Yesterday news broke that Def Jam had finally filled the President position, which has been vacant since 2007. Joie Manda, who is no stranger to this business will assume one of the most important positions in the Hip-hop industry. Explaining in a statement earlier today, “Running Def Jam is the greatest challenge of my career and I am appreciative to Barry Weiss for his faith in appointing me to this position. I’m excited to work alongside Steve Bartels, who is one of the most talented music execs in the business and who has played such an important role in building the IDJ team. The Def Jam artist roster has always been synonymous with the greatest in hip-hop, and I intend to carry that tradition into the future.”
Chairman & CEO of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam Barry Weiss added his thoughts on the power move. “As we look to expand Def Jam and our creative urban music activities even further, there is no one better to lead them than Joie. He has emerged as one of the most respected young executives in today’s Urban music landscape, possessing all the qualifications and experience that are essential to run Def Jam, the world’s most important hip-hop destination. The entire Def Jam family looks forward to working closely with Joie as he puts his unique imprint on the next chapter in the label’s storied and successful history.”
In the current issue of The Source Magazine, Joie Manda opened up on his past and present in our Power Moves section. Check out part of the interview and for more pick up the issue on newsstands now.
Joey with an “I.E.,” every good modern-day, Brooklyn-bred businessman like yourself has a story about how he got into Hip-Hop. What’s yours?
Well, I was a DJ when I was a kid growing up. My mother bought me turntables for my 13th birthday. I was obsessed with Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, Big Daddy Kane, Special Ed. I used to watch Video Music Box every day after school, so, you know, I was just obsessed with rap music.
You parlayed that obsession into managing Funkmaster Flex early on in your career; how did you hook that up?
I was a party promoter and I started working at a club, the Palladium, in New York City. Flex used to do Fridays and I would do Saturday, and I asked him to come spin some music on Saturday and we just hit it off, and we’ve been close friends and business partners ever since. I was never officially a manager; there were times that I did functions that a manager would do, but it was more of a partnership.
What kinds of things were built from that partnership?
Flex had an album on Def Jam in 1999 called The Tunnel and I was the Associate Executive Producer on that album. I spent a lot of time in the Def Jam building and that’s when I really knew that I wanted to pursue working at a record label. I consulted for Loud Records (after the Def Jam album, I executive produced an album for Flex on Loud) and then in 2004, Lyor Cohen and Todd Moscowitz hired me to start Asylum [Records] with them.
How do you define success?
Success is not only selling records, but bringing artists to life and everyone seeing how great that artist is, and also building a great team, and building the next great executives here at Warner Bros. I take as much pleasure in building executives as I do artists, and I think we have some of the best ones here. I think that’s the biggest sign of success. If I can find somebody as good or better than me to have my job in the future, that’s the most important sign of success to me.
You’re definitely skilled at spotting talent, but do you still DJ? Can we catch you on the turntables for an “End of the World 2012” party?
Nah, we’ll let Flex DJ that one.
—Sia Tiambi Barnes
