kevin black interscope interview talks bout hittman still wit dre

[STILLDRE IS THE GODFATHER]

Ill Will: Off top, what the is a National Field Director?
Kevin Black: Okay, off the top, a National Field Director is a person who goes out and gets radio. What is radio, radio stations. What city are you from?

Ill Will: The Bay Area, home of the most fucked up radio stations in the world.
KB: (laughing) Naw, I ain’t gon’ say that. KMEL (106.1 KMEL, San Francisco) and Wild (Wild 94.9, San Francisco Ca) would be the stations. I service the radio stations, I design promotions for the radio stations. Myself, my boss Step Johnson, Howard Geiger, (and) Tommy Marshall, design a plan and we attack radio for every different artist.

IW: What are your daily operations?
Audio Clip: THE FORMULA [Listen Here]
KB: My daily operations are to get in the office no later than 8 o’clock (AM), because you know the East Coast is three hours ahead of us (Kevin’s Interscope office is in LA). I work my way from the east back to the west. What happens is, I make sure all the regionals and all the staff is geared up with whatever they need. I’m kinda like the nerve system. What I do is make sure everything is in place at one time so I can give my boss, Step Johnson, a consecutive answer with what’s going on with the market. I look over the streets, as far as making sure that the streets are being hit the right way. Mixshows are being hit the right way. Colleges, retail,
everything is being the right way.

IW: You started off being a DJ, right?
KB: Yes, I’m from New York City, the Bronx and what happened was, you know, DJ’ing back in my day was the outlet and you wanted be the guy that rocked the club and I loved the music. I started going to the club and seeing what was going on and then I got picked up by the radio station. The station was KJLH and they started asking me to do mixes for them. I started doing mixes real good and I was a mixer on-air, and then The Beat (a radio station) came into the picture and I became a popular item in LA. Everybody started seeing I was mixing on The Beat and KJLH and then what happened was I got a job at a record company as a promotion man. That’s what started me on my way.

IW: Alright, You’ve been quite the “video hoe” as of late. You’ve been in hella videos. Are you acting out some wish to be a star?
Audio Clip: BEING A VIDEO HOE [Listen Here]
KB: No, no, no. First of all, I love being a “video hoe” as you would call it. If the “video hoe” makes my phone ring and people call me, “hey, I love the way you acted in that video.” Then you know what I do, “hey, let me tell you about my next record.” I’m always constantly promoting. And what happens is, I’m trying to show people that there is a new age executive. What I mean by new age executive, a person who knows the suites as well as the streets and a person who’s not scared to get out there and get grimy with it and go out and do what he got to do to get the records heard on a nationwide campaign.
KB: I’m the type of person, whatever it takes to promote the record, whatever it takes to get a better look at the record, a good promotion man gon’ do what he gotta do. And it won’t be the last time you see me. I believe in the Four F’s theory.

[STILLDRE IS THE GODFATHER]

IW: I’ve heard about this, explain it.
Audio Clip: THE 4 F’s [Listen Here]
KB: I believe in being friendly, Œcuz you gotta be friendly with everybody. You gotta make sure everybody know you and you gotta treat people how you wanna be treated. So it don’t hurt just to be friendly with everybody. The second F is you gotta be firm. And firm means, if you don’t know what you stand for, you’ll fall for anything. The third F, you gotta be focused and what I mean by focused is whatever your plan is, you gotta execute it and you gotta re-plan to re-plan. Don’t just start off with a cookie cut plan, if you gotta re-taper the plan, as long as you stay focused and know what your agenda is you’re gonna focus. And the fourth F, you gotta say fuck it. The clean version is you gotta know when to say forget it. If you spend too much time on something,’ don’t wait if you’re not goin’ nowhere. That’s what I live by, and that’s how I treat everybody. Friendly, firm, focused, and knowin’ when to say fuck it because everything ain’t always a kill.

IW: Right, right, that’s big.
KB: That’s what I mean by I’m the new age executive. I give special thanks to Jimmy Iovine for giving me the chance, I give special thanks to Step Johnson for letting me work with his radio department to show that I had the skills to pay the bills and I love my two bosses, Tommy Marshall and Howard Gieger, because without them two people I can’t do what I do. In this record business there’s no one person that does everything, it’s never an “I”, it’s a “We.” If you kept that concept, “We,” everything will be lovely.

Audio Clip: THE BOTTOM LINE [Listen Here]
KB: I’m a hands on type of guy. I like to get with my artist. I wanna hear my artist tell me their vision. I want my artist to be able to tell me, “look, this what I meant when I did this record.” Because the old school way, you can’t be just a person who just has a cookie cut pattern on how to promote records. You gotta taper a promotion to every individual artist. You don’t promote a Dr. Dre like you would promote Eminem. You wouldn’t promote a Ruff Ryder like you would promote a Rakim. It’s different steps. Once we hear the music it’s different strategies on what you do and how you do it.

IW: Okay, let’s get into it because you guys have had a pretty diverse group of people and have been successful with all of that. You were really involved with the Eminem campaign, let’s start off with that.
KB: If you ever asked me what was my hardest record at first, I would tell you Eminem.

IW: Wow, why is that. Tell me why.
Audio Clip: HARDEST CAREER CHALLENGE – EMINEM [Listen Here]
KB: Because at first, when people heard him they knew he was dope but it was kinda like a reverse sell because there are stereotypes. He was one of the first white guys that came out rappin’ that was that cold-blooded. And when I say the first white guy, I know there’s been Vanilla Ice, I know it’s been a couple more guys, but to sell a white guy in a predominately black industry, it was kinda hard at first...

IW: Okay...
KB: But, when they heard his lyrics and they heard how dope he was, it took off. Eminem is the truth, I mean he hit’s you with missiles, lower missiles, lasers, I mean, he’s off the meter.

IW: What is your guys’ secret over at Interscope Records? Being that, you guys are killing the game right now, you got it locked down.
Audio Clip: COMPANY SECRET PT.1 [Listen Here]
KB: I think the secret is Jimmy Iovine, Step Johnson, Steve Berman, Howard Gieger, and Tommy Marshall believe in communication. Everybody communicates. And when you have people communicating you win. And here’s the second, there’s no such thing in Jimmy’s meeting as a stupid question. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. At Interscope we believe in dotting our “I’s” and crossing our “T’s”. And I love it. If we had to look at how Interscope is set up, Jimmy would be like Phil Jackson. Step Johnson would be like a Shaquille O’Neill. Howard would be a Maury. And Tommy Marshall would be Kobe Bryant.
Audio Clip: COMPANY SECRET PT.2 [Listen Here]
In the record business there’s no I, there’s We. And I believe I’m a good team maker. I believe in grouping people together. Everybody stay happy, everybody have fun, everybody get your hands dirty. Let’s get the work done.

IW: What’s up with Ms. Jade, then?
KB: She’s in the studio.

IW: Here’s the thing, her record didn’t work out, did it?
KB: It wasn’t as best at it should be. That’s what you say.

IW: I’m not even talking about the music, I’m just talking about a business standpoint. You guys aren’t raking in the dough off that.
KB: Naw, I mean, come on. If we live like that then we don’t give a artist a shot. Interscope believes in everybody a shot. I mean, if you gotta make money off of every record you put out, then we got a lot of problems in the record business. There’s a lot of artists I can start naming that aren’t making money.

IW: You win some, you lose some. You sell seven million records with one artist you can afford to not sell a lot with another.

IW: Who is Ms. Dynamite, dude? I’ve been seeing her name a million times on the internet.
KB: “Hot Delight.” That shows me you’re up on your game. Then I have 2 Pac, “Still Ballin’”, that’s off of the meter. It’s a lot of things we got that’s off the rocker.

IW: That’s good. What happened to Hittman?
KB: Hittman’s with Dre.

IW: Is he still with still with Dre?
KB: Yes.

IW: Okay, 50 Cent. We’ll go into that. You guys had projected him at doing 350,000 copies his first week. He did 872,000. That had to have been a big triumph for you.
KB: Like I say, I’d like to thank Paul Rosenberg...

IW: (Laughing)
KB: Shady Records, Eminem, 50, Violator, Jimmy, the whole company. Because together we just went to the wall with it. When I tell you we go blitz. If you ever seen Tampa Bay and the Raiders went at it you know what a blitz means. We blitz, we don’t play. Flyers, street marketing, TV, retail campaign, promotional tours, I love it. Once again, it’s like the NBA. I love this game. You’ve got to want it. Dog, when I tell you I’m the new age executive, I’m being real with you. You got to get out here. I’m in Charlotte, I ain’t behind no desk. Tomorrow I’ll be in Raleigh. The next day I’ll be somewhere else. You need an executive that can walk it, talk it, believe it, and run it.

IW: Most memorable moments?
KB: When Jmmy Iovine said “I want you, I love you.” I said, “Thank you.” That and second, seeing records hit the top and third just ready for the chance. 50 Cent was a memorable moment, Eminem was a memorable moment, Death Row Records was a memorable moment. Being a luggage boy was a memorable moment. The growth. It’s so many. I just people. I just love making everybody happy. Will, that’s my heart really speaking. I love making people see that hard work does pay off.

IW: Biggest mistake made?
KB: That’s a good question. I didn’t get into the record business earlier. I’m thirty. I got into the record business when I was twenty-one, I wish I could have gotten this shit when I seventeen.

IW: What are you working towards. Do you see yourself as the Interscope Records National Field Director of everything in the entire world Rep, forever?
KB: No, I’m working for to be the hottest executive that I can ever be. And be known that I’m out here and that I love everybody. That’s what I want everybody to know.

IW: What are some things Interscope Records has coming that everybody should know about but might not?
KB: We got somebody named Brooklyn that’s hot, we got a Rakim album that’s coming. We got Ice Cube. We have a Dr. Dre, Eminem, Bubba Sparxxx Obie Trice, Kiesha Coles and TG4 album coming. I mean, this year’s gon’ be a hot year for Interscope. I mean hot, hot, hot. Lower missiles, lasers, get it ready daddy. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

IW: How much pull does Dre have at Interscope? Because 80% of the artists you just named came form within his family.
KB: I think Dre has outstanding pull at Interscope. When you’re hot, you’re hot. And Dre, he’s got an ear. He’s dope. But me, I’m a promotion man and I’ll be promoting record until I can’t breathe.

IW: Do you have personal life?
KB: My personal is what I do, like you. Usually you’re friends are people in the industry. My personal life is this. I love it. I don’t hate my job. I love going to work.

IW: No bullshit, as fucking motivation as Kevin Black is, I honestly felt like I was gonna be rich or die fucking trying. Oh Boy!

[Vigilante]

we all know this is bullshit other wise he would of been on some of the upcomign albums....and he even said he left aftermath (ben baller said oin his website)

[jtothai]

You need to follow up your questions, his answer about Hitt's afilliation with Dre is so vague...

If you would have asked him what exactly Hitt's role was he would have told you that he is currently writing material for Detox, but is NOT signed to Aftermath.