In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip
Hop and my Haitian heritage, this post is meant to highlight several Haitian American managers and Execs in Hip Hop.
1. Harve Pierre - Current President and partial owner of Bad Boy Entertainment as well as Head of A&R / Head of Music Publishing. He has been with Bad Boy since the inception and has been part of shaping every aspect of the label's groundbreaking success, including managing the entire Bad Boy Music catalog since its beginning. He currently oversees Finance, Creative, Radio & Street Promotions, Marketing, A&R/Administration, Publicity, Digital, Content Management, International, Business Affairs and Sales divisions at the label. Harve also oversees Bad Boy's video, Sean Combs personal video content and music archive. He went to Howard University with Sean Combs, Mark Pitts, Don Pooh, and Derek Angelettie. Harve also performed under the alias Joe Hooker.
2. Mona Scott Young - Former co-owner and president of Violator Management and current CEO Of Monami Productions. Along with Chris Lighty, Mona helped manage a roster of artists that included Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J and Missy Elliot, whom she still manages today. She’s produced hit television series for VH1, We TV, Bravo, and more.
3. Claudine Joseph- Chief Operating Officer of LL COOL J Inc, where she manages the daily operation for LL’s brand. She got her start as executive assistant to CEO Chris Lighty in 1999 and was promoted to junior manager, manager and vice president of Violator management. Before that she was production manager for Wu-Wear. Claudine is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology and holds a bachelor of science in marketing and international trade.
In honor of Women’s History Month, the Haitian Women's Alliance will host a panel of three Haitian women at the top of their fields. They are Claudine Joseph...
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4. Shakim Compere- Co-CEO of Flavor Unit Management and Flavor Unit Entertainment, along with Queen Latifah Flavor Unit, founded by Latifah and business partner Shakim Compere, has produced award-winning films including Beauty Shop, The Perfect Holiday, Just Wright and Bessie, as well as HBO’s Life Support. More recently, Latifah and Compere produced The Real MVP: The Wanda Pratt Story, The Best Place to Be, Curvy Style with Timothy Snell, The Perfect Match and The Rap Game. Past management clients include Naughty by Nature, Monica, Outkast, SWV, and Apache amongst several others.
5. Pierre Jospitre aka Rich Player - Fat Joe’s Business Manager and graduate of Pace University. Rich has been a member of TS for years and is Fat Joe's right hand man.
7. Hurby Azor aka Hurby Luvbug – Discovered Salt-N-Pepa. Established Idol Makers Management and Idol Makers Films. Managed and produced Kid N Play, Sweet Tee, Dana Dane, and Kwame, among others.
He crafted hits for Salt N Pepa, Kid n Play, Kwame and more. We talk to Hurby "Luv Bug" about his legacy.
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8. Michael Jean Clervoix aka Sha Money XL - former president of G-Unit records, VP of A&R at Def Jam records where he signed Big K.R.I.T & 2 Chainz, Senior VP of urban music at Epic records where he signed Bobby Shmurda & Yo Gotti as well as A&R Travis Scott's 1st release. Sha Money XL continues to produce and executive produce hit records in the music industry today and currently is president of Teamwork Music Inc. running his own music label.
9. Bob Celestin - A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Bob started his legal career as an associate at Kaye, Scholar, et. al practice, corporate law. He went on to work in the legal department of Arista Records with Clive Davis. He then went on to work as the VP/GM of Uptown Records under Andre Harell. And then Untouchables Entertainment, Inc., the home of Pete Rock; CL Smooth and Donnell Jones, also as VP/GM. He also managed the Grammy nominated and platinum selling Pop/R&B group City High. Bob represented both xxxtencion and Pop Smoke as an entertainment lawyer.
10. Steven Victor - Victor’s background includes running G.O.O.D. Music, the imprint founded by Kanye West and distributed through Def Jam, and representing clients including Pusha T, The-Dream and the late Pop Smoke. Victor was named Def Jam’s executive VP of A&R in October of 2017 and left the company in 2019 to shift to a senior VP of A&R role at Universal Music Group, Def Jam’s parent company, and work on his joint venture with UMG, Victor Victor Worldwide. He is the founder and current CEO of Victor Victor Worldwide, COO of GOOD Music, and SVP of A&R at Universal Music Group. Steven attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and Psychology.
11. Melissa Victor-Burkhardt - Melissa Victor is the Vice President at Sony Music Entertainment. She works with artists and executives of Island Records, Def Jam Recordings and Mercury Records on television, Internet and print media exposure. Victor got her start at Interscope Records in 2001. She's a graduate of Spellman with a political science and government degree. Melissa is also the sister of Steven Victor above.
12. Niel Dominique - got his start as an intern for DJ Envy then became assistant to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, worked his way to being an A&R at Bad Boy records. Now Dominique is Bryson Tiller’s manager and Director of Music and Talent for Revolt TV.
13. Marsha St. Hubert- Senior Vice Presidents of Urban Marketing for Atlantic Records. Hubert is the senior vice president of urban marketing for Atlantic records. She got her start in the business in 2002 as an intern for Lyor Cohen at IDJ. When Cohen left IDJ for WMG in 2004, he asked St. Hubert to join him. Shortly after moving to WMG, St. Hubert went to work for Atlantic Co-Chairman & CEO Craig Kallman, first as his assistant and then as A&R Operations Manager. In 2007, St. Hubert moved to Atlantic’s marketing department as a Product Manager, spearheading breakthrough projects by artists such as Wiz Khalifa, DJ Drama, and Lupe Fiasco. In 2012, she left the company for a two-year stint at Epic Records. St. Hubert returned to Atlantic in 2014, reuniting with Wiz Khalifa and other artists. She's also part of Cardi B's management team.
14. Carl Chery - the current Creative Director and Head of Urban Music at Spotify. Carl has previously worked as the Head of Hip-Hop/R&B Programming at Beats Music, the Digital Content Director at Harris Publications, and the Head of Artist Curation at Apple Music. Carl also spent two years as the Executive Editor at BET Digital. But he got his start working for SOHH.com. Carl Chery has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Brooklyn College.
15. Karen Civil- Current EVP/GM of Young Money Records. Karen has worked with Nipsey Hussle to former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Wayne was her first client when she launched her marketing agency, always civil.
16. Jimmy Rosemond aka Jimmy Henchman- Founder and CEO of Czar entertainment. Former music manager/executive producer for the Game, Akon, Brandy, Gucci Mane, and several others. Jimmy got his start as the founder of the "How Can I Be Down" music conference. Rosemond is currently serving a life sentence in Federal prison where he continues to appeal his sentence. Jimmy Henchman's son is carrying on his father's legacy as the manager of rap artist Ice Spice.
17. Yves C Pierre- Agent at CAA, spent 9 years at ICM before that where she represented Rapsody, Migos, and Lil Yachty. Yves started out as a college rep for Def Jam Recordings during her undergraduate years at the University of Maryland in College Park. After leaving DJ, she then got an internship turned job at Rocafella.
Join us as we bring together some of the top women influencers in the music industry.
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18. Nicole Plantin – Vice President/ A&R at Rostrum Records. Before joining Rostrum, Plantin was director of writer-publisher relations at BMI. During her tenure there, she signed Jhené Aiko, ScHoolboy Q, Odd Future, Dreezy and Joey Bada$$. Plantin began her music career with The Neptunes’ Star Trak label, whose roster included Clipse, Kelis, and N.E.R.D. Plantin has spent nearly three years at Rostrum as Senior Director, Management, and A&R. Plantin was the previous Director, Writer-Publisher Relations at BMI in Los Angeles
19. Carl Lamarre - Deputy Director of Hip Hop and rnb at Billboard. A graduate of Queens college, Carl is Billboard’s Hip Hop Editor and also the host of series such as Audiomack’s Beyond The Beat, Grammy Conversations, & Sirius XM’s Billboard Live.
20. Marie Theodore, better known as Marie Driven, is a Haitian American publicist and entrepreneur who is the co-founder of communications firm PlaybookMG, the owner of the charity We Fight Back and the co-founder of the event venue Room43. She is the co-founder and managing partner of Playbook MG along with partner, Jean Jones. Playbook MG started in 2012 and Marie Driven PR in 2009. She has worked with Jamaican acts like Spice, Mr Vegas, Jr Reid, Serani, Lexxus, Yellowman, Demarco, Future Fambo and Marion Hall and now hopes to work with soca artistes.