Irving Azoff & Lou Taylor: Does it go back to MCA & Uptown Records??`

[Mx_Defying]

1988

- Irving Azoff stepped down running MCA, but was already working with Uptown Records

1990(ish)

- Mary J Blige signs with Uptown Records

- Lou Taylor does business mgmt with Uptown Records clients

"Before Mr. Azoff left MCA in 1988, he and Mr. Busby had recruited Mr. Harrell, the architect of the third stage of the company's plan. Mr. Harrell has brought Mary J. Blige and the rappers Heavy D. and the Boyz to MCA. In 1992, his New York-based Uptown Records was made a full-fledged label, with its own publicity and promotion departments, for a reported $50 million. Started as an independent company, Uptown entered into an agreement with MCA in 1986 to supply it with acts. The latest deal includes music-related projects for film and television." - NYT 1993

[Steel Magnolia]

I had no idea this thread was even here until seven hours after you made it.

This new Research Club is not working.

How are we going to fix this?!

[Ghoulia]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:16 AM, Mx_Defying said:

1988

- Irving Azoff stepped down running MCA, but was already working with Uptown Records

1990(ish)

- Mary J Blige signs with Uptown Records

- Lou Taylor does business mgmt with Uptown Records clients

"Before Mr. Azoff left MCA in 1988, he and Mr. Busby had recruited Mr. Harrell, the architect of the third stage of the company's plan. Mr. Harrell has brought Mary J. Blige and the rappers Heavy D. and the Boyz to MCA. In 1992, his New York-based Uptown Records was made a full-fledged label, with its own publicity and promotion departments, for a reported $50 million. Started as an independent company, Uptown entered into an agreement with MCA in 1986 to supply it with acts. The latest deal includes music-related projects for film and television." - NYT 1993

Isn't this where Larry Rudolph got his start as well?

[mocha latto]

The amount of corruption inside UMG is nuts

[mocha latto]

Just now, mocha latto said:

The amount of corruption inside UMG is nuts

allegedly

[Ghoulia]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:16 AM, Mx_Defying said:

1988

- Irving Azoff stepped down running MCA, but was already working with Uptown Records

1990(ish)

- Mary J Blige signs with Uptown Records

- Lou Taylor does business mgmt with Uptown Records clients

"Before Mr. Azoff left MCA in 1988, he and Mr. Busby had recruited Mr. Harrell, the architect of the third stage of the company's plan. Mr. Harrell has brought Mary J. Blige and the rappers Heavy D. and the Boyz to MCA. In 1992, his New York-based Uptown Records was made a full-fledged label, with its own publicity and promotion departments, for a reported $50 million. Started as an independent company, Uptown entered into an agreement with MCA in 1986 to supply it with acts. The latest deal includes music-related projects for film and television." - NYT 1993

https://lawnews.hofstra.edu/2016/05/18/larry-rudolph-88-reign-maker-for-britney-spears-and-miley-cyrus/

After working in a small general practice firm for a few years, Rudolph founded the New York entertainment law firm Rudolph & Beer, LLP in 1993, and began signing clients from the urban music scene that had grown up in Mount Vernon, New York, in the early ’90s.

“I got deeply involved in urban,” he says, “and then in the mid-’90s I was representing a few young kids [such as the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync] who were at the epicenter of the pop movement, and switched my focus to pop.”

https://www.allmusic.com/birthplace/mount-vernon-ny-mz0000033253?1665500306236

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/heavy-d-the-boyz-mn0000953447

Heavy D & the Boyz - Artist Details
Active:1980s - 1990s
Formed: 1986 in Mount Vernon, NY
Genre: Rap

[Mx_Defying]

17 minutes ago, Ghoulia said:

Heavy D & the Boyz - Artist Details
Active:1980s - 1990s
Formed: 1986 in Mount Vernon, NY
Genre: Rap

Harrell — remembered Saturday as a “consummate music man” by industry veteran Irving Azoff, who led MCA Records when the major label partnered with Uptown in 1988 — had already made stars of Blige, Jodeci, Guy, Al B. Sure! and Heavy D & the Boyz and had set Sean “Diddy” Combs, a one-time Uptown intern, on a path toward moguldom himself…..

Harrell went on to work for Russell Simmons at Simmons’ management company and at Def Jam, the groundbreaking rap label, before starting Uptown in 1986. Where Simmons was drawn to the “extremes on the inner-city tip,” as Harrell told Vanity Fair in 1993, Uptown’s founder sought to showcase music that balanced rough and smooth and could appeal to listeners of different ages and backgrounds.

“He would let an artist be young culturally — the way they dressed, the way they talked, the swag,” said Mark Siegel, a longtime talent agent who booked Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde and later served as general manager at Uptown. Now head of music at ICM Partners, Siegel added: “But Andre loved old R&B: the O’Jays, the Gap Band. The music at Uptown transcended generations.” 

Propelled by the success of chart-topping hits from the friendly Heavy D and the breathy-voiced Al B. Sure!, Harrell quickly joined the elite ranks of African-American record executives — his contemporaries included L.A. Reid and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds — then taking the baton from trailblazers like Motown’s Berry Gordy Jr.

My goal is to bring black America — just as it is, not watered down — to people everywhere through music, through films, through everything we do,” he told The Times in 1992 after re-upping with MCA in a $50-million deal that established a new multimedia company, Uptown Entertainment.

The next year he famously fired Combs, who’d taken on a high-profile creative role with Blige and Jodeci and who’d begun to chafe under Harrell’s authority. Yet when Combs started his own label, Bad Boy Records — and took with him the Notorious B.I.G., who’d released his first solo single as part of Uptown’s soundtrack for 1993’s “Who’s the Man?” — it was Harrell, insiders say, who persuaded Arista’s Clive Davis to fund Bad Boy in a joint venture that became a hip-hop supernova.

 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-05-10/andre-harrell-uptown-diddy-mary-blige

[Ghoulia]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:16 AM, Mx_Defying said:

1988

- Irving Azoff stepped down running MCA, but was already working with Uptown Records

1990(ish)

- Mary J Blige signs with Uptown Records

- Lou Taylor does business mgmt with Uptown Records clients

"Before Mr. Azoff left MCA in 1988, he and Mr. Busby had recruited Mr. Harrell, the architect of the third stage of the company's plan. Mr. Harrell has brought Mary J. Blige and the rappers Heavy D. and the Boyz to MCA. In 1992, his New York-based Uptown Records was made a full-fledged label, with its own publicity and promotion departments, for a reported $50 million. Started as an independent company, Uptown entered into an agreement with MCA in 1986 to supply it with acts. The latest deal includes music-related projects for film and television." - NYT 1993

More Larry Rudolph ---> Heavy D

Attorney Kendall Minter

https://music.gsu.edu/profile/kendall-minter/

In early 1995, Kendall relocated to Atlanta and joined the firm of Sales Goodloe & Golden, as counsel, where he established and developed an entertainment department. Kendall has also been Of Counsel to the New York City entertainment law firm Rudolph & Beer.

https://www.kendallminteresq.com/clients.html

Past Clients: 

Heavy D & The Boyz, The Backstreet Boys, Ying Yang Twins

 

[Ghoulia]

Rudolph & Beer represented Blackground Records as well.

https://variety.com/2001/film/news/beer-rudolph-brew-up-film-music-banner-1117798636/

"Its urban clients include Sugar Hill Gang, Ruff Ryders, members of the Wu Tang Clan and Blackground Records."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackground_Records

1993–1996: Jive Records
Barry Hankerson formed Blackground in 1993, as a result of unsuccessful efforts to sign his niece Aaliyah to big record labels. Using his connection with singer R. Kelly, who he managed at the time, Hankerson obtained a contract with Jive to distribute the release of Aaliyah's debut album Age Ain't Nothing but a Number.

Barry Hankerson of Blackground totally s.crewed over Toni Braxton.

2007 Toni Braxton Vs. Blackground.pdf - Google Drive

DRIVE.GOOGLE.COM

 

[Ghoulia]

https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ny/2309217

Rudolph & Beer incorporated Blackground in NY.

ALSO!

Check out page 4 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qV8Ai-j4O74oiE5gNGfCxzdRGpOsxLXn/view?usp=sharing

Sports and Entertainment Law Society Holds Discussion on the Legal Aspects of Music and Film 

Featured Speakers were Steven C.Beer, Esq. and Laurence Rudolph, Esq., both of the firm Rudolph and Beer, and DJ. T.A.P. Money, a producer/artist and a client of Rudolph and Beer.

https://greensboro.com/hip-hop-concert-promises-to-be-a-superjam/article_17ab2c8f-c898-50ac-a6bf-fc145615c421.html

Take this year's blockbuster lineup: Sean ``P. Diddy' Combs, Ja Rule and Ashanti plus six of rap music's rising stars, including Nappy Roots and Fat Joe.

Starting at 3 p.m., station DJ Tap Money will broadcast his afternoon radio program live from outside the coliseum. Vendors will sell hot dogs, soft drinks, CDs and SuperJam T-shirts, and Money will give away a handful of free tickets and interview some of the concert's performers, including Ja Rule and Ashanti.

[Mx_Defying]

37 minutes ago, Ghoulia said:

Kendall Minter

A sampling of Mr. Minter’s varied clients, past and present, includes Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shabba Ranks, Lena Horne, Roy Ayers, Musiq Soulchild, Jermaine Dupri, Najee, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Third World, Bunny Wailer, The Government of Jamaica, The Backstreet Boys, Cassandra Wilson, Teddy Riley, Freddie Jackson, former WBO Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer, Peter Tosh, Ashanti, M.C. Lyte, Heavy D & The Boyz, Mtume, Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Bishop Eddie Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Juanita Bynum, Arrow Records (Dr. Creflo Dollar), Montell Jordan and Victory World Church and numerous others.

 

https://livinglegendsfoundation.com/27067-2/

[Ghoulia]

6 minutes ago, Mx_Defying said:

 WBO Heavyweight Champion Ray Mercer

Lou's boxing clients...who were they?

[Mx_Defying]

12 minutes ago, Ghoulia said:

boxing clients...who were they?

 she launched Tri Star—at just 28, with two baseball stars and one boxing heavyweight

and who were the baseball stars? 

 

Lou Taylor, CEO, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group

LOUTAYLOR.NET

---

Taylor is quick to name three powerful male mentors—WME co-CEO Patrick Whitesell...

 

[Mx_Defying]

16 minutes ago, Mx_Defying said:

boxing heavyweight

If it is Mike Tyson OMG 

 

[Mx_Defying]

42 minutes ago, Mx_Defying said:

she launched Tri Star—at just 28, with two baseball stars and one boxing heavyweight

When Tri Star opened its doors in 1992, it had three big clients that followed from her old firm: baseball stars Tony Fernandez and Jesse Barfield, and boxer Michael Moorer, who gave Tri Star a big financial boost when he won the heavyweight crown from Evander Holyfield.

Variety 

[Ghoulia]

Okay, I’m still wondering how Lou got so much business/credibility without a degree or any experience! I don’t like Larry Rudolph, but he at least has a law degree. That had some marketable skills. What skills does Lou have?????????

[Steel Magnolia]

The only entry I have for Uptown Records in the Chronological Timeline so far:

1990 - During this year, Lou M. Taylor and her husband relocate to South Florida for work. Taylor joins a management firm called Davimos, where she works with a roster of big-name sports and music industry clients. “Among them was Andre Harrell, founder of Uptown Records, which had a roster that included Jodeci, Heavy D & the Boyz and a 21-year-old singer named Mary J. Blige (now a Tri Star client), who was recording her debut album “What’s the 411?” with a hot new producer named Sean Combs.”

Source: “Hollywood Business Manager Lou Taylor Is “Ferociously” Breaking the Glass Ceiling,” Ashley Cullins, Hollywood Reporter, October 10, 2019. Accessed August 24, 2022 from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/how-business-manager-lou-taylor-is-ferociously-breaking-glass-ceiling-1246036/

[Steel Magnolia]

I really need to read "Stiffed" again.

June 11, 1992:

"But sources close to the negotiations said that MCA will give Harrell an approximate $7-million annual budget to cover overhead, recording and marketing costs associated with albums released on the Uptown label. MCA and Harrell will co-own rights to all Uptown master recordings and share 50% of the profits earned on each venture."

https://web.archive.org/web/20200509213610/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-11-ca-247-story.html

 

[Ghoulia]

https://books.google.com/books?id=lREEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=RA1-PA80&dq="laurence h. rudolph"&pg=RA1-PA80#v=onepage&q="laurence h. rudolph"&f=false

Billboard May 8, 1993

 

[Ghoulia]

Rudolph & Beer's client 'Gerald Austin' --> that must be this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Austin

Gerald Austin (born December 4, 1941)^[1] is a retired American football official, who worked in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1982 season through the 2007 season.^[2] He wore uniform number 34, which is now worn by Clete Blakeman. Austin has officiated in three Super Bowls, one as a side judge and two as a referee.^[2] He was also notable being the referee in the 1993 AFC Wild Card playoff game between the Houston Oilers and Buffalo Bills, which would later become known in NFL lore as "The Comeback" for being the greatest comeback by a team in league history. Austin's 2007 NFL officiating crew consisted of Ruben Fowler, Ed Camp, Carl Johnson, Scott Edwards, Alberto Riveron and Bob Lawing.^[3]

Is this guy in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes??