"I was just trying to make it with Steve Stoute...the legal way, drug-free route"~Nas
Making the 🍩 with Steve Stoute + United Masters, Brent Faiyaz stays indy, Nas's Steps to Success, The Trackmasters Discography + Anthony Saleh's 🚀
About a decade ago, Netflix’s Co-Ceo, Ted Sarandos said “We need to become HBO before HBO becomes us.”
And over the past 10 years we’ve watched Netflix transform.
They’ve created premium originals like House of Cards, Ozark, and The Crown.
In addition they’ve created viral sensations like Stranger Things, Squid Game and The Queen’s Gambit.
And in their next chapter, they’re moving into fitness content and gaming.
Their ability to continually adapt and reinvent themselves is the reason they just celebrated their 25th anniversary and have a market cap of $142B.
Change is everywhere and if you’re stuck in your ways you’ll end up missing your moment.
Basketball is my favorite sport and in part, the excitement around it is due to its rapid evolution and constant change.
Seeding for the Men’s NCAA basketball tournament has existed since 1979. This year the tournament had multiple firsts.
It was the first time that a single #1 seed did not make the elite 8. Three teams (Florida Atlantic, San Diego St., and University of Miami) made their first Final Four appearance.
Pre-season #1 UNC and Villanova, who won two championships in the past seven years, didn’t even make it to the big dance.
Looking ahead, NBC Sports is projecting that the top 5 picks in this year’s NBA draft will be:
Victor Wembanyama - International
Scoot Henderson - G League
Brandon Miller - Alabama
Amen Thompson - Overtime Elite
Ausar Thompson - Overtime Elite
So 4 out of the top 5 projected picks are currently playing basketball in different leagues.
Overtime, the sports network that was founded by Dan Porter and Zack Weiner in 2016 started its own league (Overtime Elite) just three years ago and on draft night will soon be graduating some of its players to basketball’s biggest stage.
So what’s that tell us? There isn’t one path to playing in the NBA.
Young ballers have a variety of options and it’s up to them to figure out what makes the most sense.
The same is true in the music industry.
You don’t have to sign to a major label to be successful in music.
There are a wide variety of options to get your music on the DSP’s. But in these times, distribution holds little value.
With 100k songs being uploaded daily, 38 million songs on DSP’s that didn’t have a single stream in 2022, and a Spotify recommendation algorithm that is deteriorating, artists need to find ways to cut through the noise.
As Ben Thompson of Stratechery stated, “In a world of scarcity distribution was the most valuable; in a world of abundance it is discovery that matters most.”
One person who seems to understand adapting to the times and finding creative ways to drive discovery for his talent is Steve Stoute.
Throughout his career, Stoute has constantly evolved and has shown time and time again that he’s been a step ahead.
He was a label executive at Sony and Interscope and a manager to Nas, Mary J. Blige, and the Trackmasters.
And then he realized that while the Men in Black soundtrack sold millions of copies, the Ray-Ban sunglasses that Will Smith wore in the movie sold more.
He jumped into the advertising business and changed the game for Reebok by pairing Jadakiss who rapped about the brand in an advertisement with Allen Iverson.
“Large bag from Steve Stoute, commercial with A.I.” ~ Jadakiss from his song “Me”
Since then, Stoute has orchestrated a lengthy list of note-worthy campaigns pairing artists with brands in authentic ways which is why he’s in the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame.
His and the Translation team’s concepts and ideas are seen on TV on a regular basis whether it’s Apple, State Farm, or NBA commercials.
In addition, Steve recognized that the music industry business model was ripe for disruption and his forward-thinking led him to Silicon Valley before it became commonplace for music executives and artists to spend time out there.
With backing from Ben Horowitz and his venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, Stoute launched United Masters in 2017.
Over the past six years, UM has provided artists with a series of unique opportunities and partnerships.
But something even more interesting is going on.
A shift in structure and perception.
Historically, major labels were recognized as having capabilities that independents didn’t have.
Majors could get you on Television and put you on the radio. They could make you a star.
Independents couldn’t do those things.
Well, Brent Faiyaz and a number of other artists feel differently.
Earlier this week, United Masters and Brent Faiyaz announced a partnership that would allow Brent to remain “independent” while providing him with the infrastructure needed to further his career.
This is an artist who had plenty of suitors based on his success over the past several years putting out projects through Human Re Sources and STEM with marketing from Venice but yet chose to partner with UM to take his career to the next level.
Oftentimes, we see artists start off independent and then sign with a major label when they get major traction.
But something different is going on with United Masters.
They’re retaining their talent and providing them with services that were historically only offered by major labels.
With the diverse roster of talent that UM is partnering with, they are meeting artists where they are and finding different ways to break them.
BigXthaPlug has the anthem for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s revived XFL.
“UnitedMasters was doing their job and networking my name around and talking about my background,” BigX said. “I was blessed with the opportunity.”
Earn Your Leisure (who are not artists) partnered with UM early to work with them on finding the right brand partners. That led to a number of activations between EYL, UM, and Ally Financial with the spirit of each event being around empowerment and education.
Ekkstacy who has been working with UM for several years, is generating in the ballpark of 5M streams a week. His single, “I Walk This Earth All By Myself” from 2021 is still doing 2M streams a week globally
Universal Music Group is trimming back their spend at radio while United Masters artist Superstar Pride is #6 at Urban Mainstream and has a good shot at getting to #1. He’s racked up just under 100M streams on Spotify for his song “Painting Pictures.”
Tobe Nwigwe, coming off a Grammy Nomination for “Best New Artist” will be starring in this summer’s blockbuster film, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.” His profile has continued to rise in part due to opportunities brought to him by UM like this Apple x NBA TV commercial.
Hit-Boy, whose production run over the past few years is as good as anyone’s, decided to partner with UM on Beat Exchange where artists could collaborate with him on tracks.
Mavi is currently on tour and has 2.2M monthly listeners on Spotify.
Alina Baraz, who has garnered several billion streams, decided to go with UM after leaving Mom+Pop.
And now you add Brent Faiyaz to the mix.
Faiyaz who has moved 425k w/TEA w/SEA On-Demand albums this year is the #63 most consumed artist for 2023 YTD according to Luminate. His most recent project came out 10 months ago.
Frank Ocean, who has been the recipient of much press and conversation leading up to and post-Coachella has moved 450k w/TEA w/SEA On-Demand albums this year.
The value of Brent Faiyaz’s partnership is rumored to be in the ballpark of $50M. A large sum of money that traditionally would only come from a major. That’s no longer the case though.
The ability to compete from a money standpoint and a service standpoint is a strong value proposition in itself. The press reads that the deal allows him to remain “independent” which most likely means a long licensing period but Faiyaz retains ownership of his master recordings. It was a partnership that Faiyaz along with his team that includes Ty Baisden, Paris Kirk, and Jayne Andrew couldn’t pass up.
I also think there are some other things at play with United Masters.
Artists and talent want to work with people who understand them and can help them further their careers.
They don’t want to necessarily sign with people who you only see at industry events and aren’t in the trenches with them. While artist grievances are nothing new, there’s been quite a few publicized rumblings with artists on majors in the recent past.
Meanwhile, Stoute, David Melhado, and the rest of the UM team are figuring out what the plays are for each act and putting them in motion.
And with a rolodex as unique as the commissioner’s, anything is possible.
While many music execs just talk to other music execs sharing the same gossip and regurgitating the same information, you may find the commissioner moving around with the elite of any industry.
The talent at UM has been the beneficiaries of these diverse and deep-rooted relationships outside of the music business with opportunities with Cash App, the NBA, Intuit, and Apple amongst others.
In a world where there is no one way to break artists, these relationships are becoming increasingly important.
Would you rather sign to the record company where you never see their C-Suite or would you rather partner with the guy who is trading ideas and figuring out plays with the brightest minds across all industries?
But this is nothing new for Stoute. He’s always been a relationship guy that the best talent wants to work with.
Let’s take it back to the beginning with the Trackmasters who Stoute managed.
When you talk about the producers who defined an era, Tone and Poke (The Trackmasters) aren’t acknowledged nearly enough.
Their discography includes:
And many other incredible tracks from Ludacris, Fabolous, Lil Kim, Jamie Foxx, Heavy D, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Allure, Total, Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Cam’ron, etc.
The collaboration between Stoute, The Trackmasters, and Nas made “It Was Written” a timeless classic.
And through their 30 years of friendship, clearly, Stoute has had some influence on Nas as referenced in many of his songs.
It is no surprise to see that Nas has been building his own empire too.
Mr. Jones has branched out into many different verticals and is having a ton of success.
You may catch him with his director hat on for the showtime series “Supreme Team” or partnering up with John Seymour on the restaurant “Sweet Chick” or building his media company “Mass Appeal” with Peter Bittenbender or in a Hennessy commercial.
Nas has been on a helluva run and the best part of it is that the music hasn’t suffered.
The tag team of Nas & Hit-Boy has been nothing short of incredible. It led to a well-deserved Grammy win for “Best Rap Album” with “King’s Disease” and a sold-out night at MSG performing the KD trilogy in February.
The only thing rivaling the Nas & Hit-Boy tag team is the Nas & Anthony Saleh tag team.
Nas has been interested in technology since he was playing with Commodore 64 machines at P.S. 76. They took that interest and ran with it.
Together, they built a highly successful early-stage venture fund with Queensbridge Venture Partners that (according to Crunchbase) has had 49 exits including:
Lyft (Market Cap $4B)
Coinbase (Market Cap $11.54B)
Robinhood (Market Cap $7.65B)
Dropbox (Market Cap Dropbox $6.94B)
Ring (Acquired for $1B)
What led Anthony to investment?
“My whole thesis around investing was that I was really frustrated with the lack of innovation in music,” says Saleh. “We set out to surround ourselves with smarter people.” (from Zach O’Malley Greenburg’s book, A-List Angels).
And while the QBVP fund was retired after all of the money was deployed, their ability to identify winning companies hasn’t stopped. Both Nas and Anthony continue to invest via different investment vehicles.
Anthony (along with Nas’s brother, “Jungle” and Gabriel “G-Code” Zardes who is part of the management team) have done an incredible job guiding Nas’s career.
Like Stoute, Anthony’s understanding of artists and building relationships outside of music has led to great success.
As a partner at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, Saleh has invested in companies like Dapper Labs.
His management of Kendrick Lamar and partnership with Dave Free just resulted in “The Big Steppers” tour becoming the highest-grossing rap tour of all time with:
$110.9M grossed
73 dates
929,000 tickets sold
In addition, one of the most impactful music videos in recent memory was Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5” which utilized deep fake technology from Deep Voodoo to transform himself into Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle, and Kanye West.
Before the Grammy win for King’s Disease, Nas & Ant won an Emmy for ESPN’s documentary “Survival 1.”
Stoute, Nas, and the Trackmasters are undoubtedly New York legends and Anthony is on course to go down as a Los Angeles legend.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do next.
