How Joie Manda Went From Running The Door at the TUNNEL to EVP of Interscope | Blueprint

from party promoter to hip-hop ANR to EVP of Interscope Geffen am Joey Amanda ascended to the top of the record industry by following a lifelong commitment to get as close to the music as possible this is his blueprint you drop out of high school eleventh grade were you giving any thought to what the future would hold at that point no when I dropped out of high school I was working for a friend of mine he was throwing parties people like did it for a few years in high school and then they went off to college or they had a strategy and they went off and went to live their life and for a while it was perceived that I was a loser because they're like Oh Joe so Joey yeah you're still doing that how you still still going to the club still working you know still throwing parties where were these parties at well they were in Brooklyn kind of local neighborhood parties underage and then he made the jump and he started working at the Palladium and he had Saturday nights in the Palladium which is the Bridge and Tunnel night and they played house music on the main floor and then we had a hip-hop room I kind of became the king of the hip-hop room Jessica who managed flex is Jessica Rosen for Jessica rose Mumia who managed flex who's you know Lego Jean your club legend but she let me start working the door at the tunnel on Sunday I was going anyway again just to hear music you saw everyone from big to not to puff to J it was like a groundswell moment for rap music you know it was great to see the artist but I always studied the people with the artists like Chris lighty had a huge effect on me because I would see him at the radio station he would come through a phone buzzing harmony or LL Cool J I didn't know anyone that worked at a record label or had any you know legitimacy in the music business like seeing Chris and seeing how he moved seeing how the artists entreated him he's not a rapper or a producer or a DJ but he's in this just as much and I don't know if it's subconscious or conscious but I was like I kind of want to be like that growing up in Brooklyn I wrote graffiti so I fought with other kids over graffiti I mean I had a crew and I had people that were down with me but most people were kind of an enemy and everything was always so adversarial and when I got into music and I started meeting people gotta be like you know super cool with anyone that was in the music business I always heard it was about networking so I was always extra nice to people even though a lot of people dicks but I was you know trying to be cool you don't make beats you're not a DJ are you assessing your own skill set and figuring out like well I'm really good at this and I'm really good at that and flex kind of did that for me he was kind of like you pick really good beat and you really good at calling records and he was like yeah I think you should do any and are and I was like that'd be incredible like can you help me with that so he he signed this deal with Def Jam and then he started bringing me like he was bringing me to the meetings and I didn't I never even asked why you never had a conversation about not he was just like I'm going to see Kevin and Lior and Todd tomorrow meeting in front of Def Jam at 11 o'clock so I would get there at 10:30 and he would get there at 12:30 and so you're a and ahhing this record for flex and you've been working for him for years now and you're not making a ton of money are you cognizant that you're paying it forward are you thinking about that as at that point yeah once I once I started working on the tunnel album got you know access to Def Jam then I'm like yeah I'm building to something that was a pivotal point for me where I was like oh wow if I do a good job on this this could lead to more as you're learning more and the curtains getting pulled back are you falling deeper in love with the music or is it really it's like it's getting better flex is on the radio so he'd be like we need to cut nos on that song that we have you know I've been trying to get in studio he said he's gonna come tonight at 10 o'clock and I was like well you're on the radio until 12 o'clock how's that going to work you're like no youyou be there I'm like I think maybe you should be there because when he comes in he's probably more CD's like he's like not to be cool he's like he just season coming into a verse he's like fine and I'm like okay so we were at mirror-image in Times Square and Nas comes sure enough I couldn't believe it and he walks in I mean I have met him and seen him before I didn't really you know again never worked in a recording session and never you know never A&R anything so he's like pull the beat up he says it's cool yeah I'll [ __ ] with it so then he goes right into the booth engineer can't keep up with nas nas gets super frustrated so he walks out of the booth he's a yellow flex I can't [ __ ] with your man right here behind the board like I can't do it he knew as he was telling me that he was never ever going to come the studio again do anything for this album and I knew it and everyone in the room knew and I was like yo nas please we just need you man like like we need you on this album seems like our event he's like but you man got to keep up like literally and he walks back in and he finishes it so again that was invaluable learning experience for me I never used an engineer the studio recommended again unless I knew the Maya always brought my own engineer after that that I knew would be ready to record nas or or J or whoever the studio that's that's kind of the real office that's where the most important work happens I still get excited working in the studio I mean when you put artists together in the studio artist and a producer sometimes the sessions not going to go anywhere and it's not going to turn into anything but sometimes it's going to be an incredible song an incredible project an incredible album studios is where it's really happening Joey had learned how to put an album together on the fly but his real challenges in ANR came in the form of a mandate by Lyor Cohen to find the next big names in rap so you had this one credit under your belt and a huge amount of information now how do you transition from that to striking out on your own working at asylum in 2004 lyric : left Def Jam and went to one Warner Music Group which is Atlantic Records Warner Brothers Records he had a vision in his mind when he went to Warner I want to make sure that I get the next cash money the next rap a lot the next No Limit so I want to have a distribution service but more than a distribution service I want to have a distribution service with a little bit of taste that can super serve entrepreneurs so Todd hired me to do it was called an art but it was really everything we did everything what is the a challenge of this digital and of the company the challenge was something from nothing people go you know go to labels and you have a roster and you know usually have some some acts or something to fall back on some artists that are that are good Superstars if you're lucky enough when you get to a label or they're they're great developing artists you know Asylum was basically like zero roster but you can have this thing hey eat what you kill go find some great entrepreneurs and companies to distribute an artist go for it we made more out of it than they expected us to we went out and got Juicy J and hypnotize mind then we went and got swish a house that we went to got trend attainment which is busi and webby we signed Cam Ranh because he had left Def Jam at that point so we got Cameron and Dipset Paul wall and Mike Jones was really like the breakthrough for Paul Solomon Jones were huge yeah I mean when we signed Mike Jones I think we did 2 million albums on his first album and nobody saw that comment nobody expected it still Tippin had been out for a year and everyone in Houston and everyone in the South was kind of gear that regulars the [ __ ] but it's toast now and we took a national and we were like nah this record if we you know if it gets exposed to the rest of the country in the rest of the world it's going to be something and that's what we did and it was something so personally you this is your first time that you have a job that has health benefits yeah you are a full-time employee into the record and not making a lot of money and how old are you I got hired at Asylum when I was thirty for a modest salary and again you are looking at all of this as paying it forward that this is somehow going to all pay off I wanted to compete with A&R guys at every major label that were making five times what I was making how does it go okay now I have signing power I have my mentor friends who's running the company or not now I'm going to go kill now I'm going to show people what I can do and when you look back what are the biggest achievements from that that time in Asylum yeah at that point there was no guarantee I mean if Asylum didn't work it would have been a blip on the radar they were worried about Atlantic and Warner Brothers what was your personal challenge to yourself what did you hope to get out of this I just wanted to put up hits and sign artists that became big that was the goal how did your time an asylum come to a close we folded into Warner Brothers in the fall of 2010 they wanted me to run the urban part of the company so we brought all the asylum artists over with us to Warner Brothers they hadn't been a major force in urban music like you know Atlantic was at the time or Def Jam or anybody like that so we went to Warner Brothers and that's when we kind of decided like we need to take this up now we're part of a major and now we have to do you know now we have to take it up a notch and do bigger deals and not just kind of like street rap music so we did the the MMG deal with Ross and that was great we got wildly and me kind of great partnership with Ross every label was was trying to get the deal and he believed in us so how do you go from being the man in urban music at Warner Brothers to being the president of Def Jam now I've been at Warner Music Group for seven years and my contract was coming to an end Lior and I didn't agree on what I what I should be compensated and Lee or was being Lee or and he didn't want to pay me what was fair market value this is a change in your sort of attitude towards this is the first time in this story where money has motivated a decision that you've made yeah because after a while after you pay enough dues at some point you have to reap the benefits what told you that at that point in your career it was time for you to sort of take your chips off the table you pay your dues for a certain amount of time you have a certain amount of success you make a certain amount of money for other people you make a little bit of yourself but part of growing up and really maturing and being a leader is realizing when you need to take care of yourself and make sure that people are being fair with you it's a part of being a big boy you got to grow up and make sure you're getting treated fairly I got a call from from Barry Weiss who was running on the East Coast of Universal Music which included Def Jam I went and met with him and they offered me the presidency of Def Jam pinch myself moment it was pins and it was incredible and I took the job and this is coming on the heels of jay-z having been the president so those were the shoes you were filling please don't say that yeah yeah I was the next person after I mean after jay-z to have the job of president of Def Jam we've had a different trajectory since then you have to write your reps yeah I have to write my reps I have to use a pen good problem you had a short but very successful run as president of Def Jam during that period you drop to the NAS record the Frank Ocean record Kanye album crew summer two chains and then it came to an end very quickly they were calling me the president Def Jam it didn't feel like I was the president Def Jam it felt like it felt like Barry was really running the thing and that's kind of Barry style and not a knock against him but it wasn't the I didn't ask enough questions so when I got there he and I or we weren't on the same page of what I was going to be doing what he was going to be doing what other people in the company were going to be doing you know I put my head down and we had some success like you're saying and you know we signed been staples together which was awesome janae I eco who Dianna had signed a Champions when I got there I thought she was incredible what was the moment that you knew that this was not going to work out day two really yeah when I first got there I just I kind of sensed it I go up vibes I go of gut you feel what's what's emulating from the walls and like I got it this is the first time in your career that things are not playing out exactly how you would want to W to the first step back it was the first step back to the public it didn't seem like a failure I don't think because of the success of the artist that under your tenure but privately you felt as though this was a bit of a fail it was definitely a failure to me I didn't really affect any great change and that's an L for me either way you sort of engineer this move from Def Jam which is owned by Universal Records to Interscope which is also owned by Universal Records so clearly the sort of corporate overlords are seeing the value that you bring to the organization in general despite that not being necessarily the best cultural fit I was ready to be unemployed I was ready to cool I'll go you know I'll go figure it out it's so important to me and like I take the [ __ ] so seriously it's not like I was like let me figure out Plan B like I was just like I can't do this by the grace of God and the powers that be in the universe I was able to move to Interscope which is a blessing we did a gut renovation a year ago ripped out the walls rips out the desks and just tried to make a forward-thinking workspace right now we're trying to get everyone in the same room for more collaboration and more of a creative process and a better flow of information I think it's paid off again it's just a constant theme of staying close to the music Joey had climbed to the top of the pyramid but saw his presidency at Def Jam as a misstep trading teams to a new role at Interscope allowed him to rebuild rebrand and rebound when you get to Interscope what is on your short list of things that you want to get done when I got to Interscope John zanuck who who used to own fuel buy ramen he had just been named president of endoscope Jimmy Iovine was still the the chairman and he was he was all about effecting change I felt that energy and it was a different vibe when I walked in the door it was about building the best team really starting with the executives here seeing who the great young executives were moving some people department to Department figuring out okay who's you know who's kind of time has passed and they should be doing this you know who's never got a shot and just kind of like reinvigorating the staff also kind of retooling the roster what artists should be here what artists you know had that their you know that they needed to move on that was my whole first year two years here one of the most important things I think for being an ANR is having a personality that you can disarm and leave artists relaxed I would meet them and say something from a song that I thought was dope and that usually went a long way like in any situation that still goes a long way like if I see an artist depend on like yeah I was listening to like right now I'll texts are and just you know randomly just be like just text some of their lyrics and over like oh [ __ ] like you [ __ ] paying attention like you know that's always that that's really what artists want they want to know that besides people just listening to the to the melody and the beat that you really listen to what they're saying like it's it's important to them you have your team in place so you now have a roster that you feel like you can work with what are the next steps to building what Interscope is today you know everyone's looking at playboy cardi now and black I got to make sure they live up to their potential I'm part of the team that does that but I have to think about you know in 2018 who's going to be our next play Bacardi and our next black a lot of your successes have come by virtue of your relationships and the way that you network and connect with people have you always felt that you were a people person anytime I get into something that's creative but I'm a fan of and I think they'd open it could be somebody who's a huge artist and an icon who I get in a room with and I'm liking I could talk to them about how the album's have affected me or you know their lyrics or it could be somebody that walks in as office and plays one song because they're trying to get signed and I'm just like wow you're [ __ ] incredible that's when I feel like I open up those are the best situations for me and it's so rewarding to me to just be near talent like real talent you said that early on one of the most important things was making sure that you were nice to everybody and you know trying to leave a good impression and manage those relationships are you still hyper conscious of trying to manage each of those your relationships kind of ebb and flow with people sometimes I have to take a position for one of my artists and defend them and it could be defending them against somebody who I've known for 20 years who has a different artist or a different producer and it you know and they need to protect in the same way you know I'm here to fight for artists so sometimes you can't keep a good relationship with everyone when you're fighting for your artist is there anything that you are hyper conscious of when you think about missteps that you've had or things that haven't worked that you think is sort of an endemic character flaw that you have to work on you would look at artists that I have signed that haven't worked out you know that haven't had commercial success and you look at that as a failure the times I look back on and that I really think about it more when I had a chance to meet an artist who was special and I missed it and they went on to be great someplace else that to me those those are you know those hurt more when you think about your own characteristics and attributes as a person what do you think the most important are in terms of what have allowed you to succeed within industry I want to be the best and our person an executive in the music business and that's what drives me maybe some of that sphere and you know and maybe that's because I don't want to lose the position that I'm in I want it the same way you know when I would stand outside the tunnel in 1993 and it was three below zero and I was making a hundred and twenty-five dollars I wake up with the same mindset today and a lot of people say that but it's not true but for me it's a hundred percent true I wake up every morning and I want it more than anyone else does [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Complex

Views: 147,312

Rating: 4.8066158 out of 5

Keywords: complex, complex originals, sneakers, news, culture, funny, complex media, miller17bp, blueprint, interscope, def jam, lyor cohen, funk flex, new york, music, joie manda, kevin liles, paul wall, mike jones, 2 chainz, frank ocean, jessica rosenblum, barry weiss, juicy j, swishahouse, lil boosie, webbie, dipset, cam'rom, warner bros., rap, hip-hop, MMG, rick ross, career, money, jhene aiko, vince staples, playboi carti, nas, universal, cruel summer, kanye, todd moscowitz, Noah Callahan-Bever

Id: JTTlAAEmF1I

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 14 2017