L.A. Reid

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L.A. Reid bigraphy, stories - Music

L.A. Reid : biography

07 June 1956 –

Antonio M. "L.A." Reid (born June 7, 1956) is an American record executive, songwriter, and record producer. Best known as the co-founder of LaFace Records, he has helped to bring Toni Braxton, TLC, Mariah Carey, Avril Lavigne, Paula Abdul, Pink, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Kanye West, Usher, Ne-Yo, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Ciara, OutKast, Kerli, and Dido to multi-platinum album sales. He has won three Grammy Awards.

He is the president and CEO of Hitco Music Publishing, based in Atlanta, and was the chairman and CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group until 2011, when he signed up to appear as a judge on the 2011 U.S. version of The X Factor. He returned to the television show for the 2012 season, but in December 2012 announced he would not be back for the show’s third season.

Reid is currently the chairman and CEO of Epic Records, one of the flagship recording companies of Sony Music Entertainment.

Other ventures

With the belief that good songwriting is essential to the success of recording artists, Reid formed the Hitco Publishing Group in 1996, as a joint venture with Windswept Music. While starting up Hitco, Reid was looking to connect to a wholly new market of producers and songwriters and talent spotted the young Shakir Stewart whom he saw as someone with a "a finger on the pulse of the next generation of hot producers in the Atlanta music scene". He gave the future senior vice president of Island Def Jam Music Group his first position as an inter-level creative person at Hitco.

In 2008, Reid joined the advisory board of the cosmetics line named Le Métier de Beauté, which is sold at upscale retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.

Discography

Early life

Reid was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is one of four children of Emma Reid, a seamstress and interior decorator. He was raised in Mount Auburn and Madisonville neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Ohio’s east side.

His first drum lessons were with his uncle, Albert Baldwens. At Hughes Center High School (Cincinnati, Ohio), Reid was a star drummer who cut his teeth playing with bands in "Merry-Go-Round," an annual talent show held in the school auditorium. He also played in the marching band. Reid’s former music teacher Terry Brown (now deceased) was instrumental in his musical development in that Brown taught him how to be a professional.

Career

Beginnings

Reid’s first appearance on record was with Cincinnati funk rock outfit ‘Pure Essence’. Pure Essence released one solitary 45 in the middle 1970s. They later appeared on local FM rock radio station WEBN’s second annual LP compilation but the group was renamed ‘Essence’. Reid then became a member of the 1980s R&B band The Deele, best known for their 1988 hit "Two Occasions", a song on the remake by LA Production and Recording Studio Music Intersection. The band had broken up before the success of the single, then reunited to promote "Two Occasions" as it rose up the charts under Dick Griffey’s Solar Records (Sound of Los Angeles). The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1989–2004: LaFace Records and Arista years

After The Deele disbanded, Reid and band mate Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds founded LaFace in 1989 through a joint venture with Arista Records, with funding from Arista Records creator Clive Davis. The label soon became one of the premiere destinations for popular African-American entertainers who created Black Pop music that was easily accessible to both Urban and Top 40 radio formats. Reid signed 14 year old Usher to the label, whose six album releases have sold 65 million units worldwide. Other popular acts on the label during its peak include Toni Braxton, TLC, and Outkast. Initially headquartered in Atlanta, the label played a role in building the current landscape of the [Atlanta] music industry. In 1991 Reid co-wrote the controversial Jermaine Jackson single "Word to the Badd". The song’s lyrics featured references to Jackson’s brother Michael Jackson and its release contributed to worsening relations within the Jackson family.