Category Archives: Steve Stoute

Here’s something dope. Last month, the Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing honored iconic record executive, Jimmy Iovine at the renowned Village recording studio in Los Angeles. A video retrospective on the American Idol partner’s culture shaping career was displayed during the celebration, featuring vintage clips of his early days producing records for legends Tom Petty, Bruce Springstein, and more. The montage details everything from the onset of Interscope records to the origins of beats By Dre headphones—and even includes a couple of clips from of Iovine’s interview with Steve … → read more

Today, Translation CEO and author of The Tanning of America, Steve Stoute, interviewed legendary emcee, Nas, at the SXSW Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas. The hour long discussion is easily one of the Queens rapper’s most revealing interviews to date. Nas opened up about his relationship with Amy Winehouse, and even stated that the two planned to work together on the sequel to “Me and Mr. Jones,” before her untimely passing. Read additional excerpts of the interview below. Nas on the period when he thought hip-hop died: Between [1986] … → read more

South By Southwest just got a little tanner. Steve Stoute—author of The Tanning Of America: How Hip-Hop Created A Culture That Rewrote The Rules Of The New Economy—has been added as a featured speaker to this year’s annual SXSW Music And Media Conference in Austin, Texas. Presented by his advertising firm, Translation, Stoute and hip-hop luminary, Nas, will be featured on the SXSW Interview on Friday, March 16 at 3:30PM. Then, on Saturday, March 17 at 11 AM, Stoute will interview Dan Charnas, journalist and author of The Big Pay … → read more

Shakira inks management deal with Roc Nation. [VIBE] Pharrell Williams discusses working on the score for Sunday’s Academy Awards with Hans Zimmer. [Complex] The late Whitney Houston enjoys Madonna’s Super Bowl Halftime performance at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, alongside family and friends. [Complex] George Lucas receives the Vanguard Award at the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards, for his vast body of work, including his latest action film based on the Tuskegee airmen, Red Tails. [CBS News] Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell covers Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” at a … → read more

Steve Stoute sits down with the crew of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and explains the concept of a tanning America. Along with describing Jay-Z’s recent performance at Carnegie Hall, Stoute also shares his first time witnessing tanning translate internationally, and how Run DMC was instrumental in setting off hip-hop’s first pivotal commerce moment. Read excerpts below. Steve Stoute on the concept of tanning: Tanning is this effect that took place I’d say over the last 25 years, where hip-hop culture—not necessarily the music, but the culture created by the music—has been … → read more

In Jimmy Iovine’s interview on Steve Stoute’s “The Tanning Effect”—in partnership with Huffington Post Black Voices—the Interscope executive mentions briefly how will.i.am was the catalyst for the creation of Dr. Dre’s beats By Dre headphones. Iovine credits the Black Eyed Peas-frontman with stating that the future of the music business is in hardware. Now, during his own sit-down on “The Tanning Effect,” will.i.am expounds on that revelation, as well as details on how his Teddy Ruxpin doll landed him a record deal with Eazy-E and how Wilmer Valderrama’s party was … → read more