busted outwith Dirty.
Tell me about that.
I mean that was a greatexperience in working with a
global superstar, because that'sa whole different world, comes
with a whole different set ofcircumstances, challenges,
potentials, possibilities.
I worked on that record and therecord after the one that

(31:47):
premiered it and you know she'sbeyond talented, and so that was
a great experience Again, notjust because the music was great
because that was the recordthat Beautiful you know was from
, was that second record?
But because, again, of theaccess that I had to whole other

(32:07):
levels that I hadn't had withprevious artists, I wasn't going
to have that with Strokes.
I didn't have that, you know,with Cool G Rap, I didn't have
that with, you know, terry andMonica.
I didn't have that with GrooveTheory.
So this was like a greatopportunity to expand.
So, yeah, so that was, I meanthat was so much fun.
And the second record, I meanthird record, but the one that

(32:28):
premiered, premiered it, I meanit was it's, it's an R&B record
period, like from front to to toback, and but the Billboard
wasn't allowing it to becategorized as an R&B record as
well.
So I had to sit with Billboard,play the it was when Danielle

(32:49):
was there, danielle Smith playthe record and let them hear
what is naturally there.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
And then we got the ability to be on the R&B charts
and the pop charts.
Of course, Billboard didn'twant to even touch on the R&B
side of the charts.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
Wow, not at all, not at all.
They were charts.
Not at all, not at all.
They were like no, she's just,you know, pop artist, like
what's the r&b?
Well, did you listen to therecord the whole record.
Yeah, it was, because it'sactually it was mark and primo.
Both of them were on the recordon the album and and yeah, so
it was like from top to bottomit's an r&b record, so why

(33:24):
wouldn't you?
But again, you know that kindof the ignorance, you know the
not delving into theconversations, the demarcation
lines.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Wow, wow.

Speaker 2 (33:35):
That's what that was about, but we got through it, so
that was amazing.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
Wow, that's the, the politics of music, that music
business that a lot of peopledon't get to see, like you know,
with a billboard you knowbillboard wouldn't put it over
here because we don't want it tobe yeah, exactly, urban, for
lack of a better term, and it'sall that stuff that goes on, you
know right and that's somethingthe artist really wanted,

(33:59):
because you know she wanted to,of course she would.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
So I thought back.
I'm like, okay, sometimes whenyou're looking at your value and
your contribution and your, youknow what you bring to a
situation, I was able to seethat if I had not been in that
role, that would never havehappened.
It would just be the pop side,pop charts.
So I felt really good aboutthat.
I brought something verydistinct to the project.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
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Speaker 1 (34:59):
And now back to our show.
So you were at RCA for sixyears.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
About just about six, I think, and then I left to go
to Island Def Jam to be the headof marketing and that.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Okay, tell me about that.
Tell me about that, I'm goingto be quiet.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
That was the craziest experience in many positive
ways, because there was so muchcreativity and a different sort
of energy than I had workedaround in a previous label
situation.
So that part was great.
As the head of the department,I worked Mariah, I worked

(35:39):
Rihanna and I worked Duffy, whois, as we talk about, kind of UK
artist.
So she was coming out of the,you know, kind of like the soul,
the northern soul sound, yeah,from the uk, and we, you know,
had a number one record here,you know, and that was so much
fun working with her.
But, yeah, it was, it was sointense, it was so in and but I

(36:03):
had the best time working on themariah record.
This was the one afterEmancipation of Mimi, and so
this is during the time when LAReid and Steve Bartles are there
.
Jay had just left as thepresident and LA had come in,
and then the Rihanna timeframewas the Take a Bow record.

(36:24):
So we repackaged the deluxe andcame up with the name rihanna,
rihanna reloaded.
I remember walking in to la'soffice with like a whole list of
names, you know, titles,potentials, um, he was like I
like that.
And then, uh, management, likethis is what we went with, but
um, so that was super intense.
Fun learned a lot, but it wasalso working until 1 am.

(36:50):
Yeah, you know all the timelike all the time.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
All encompassing.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, and then during that time, my sister passed
away suddenly.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Oh, glad to hear that .

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I just you know this was in 2008.
And just rethought everything.
You know, like my whole world,I needed to spend time with my
parents, who were in DC, andthen my niece, who was, you know
, just 20 years old and stillvery much entrenched in DC, and
you know a close family and allof that.
So I left, I left IDJ and Iwent to, I moved back to DC for

(37:26):
a few months to be with familyand I was like, okay, so I'm
going to figure it out in thefall.
And then the fall comes.
Who calls Richard Sanders?
He's the commentator throughall of this.
He calls me.
He was at that time thepresident of global marketing at
Sony.
As you know, lovedinternational.
I didn't understand why itwasn't a bigger deal to the US

(37:52):
labels, because that's howeverybody was getting paid.
That's how everybody was makingbonuses is the.
You know, if you have Pink here, you know in the US and she
sells.
You know 50% or 49% of hersales are coming from the US,
51% are coming from XUS.
Are we really going toprioritize the radio show in

(38:15):
Indianapolis or are we going tosend her to You're?
Going to Berlin.
Yes, I guess that's where you'remaking your money.
Like, what are we talking about?
But yeah, so I went to globalmarketing.
I had the best time.
It was incredible.
Wow, I really got.
But yeah, so I went to globalmarketing, had the best time.
It was incredible.
I really got to, you know, sinkmy teeth into all of the
markets, and I'm talking aboutfrom India to Eastern Europe, to

(38:35):
Latin America, and we would goand do meetings with all of the
entire you know teams, becausethe rest of the world reported
into our division.
North America was separate.
Yeah, and you know, it was justa good time.
It was a good time for music.
Sia's record came out duringthat time.
And we had obviously all the bigrecords.

(38:56):
Yeah, you know, beyonce cameout at that time, Alicia Keys,
foo Fighters, kelly Clarkson,avril so yeah, it was a great
experience.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Yeah, yeah, when I was at Jive the owner of Jive,
I'm saying, like he's not, he'sstill the high-class called.
I remember one day he called mein his office and he was like
Sledge was like close to theholidays, sledge, he was going
to always call me Sledge, sledge, you're going to go, I'm going
to send you to Europe.
And I was like what, I'm goingto send you to Europe, I want

(39:31):
you to see how it is over there.
So he sent me with R Kelly.
R Kelly was on tour, so I wentto London and Amsterdam and got
to hang out with the Beneluxpeople and the UK people and
they really taught me whatyou're talking about, how things
are marketed and work in thesedifferent territories and all
the money, like you said, that'scoming from all these different

(39:54):
territories around the worldthat we don't in the US.
We just I don't know, we justdon't pay attention, we don't
understand.
And then you go over there andyou see how big it is.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
It's like whoa, this is crazy.
You know we did a presentationfor all of the senior executives
across all the sony labels toshow exactly what I just shared,
like, okay, alicia keys sells.
It sells enormous amount in theus, but she also sells the same
amount outside of the us.
And so when they realized andsaw it in black and white and
were able to essentially traceagain, trace their bonuses,

(40:33):
because it all you know, followthe money, trace the bonuses to
what was happening outside ofthe US and how they were
performing, the artists you knowwere performing, then it was
like light bulb went off and itwas easier to get these artists
on international trips,international promo, exactly
vivian scott.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
She was on the show.
That's exactly what she talkedabout.
She was like she said shesigned.
I forget what artist it was nowI'm blanking out, I apologize
for it.
It was somebody.
And she said one year she wasthe only anr person to make her
numbers.
All that stuff was in the red,and she was shocked.
She was like oh shit.
And she said somebody leanedover.

(41:14):
I forget who it was.
He's on the show and the guysaid international.
Her artist was big overseas.
So the artists were coopedwhere everybody else was trying
to just make money, only in theStates.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Was it Desiree the artist.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
It.
Was it Desiree the artist?
It wasn't Desiree.
It wasn't Desiree.
I can't remember who it was.
It was like an artist thatwasn't.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
I'm just trying to think of that time, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
I'll use it to the show and I'll text you the
number.
I mean the artist.
So how long were you here doingthis?

Speaker 2 (41:47):
About three years and then, and I loved my job.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was thebest, best experience.
Plus, we got to travel a lot.
Yeah, got to travel, and notjust to.
You know, we had a week inMumbai and then went to Delhi
and to be able to see especiallythat part of the world and how

(42:09):
culture surrounds the music andhow you know, all of that, but
also just absorbing an entirelydifferent culture.
So that was incredible.
But then Mimi called me, Valdez, and said and she'd always said
, Pharrell and I should worktogether Because y'all like that
weird music, Y'all like SteelyDan.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Philly Dan is weird Okay.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Something like that.
I'm paraphrasing.
But so he wanted to kind ofreorganize his whole world.
So she's like he's going tocall you.
And he called and we talked fora really long time and I knew
him a little bit socially, likewe'd been, you know, at dinners

(42:55):
or you know, but I didn't knowhim well.
Again, like I said about Dallas, we just clicked it's the same
thing with P and so we talkedfor a few months and then I was
like, okay, I'm going to comeand we're going to do this
together, Like you know, reallystart from the ground and
rebuild everything.

(43:15):
So I told my parents and theywere like who you want to work
with, who you're leaving?
You're leaving, you're leavingsony and you're for yeah, what
exactly this massive corporationdo?

Speaker 1 (43:27):
what yeah?

Speaker 2 (43:29):
obviously this before happy and all the stuff.
So yeah they, you know, theyeventually, you know, knew who
it was, but not at that time.
So so, yeah, so that was in 20,end of 2010, beginning of 2011,
and that was again like a wholedifferent world when you are
working, when you're partnersand managing and working

(43:50):
directly and building around theartist being on the artist.
So that was a whole learningcurve.
Not a huge learning curvebecause, as a product manager or
as an A&R, you work so closelywith the artist.
Anyway, but, yeah, this was awhole other level and I remember
the end of the first year.
I was like not even the firstlike six months in.

(44:12):
I was like I've never used mybrain in this way because I had
to learn all the stuff I had tolearn about the production side
of things that I didn'tnecessarily know, about splits,
and you know all of that.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
And yeah, splits are for the people listening.
Splits are one of the maybe themost, definitely one of the
most important things in themusic business, and if they're
not right it can be a disaster,but if they're right you can
really can make like oodles andoodles of money.
Obviously, you're making hitrecords, you know, but that

(44:49):
publishing thing is so key.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yes, so I had to learn all of that stuff and I
did and I did it well and I was,and it was so much fun because
I'm doing like brand stuff andlike the collaborations and you
know, the fashion things youknow with the team loik and
everybody, and then in thestudio.
He was constantly in the studio, of course, but a lot of people

(45:12):
had thought like maybe hewasn't focused on music because,
as you know, he is like thepreeminent multi-hyphenate
before there was really anybodyeven used that term where he's
designing furniture and he's,you know, making records and
he's you know Skinware, I meanskin skin.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
You know skin stuff?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Skincare, yeah, like all the things.
So, so, yeah, that was that was.
That was incredible.
On the job training, a lot ofit was in terms of the
production side.
The rest of it was not easy,but the rest of that, you know,
I definitely knew.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Okay, so hold your thought.
I want to.
I want to cause I had this ideain my head a question.
So give me.
I mean it's hard to, it'sprobably gonna be hard to pick
one, but if you can think of one, give me one moment.
Watching Pharrell work in astudio where you were just like
what the fuck man, how does thisguy do this?

(46:12):
How do you come up with this?
Or whatever.
Give me, can you tell a storyabout that with some artists?

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah, I'm trying to think, I mean to pick one moment
.
Well this moment will becontroversial, but it was a
standout moment because it wasall so organic and special and
that was Blurred Line.
We were at Glenwood Studio,robin Fitt, he wood studio,

(46:37):
robin fitt he was working on thetrack, he was working on the
lyrics, and then it became likea party, because it's that much
energy in in the song, that muchenergy in the room, and p is
one who would have a lot ofpeople come in again for the
energy.
So that was a an incrediblemoment.
And then the other moment wasHappy.

(47:00):
Happy came at a time that wassuper difficult for P to get
this song right because thefilmmakers are like nah, it
needs to feel like this.
We got to have certain energyhere.
So he put forward a few songsand they were like nah, it's not
quite right.
So he is the hardest worker.

(47:20):
He would get up at six or 6 am,go to the studio, stay there
all day.
Nothing came.
He would call and be likenothing came today.
I'm like it's okay, just youknow, go back tomorrow, it's
going.
Just you know, go back tomorrow, it's going to come.
Did that for a few days and thenhe called me and said I think I
got it and I was like, okay, Ican't wait to hear it.

(47:42):
So he played it for the, youknow, for the director and for
the producers, and his thing wasget in your car and drive
around and play it three times,three times in a row.
And they did that and they werelike, yeah, this is it.
And when I heard it I was like,oh, my god, like that's gonna

(48:02):
be, that's something special.
Didn't obviously know howspecial it actually um was going
to turn out to be, but um, butyeah, but that was, that was a
really special moment.
Wow, that will stand out.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
I recently saw a clip of I forget the name of the IG
page, but there's an IG page.
It's not even that popular, butthey always find these clips of
people working in the studio,like they had a clip of MGMT
creating electrical.
They were creating it, yeah,trying to fix.
So they had a clip recently ofPharrell in the studio.

(48:36):
It was him, snoop and BishopDon Juan.
It was just the three of them.
And Pharrell he's playing andSnoop banging and Pharrell's
like he just makes it up righton the spot.
And Snoop's like keep going keepgoing and he's like you want to
keep it and like creating thisthing and I'm like Pharrell's,
just he's touched, he's special,very special, clearly so

(49:00):
special.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
So watch him just kind of pull down from the, what
I would call pulling down fromthe ether would just be sitting
there and it would come to himand then he likes to pace so he
would get up, you know, and havethe track playing and then just
be like same thing, you know,like kind of mumbling to himself
, and then he's like, oh, I gotit.
And then go in the booth andhe'd lay it down, you know, for

(49:23):
reference.
But yeah, watching him createwas one of the highlights of my
time with him.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
So you're touching everything.
You're touching the clothing.
You're touching whatever he'sdoing.
You're touching everything.
You're touching the clothing.
You're touching whatever he'sdoing.
You're involved.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
All of it Many rooms, many rooms, sitting in,
interfacing with incrediblepeople Closing deals, also doing
everything.
At the very beginning it wouldbe everything from, I don't know
, the AC had broken in the Miamiapartment, so I've got, you

(50:05):
know, the AC, people on the lineto pass off to the assistant,
and then, you know, also on theother line talking to Universal
Pictures.
So it was it literally waseverything, and that was the
beauty and I saw what I was ableto tell people about.
That was when people wouldcritique and say, you know, for

(50:27):
all, you should just focus onthis one thing, just you know.
Focus just on the music, focusjust on.
And that's not.
It works.
When you are a creative likethat, one thing, be it fashion
or be it another collaborationor be it like a tech opportunity
or music itself or film onepollinates the other.
So everything that he wascreating on the fashion side,

(50:53):
all the creative, all the music,it all comes from that same
space yes like it all comes fromthat same portal yeah you know.
So not having those otherthings, I think would have been
a detriment to everythingabsolutely.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
It's like they're all pulling from and working with
each other.
You can't kind of cut thispiece off and they only do this
side and don't do that side.
It doesn't kind of work likethat.
So now there was a cons lionaward kind of thing on.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Yeah, tell me about that.
We got several tell me aboutthat so we started um, I am
other, which was a creativecollective, for we had a, we had
a manifesto creative collectivefor the outcast and for the
ones who don't fit and for thelike.
Come to us.
I am other because we're othertoo, so that included, you know,

(51:44):
creative projects like workingon G-Star Denim project, we
worked on an Adidas campaign andboth of those won for one con
line awards, and so that was agreat time.
We had a great team working onthe creative side and we would
be able to support a lot of thethings that Pete was doing with

(52:04):
our own creative collective,which was incredible, yeah
that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
I remember they had the podcast too.
I enjoyed the podcast, ah yeah,other tone.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
The other tone.
Yeah, I really liked that.
I enjoyed that podcast.
Yeah, other tone Other tone.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Yeah, I really like that.
I like that.
I like that.
What is Meet the Bays?
That's something about Meet theBays, am I wrong?

Speaker 2 (52:22):
The Bays, the Bays.
Yeah, so the Bays are.
What were his backup dancers?
But they were a whole moment inand of themselves.
So he called them the Bays,like their own group, and we did
stuff with them.
We like did an adidas.
I think we did an adidascampaign with them as well.
But that was the two backupsingers in the and um the dance

(52:46):
that's dope.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
That's dope now how long how?
Long did you work?
Work with pharrell?
You have quite a while, aboutnine years.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Yeah, eight, like yeah, eight and a half, nine, um
, and you know I'm so proud ofthat because people, whether on
the executive talent side orwhether it's the artist talent
side, like rarely get even apinch of, you know, that kind of

(53:14):
success to be able to see thatactualized.
So the idea that you know hehad so much in succession from
the Daft Punk, you know, getLucky, right into Blurred Lines,
right into Happy, which wasstratospheric, it's hard to

(53:37):
believe that it's 13 years old.
Yeah, I can't believe it.
So into that and then intoKendrick.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Right, yep.
So that was an incredible runand to be working with such an
incredible team of people.
We're all very grateful to havethat time and to create what we
created, legendary, legendary.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
What made you decide to leave?

Speaker 2 (54:08):
Different paths, wanting to do different things.
It's also a lot.
It's also it's a lot.
It was a heavy, heavy, heavy.
You know amount ofresponsibility of me to be on
the go.
I traveled a lot with him, alot more than than maybe other
managers do with their artists.

(54:28):
You know consistently, and youknow that was that was.
You know it was.
This was before, obviouslybefore pandemic, before we were
really into the Zooms.
So if we needed to go to HongKong, like we talked to the Hong
Kong people for a project wehad to get on, I've contributed

(54:57):
so much and I've achieved somuch and we've created so much
together Like that felt good,yeah, yeah, so, so, and we could
leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Yeah, I got you, so you're teaching now at Clive
Davis School.
No.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
I was on the Clive Davis School of Music music
advisory okay board.
Right, tell me about that alittle bit.
So many it seemed, yeah, somany.
This is when jason king was thedean there and he put together
an incredible group of women.
It was an all-female advisoryboard.
So it was Suzanne DePass, itwas Sylvia, it was Rebecca Leon
who managed Anita managed DaveAlvin managed Rosalia, it was

(55:44):
Pooja who was at Pitchfork.
It was, I mean, just anincredible assortment of women
in all different spaces.
I mean just an incredibleassortment of women in all
different spaces.
So we, you know, workedtogether on a few projects,
helped the students at the endof their you know semester
projects and you know feedbackand so forth.

(56:07):
So that was a good maybe twoyears of doing that.
And that was around the time,same time that we created Black
Music Action Coalition, tell meabout that.
So that was 2020.
So we know what 2020 was interms of the racial reckoning at

(56:29):
the top of the year and we'reall, we're all home.
We're like, you know, captiveaudience because you know
pandemic.
Can't go outside, and so we seeAhmaud Arbery killed, murdered
in the street.
We see Breonna murdered,breonna Taylor murdered in her
house and then, a little bitafter that, george Floyd, of

(56:53):
course.
So we came together you knowseveral of us and said what can
we feel so helpless?
What can we do in our ownbackyard meaning the music
business to propagate equalityand equity and eradicate racism
Lofty goal.
But we said what can we do towork toward those things?

(57:17):
And so that's when BMAC wasborn, and it was about holding
the labels accountable.
It was about holding theplatforms accountable.
You're throwing up from ablackout Tuesday, which was, you
know, brianna I'm spacing onher name, but Brianna and her
partner who created that, thatparticular movement.

(57:38):
So we supported that and saidpeople got to do more than put
up this black square onInstagram and they've got to do
more than saying that they'recreating a fund, a hundred
million dollar fund.
Okay, well, but what are youdoing?
With that fund.
So that's where we came in, andwe've now we're a fifth year and

(58:06):
we're getting ready to do ourSeptember yearly annual gala
those who really use theirplatforms of the weekend a
little baby who use theirplatforms to progress, all of
the social equity, all of socialjustice.
What are you doing for someoneelse to be able to move forward?
And so it's.
You know, the.
It's the event that's on themusic business calendar, that is

(58:31):
one of the few that isn'tcelebrating like who you're
wearing or how many tickets yousold, or what your streams were,
etc.
It's.
It's like what did you do tohelp push forward equality
across this?

Speaker 1 (58:44):
that's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
That's beautiful um really proud of that.
That's, that's amazing that'samazing.
Um tell me what's next for karenv, feeling like the world is my
oyster.
I'm so happy that I still feellike that because, you know,
sometimes as we get older, we'relike stuck, you know.
So I'm always open to you.
Know what the next piece ofinspiration is?

(59:07):
I still love working withartists.
Maybe there's a way to workwith artists, you know and I'm
having a few conversationsthat's not specifically
management, but a way to supportand provide opportunities for,
especially for, emerging artistsMore BMAC, because we can't
tell the spike we are, you know,so that will always continue.

(59:31):
And you know some advisingworking with some.
You know interesting companies,so you know we'll check some.
You know interesting companies,so you know we'll check back in
and and see where I've landedsee, see what you know, pond,
I've, I've put myself whateverit is, it's gonna be dope um I
got a couple questions for you.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
Give me I usually say three, but it gives me two, if
you can't think of three orwhatever Two of your favorite
artists of all time, any genre,and I give you, you ready, you
ready for me, of course, ofcourse.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
I give you Prince, I mean I mean.
He's one, two, three, four fiveten twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
For those who can't see, he holds up a Prince
portrait.
No argument, right?
Give me your three favoritePrince albums.
His very first one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
For.
You.
The harmony, I think he was 17.
And the harmonies and thecomplexities and the songwriting
and the production, and he dideverything.
Everything.
He wrote, recorded, produced,arranged all of it.
So For you is one of my veryfavorites.
Controversy, I think, is anincredible body of work.

(01:00:46):
1999, I think is 1999 might bemy favorite album.
Okay, yeah, it might be.
I think it might be.
I mean, that's actually animpossible to say, but it's it's
definitely.
I think one of the mostimpactful pieces of it is it is
that there is give me, yourfavorite gogo band I'd say like

(01:01:10):
mine are going to be you knowmore old school, but I'd say eu.
I would go see eu all the time.
I didn't go see rare essencesas much I saw trouble funk a lot
as well but I'm pre backyard,and you know, and the newer ones
, even though they're not newanymore, but the ones during
yeah, the ones during my time umyeah, okay and give.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Okay, and give me two or three of your favorite DJs.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Wow, okay, that's hard.
I know you were a club head, soyou know, yeah, I mean, yeah,
I'm going to have to jumpforward and say Stretch, Stretch
is still like my very favoriteDJs to this moment.
Like he went from obviously youknow super hip hop to expanding

(01:02:02):
to kind of like eighties andnineties, um, and he did that
for a while.
Um, but yeah, he's one of myfavorite DJs.
Um, let's see who else?
Goodness, that's a really hardquestion, jeff, because some of
the names, to be honest, some ofthe names, I can't actually
remember, you know.
But I can tell you the it's notthe DJs.

(01:02:23):
I can tell you the groups likeArt of Noise, okay, like the
whole 808, there's a film it'scalled I forgot the title of it.
I think it's like Introductionto the 808.
There's a film it's called uh,I forgot the title of it.
I think it's like introductionto the 808, uh, and it's
incredible and it has all ofthose german artists and bands
and how it influenced in theafrica bombada, and then you

(01:02:45):
know planet rock, and then thewhole thing.
But yeah, that's, that's what Iwould say.
Of course, I'm going to thinkof as soon as we finish.
I'm going to think of all thenames.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Everybody always says that.
That's a hard question.
Everybody always says that.
Okay, we're going to end it upwith one last thing.
If you can give me a, I'm justgoing to flip it a little bit.
Give me a good story aboutbeing in Mumbai.

(01:03:15):
It could be musical, it couldbe from a great meal you ate,
whatever, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, I've been fortunate to go to India a
couple of times and they wereabout eight years apart, about
eight years apart.
So the very first time I go,the beauty juxtaposed with the

(01:03:41):
poverty is something that I'venever seen.
I'm kind of at a loss for wordsbecause it's difficult to
actually put into words, but welive in a certain way in this
country and even the you know,the poorest people here, far and

(01:04:05):
away above the and beyond thepoverty that's in.
India.
And that would just.
It really humbled me on so manylevels that so much beauty
number one could come out of youknow that space Concerning
because of the disparity betweenthe wealth and the poverty,
where obviously few with thewealth and you know living

(01:04:27):
cardboard with a little bit oftin, you know ceiling on the
street, no water no, you knowany of that.
They would make sure that theirkids were washed up.
And you know going to schoolevery day, every morning, with a

(01:04:49):
smile, because they hadgratitude for learning and
gratitude for the humanexperience.
So that's very heavy, but whatit did when I came back is that
you don't sweat the small stuffLike that's what I would come
back with, that sort of attitude, and I always tried to hold on
to that as closely and astightly as I could.

(01:05:12):
So the things that we getannoyed with.
It's nothing to get annoyedwith.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Thank you Kevin, thank you Karen Vesey, thank you
Jeff.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Jeffery Sledge.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
I really enjoyed this interview.
I enjoyed researching you.
You've done so much.
I didn't know everything.
I was like oh, I didn't know, Ididn't know she did that too.
So it was good.
Now it's good to hear it fromthe horse's mouth, from your
mouth, your, your yourexperience, from yourself.
You don't say to just kind ofread.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
I really enjoyed this .
Thank you for thank you forhaving me.
This is so much fun.
When are we going to interviewyou?

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
When are we doing that show?
I don't Actually, I mean maybe.
Well, I mean let's figure itout, we'll figure it out, we'll
figure it out, we'll figure itout.

Speaker 2 (01:05:57):
For sure, because your story is immense and has
many twists and turns and youhave many stories.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
So we want to hear those too.
Thank you again for everything.
All right, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:09):
Thank you and I appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
Thank you so much for having me.
She's coming on.
Thank you so much for having me.
She's coming on.
You can catch Mixed andMastered on Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheart or wherever youget your podcasts.
Hit that follow button, leave areview and tell a friend I'm
your host, jeffrey Sledge.
Mixed and Mastered is producedand distributed by Merrick
Studios.