Management
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Christian music hitmaker Anne Wilson has inked a management deal with Matthew West‘s Story House Collective. The company has also brought in Crowd Surf, led by Jade Driver, as a strategic management partner.
During Friday’s (Oct. 21) GMA Dove Awards, Wilson won two trophies, including new artist of the year, while her hit “My Jesus” was named pop/contemporary recorded song of the year. Wilson wrote “My Jesus” with West and Jeff Pardo. The song proved to be a hit, and Wilson became the first female soloist to top Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart with a debut single since the chart’s launch in 2003.
“Our Story House team is thrilled for the opportunity to partner with an artist as remarkable as Anne,” West said via a statement. “I’ve been a believer in her since our very first writing session a few years ago. She’s the real deal. Her talent is undeniable, her story is powerful, and her mission is clear. We are honored to serve her artistic vision and beyond excited to help plot the course for even bigger and better things ahead for her.”
“I’m so excited to announce that I’ve signed with Story House Collective,” Wilson added. “I’ve been blown away by their expertise but also their love for Jesus. So grateful for their hard work and all that’s to come! God is good!”
West has served as a mentor for Wilson and is a co-writer alongside Wilson and Pardo on Wilson’s latest song, “Me on Your Mind.” They also released a duet version of the song earlier this year.
Amid calls to cut ties with Kanye West over his repeated antisemitic comments, CAA stopped representing the artist within the last month, a source tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The Century City-based talent agency had worked with the artist, but his repeated interviews espousing antisemitic rhetoric have proved indefensible to business partners. With CAA ending its run with West, Hollywood’s major talent agencies — including WME and UTA — have supported calls to end working relationship with the rapper and fashion mogul.
On Oct. 23, Jeremy Zimmer, who leads rival agency UTA, sent a companywide email titled “Rise of Anti Semitism and Hate,” writing that West’s comments “embolden others to amplify their vile beliefs.” The UTA CEO added: “we can’t support hate speech, bigotry or anti-Semitism. Please support the boycott of Kanye West.”
Days earlier, Endeavor and WME mogul Ari Emanuel penned a column in the Financial Times saying that “silence” isn’t an option for the business community given West’s antisemitism. “Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience,” Emanuel wrote.
While West has a lucrative deal with Adidas for his Yeezy shoe and fashion line, other major partners — including French label Balenciaga, as well as production studio MRC, which was working on a documentary with the artist — have publicly distanced themselves and cut ties. “We cannot support any content that amplifies his platform,” wrote MRC’s leaders, while Balenciaga noted that it doesn’t have “any relationship” with West moving forward.
While the rapper still has official accounts on Twitter and Instagram, posts containing antisemitic comments — including a tweet on Oct. 8 that called for “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” — have been removed from the social media giants’ platforms. In seeming response, West inked a deal to take ownership of the small “free speech” social media app Parler on Oct. 17. That app is run by the CEO George Farmer, the husband of conservative activist Candace Owens, who donned a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt along with West at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month.
The artist — whose net worth is estimated at $2 billion, per Forbes‘ calculations — had his last full length album, 2021’s Donda, distributed by Def Jam Recordings, a division of the publicly traded Universal Music Group. In a tweet on Oct. 17, UMG stated, “There is no place for antisemitism in our society,” but made no reference to West.
West’s media tour this month has included stops with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, rapper N.O.R.E. on the podcast Drink Champs, and Chris Cuomo at NewsNation. “I classify as Jew also, so I actually can’t be an antisemite,” West told Cuomo.
This article was originally published on THR.com.
Three of Hollywood’s top agency chiefs are now calling on the entertainment industry to cut ties with Kanye West given the rapper and fashion mogul’s antisemitic rhetoric on multiple platforms and interviews.
On Sunday evening, UTA chief Jeremy Zimmer sent a companywide memo to staff titled “Rise of Anti Semitism and Hate,” writing that West’s comments’ “embolden others to amplify their vile beliefs.”
Zimmer made reference to a widely circulated Oct. 23 photo of a group of seven people who stood on a 405 freeway overpass in Los Angeles with signs that included “Kanye is right about the Jews,” as well as The Mapping Project, an anonymous effort that purported to show links between Jewish businesses in Massachusetts and “support for the colonization of Palestine.”
“Whether it’s signs on the 405 in Los Angeles, flyers on doorsteps, mapping Jewish businesses in Boston, or marching with hoods and crosses, all of these behaviors ignite the embers of bigotry, and they must not be tolerated,” Zimmer wrote.
The Beverly Hills-based agency CEO’s missive follows a similarly themed Oct. 19 column in the Financial Times by Ari Emanuel, who runs the entertainment and sports company Endeavor, which owns talent agency WME. “Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience,” Emanuel wrote. “There should be no tolerance anywhere for West’s anti-Semitism.”
Emanuel added: “West is not just any person — he is a pop culture icon with millions of fans around the world. And among them are young people whose views are still being formed.”
Meanwhile, Gersh agency president Bob Gersh weighed in on Sunday, telling Variety, “People really need to hammer these companies in business with him to impress upon them how wrong it is to support somebody like this.”
Following an appearance at Paris Fashion Week in which West donned a “White Lives Matter” shirt on Oct. 3, he went to post a since-removed Oct. 8 tweet that called for “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” wrote posts on Instagram that were removed for violating content restrictions, made a stop on Fox News that included a controversial interview with Tucker Carlson (that later included unaired portions leaked to Vice News), taped an interview with the podcast Drink Champs (that was later removed from YouTube) and stopped for an interview on NewsNation with Chris Cuomo in which West said “I don’t believe in that term,” in reference to antisemitism.
Companies and partners that have business with West, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be at $2 billion, are under increasing pressure to cut ties with the rapper. Adidas, which has a distribution deal for West’s Yeezy shoe and fashion brand, stated earlier this month that it had placed its partnership “under review,” while French label Balenciaga cut ties on Oct. 21 and said it “no longer any relationship” with West.
In seeming response to having his tweets and Instagram posts restricted, West made a deal with the backers of a small social media platform called Parler. On Oct. 17, the company — which calls itself the “premier free speech social media app” — sent out a press release stating that it had agreed to sell itself to the artist. Parler’s CEO is George Farmer, the husband of conservative activist Candace Owens, who also donned the “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.
Read Zimmer’s full memo to UTA staff on THR.com
The past two years have been a whirlwind of success for Doja Cat, who emerged from TikTok virality to become one of radio’s most beloved artists of the young decade so far. And she’s been on the type of hot streak that has her in rarefied territory: With five top five hits on Pop Airplay off her latest album, the RCA-released Planet Her, her album became just the seventh to ever accomplish that feat, a mark she set over the course of an entire calendar year — an impressive achievement in an era when attention spans are short and longevity is fleeting.
This week, Doja Cat adds to her run of success as her latest single “Vegas,” off the Elvis soundtrack (also out on RCA), became her sixth No. 1 single at Pop Airplay — replacing her collaboration with Post Malone, “I Like You (A Happier Song),” atop the list and making her the first artist to replace herself atop the chart since Ariana Grande nearly two years ago. And as “Vegas” also becomes Dojo’s sixth top 10 single on the Hot 100 — all since 2020 — her manager at SALXCO and newly-named executive vp of A&R and artist development at Capitol Music Group Gordan Dillard is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
Here, Dillard tells Billboard about Dojo’s success at pop radio, how her team has kept the album alive and charting for so long and how they leverage TikTok to help work records at radio, as well as some of the transformations in the industry. “We approach albums with longevity in mind,” he says. “When the music is complete, we work months to build out strategic marketing plans, release schedules, promotional assets and much more. We are very strategic when it comes to how and when the records are released [and] we work very closely and far in advance with our partners to ensure maximize impact and longevity for every record.”
This week, Doja Cat’s “Vegas” reached No. 1 on the Pop Airplay chart, her sixth No. 1 on that chart, and became her sixth top 10 Hot 100 hit. What key decisions did you make to help make that happen?
There were a lot of decisions that went into the success of this record. We approached it the same as we would any solo Doja record, but also gave a ton of support to the director Baz Luhrmann, the film itself, and the release. We executed our marketing efforts in tandem with the film. “Vegas” was first premiered with Shonka [Dukureh] — rest in peace — at Coachella before the film or trailer featuring “Vegas” was released which laid a great deal of anticipation for the release. Along the way, the entire team, both RCA and management, played a key role in executing and staying consistent with the efforts to hit these record-breaking achievements.
“Vegas” replaced her collaboration with Post Malone, “I Like You (A Happier Song),” on the chart, making her the first artist to replace themselves there since Ariana Grande almost two years ago. Why has she had such success at that radio format?
Doja is a world-renowned musical artist and one of the biggest female pop stars of her generation. She has always put music first and with the incredibly hardworking promotional team at RCA, she has had and will continue to have radio success. Our radio partners are also amazing and supportive.
This song in particular didn’t make big waves immediately on its release, but after picking up steam on TikTok has grown into her latest major hit. How have you guys been able to use TikTok to help fuel Doja Cat’s songs and career in other areas?
The digital world is an ever-evolving machine. Breaking records and artists are much different than they were even just a few months ago. Doja and her music has always had a great following on TikTok and the TikTok team has always been great to work with while always being supportive of our marketing ideas. Social media has always been a key component to Doja’s organic communication with her fans and we’ll always keep it that way.
Planet Her had produced five top-five hits at pop radio, just the seventh album to do so, and stretching across more than a year. In an era when albums tend to come and go relatively quickly, what did you and your team do to keep the album so relevant and producing radio hits for such an extended period of time?
We approach albums with longevity in mind. When the music is complete, we work months to build out strategic marketing plans, release schedules, promotional assets and much more. We are very strategic when it comes to how and when the records are released [and] we work very closely and far in advance with our partners to ensure maximize impact and longevity for every record. Also, our team is very strong, smart and we strike together. Teamwork is key in our success.
This song is from the Elvis soundtrack. Do you work songs differently for a soundtrack song as opposed to something from one of her own projects?
No, this record specifically came at the perfect time. The process is still the same even if this song was from a soundtrack. We still approach it as if it’s a solely Doja Cat record.
You’ve been a manager for a decade, both with your own company and with SALXCO. How has management evolved in that time?
In my opinion, management is much more involved nowadays more than ever. Managers have become CEOs of the artist’s business. We are much more involved in the growth of the artist’s initiatives outside of just music. We are somewhat business partners with our artists.
You also have a new job at Capitol. How do you balance that job with managing an artist at another label?
I don’t think about it like that. They are separate and I don’t mix the two. Although the skill sets are transferable and help with both positions. I also have amazing teams on both sides that support and allow me to be instrumental in the individual successes. Without them neither would be possible.
The music industry has completely transformed since Gary Kurfirst’s epic four-decade run as a rock promoter, label head and artist manager to acts including the Talking Heads, The Ramones and Jane’s Addiction, but much of the advice he taught his artists remains true today.
Fine tune one’s craft. Build an audience. Create authentic and meaningful art.
“He wanted to keep his artists in the underground, focused on making music and creating art while protecting them from the business side,” says Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, recalling the time that Kurfirst turned down a Rolling Stone cover because he felt the band wasn’t ready for such a career milestone.
“I remember him always telling us ‘Don’t smile in promotion photos – they’ll think you’re making a lot of money,’” recalls multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, one of the many A-list acts Kurfirst managed and worked alongside including Bob Marley, the Eurythmics, Garbage and dozens of other bands. Kurfist’s career ran parallel to music industry giants like concert promoter Michael Lang, agent Frank Barsalona and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, and it’s one that belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, says his son Josh Kurfirst, a partner at WME and the agency’s global head of festivals.
Felix of Mountain with Young Ozzy on the left Gary on Rt Gary on the Right. Felix Pappalardi of Mountain (center). A young Ozzie Osbourne left center. Gary selected a relatively unknown Black Sabbath to open for Mountain on their US tour 1969.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
Joshua Kurfirst is actively positioning his father to be considered for the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award for Industry Professionals at the Rock Hall. While much of the nomination process is veiled in secrecy, the younger Kurfirst has been in touch with the artists and executives his dad collaborated with over the years, archiving thousands of documents and relaunching the website GaryKurfirst.com in hopes of adding his father posthumously to the Hall of Fame (Kurfirst passed away in 2009). Currently, there are four music managers in the Hall of Fame, all winners of the Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award: Eagles and Fleetwood Mac manager Irving Azoff, Bruce Springsteen manager Jon Landau, late Beatles manager Brian Epstein and former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.
Kurfirst was also a concert promoter, a label chief at his Radioactive Records, and a family man who married an art teacher named Phyllis in the late 1960s. He had countless stories to share and was a tireless advocate for an artist’s career longevity.
“Gary knew it was essential that the fans walked away feeling they got a really good value for their money,” says Harrison. “And he balanced that with how much the band needed to make for the night to go on to the next show. He had been a promoter himself and knew every part of the business. He’d prefer to work with people, but he had no problem saying, “I don’t care if you’re the only guy in town, we will promote the show ourselves if we have to.”
He also stood by his artists when they faced difficult creative decisions, says famed Blondie front woman Debbie Harry, who hired Kurfirst to help with her solo career shortly after the new wave hitmakers called it quits in 1982 (they reunited 15 years later).
Phyllis and Gary at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
“I’m sure he would have preferred we got back together but he was very smart and came in knowing the dynamic,” said Harry. “He started when he was quite young and knew the industry from all the different angles. That is really the best kind of manager to have – somebody who gets it and loves it regardless of how crazy things get.”
Shirley Manson of Garbage recalls first meeting Kurfirst when her former band, Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, was opening for Harry on her Debravation tour.
“He took a great interest in me at the time and told me,’ I think you’re a star.’ And I thought it was ludicrous – I was a backing keyboardist and vocalist,” she recalls. Kurfirst ended up buying out Goodbye Mr Mackenzie’s contract to bring them over to his own label Radioactive Records. The band never took off, and Manson performed with Angelfish until auditioning for Garbage, a group being formed by Nirvana producer Butch Vig.
“I needed an opportunity. And Gary gave me that,” Manson tells Billboard. “Above all else, I am so grateful to Gary for the belief he had in me. Even when things got tricky and there was a lot of backlash in the press, Gary told me ‘You’re great at what you do. You are a star. Just hold the line. I believe in you.’”
Kurfirst was born July 8, 1947, in Forest Hills, Queens. He graduated from Forest Hills High School in 1964 — he was classmates with members of The Ramones — and promoted concerts at the Forest Hills Stadium (then called the West Side Tennis Club). In 1968 he promoted the NY Rock Festival at the Singer Bowl in Queens that was headlined by the Doors, The Who and Jimi Hendrix with his then-partner Shelly Finkel.
Kurfirst expanded into Manhattan by striking a deal to book the Village Theater, a former Lower East Side cinema-turned live music venue that hosted The Who, who nearly caused a riot as fans gathered outside to see the legendary rock group. Bill Graham would take the reins of the theater in 1968, rechristening it as the Fillmore East (the sister venue to Graham’s Fillmore in San Francisco).
Jimi Hendrix concert produced by Gary Kurfirst and Shelly Finkel. Phyllis Kurfirst was Gary’s artistic director and designed this poster.
Courtesy Photo
In 1969, Kurfirst began managing former high school classmate Leslie West and his hard rock band Mountain. Ironically, one of Gary’s first big tests as a manager came at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, where Mountain was scheduled to perform in the afternoon.
When he and the band arrived at the festival site in upstate New York, Kurfirst noticed that the show was way off schedule and “more or less being made up as it went along,” his son Josh says. Noticing that instead of following a schedule, organizers were putting acts on stage as soon as they spotted all the members of a band together backstage, Kurfirst told the group to scatter to different parts of the site and meet backstage at 8:30 p.m.
“The plan worked perfectly, and Mountain ended up with a prime set time,” Josh says.
Managing Mountain brought Kurfirst into the orbit of Island founder Chris Blackwell, who eventually convinced Kurfirst to move himself and his family to the west side of Nassau in the Bahamas where Blackwell operated the Compass Point recording studio. Through his relationship with Blackwell, Kurfirst would meet Bob Marley and land a gig as tour manager for the reggae star’s debut US tour. Kurfirst would go on to manage former Wailers legend Peter Tosh and watched incredulously when he first saw Tosh bury a briefcase of cash he had been paid as part of the record deal Kurfirst had negotiated for him. When Kurfirst asked for an explanation, Tosh simply told him, “I made a deposit in the Bank of Jamaica.”
Kurfirst with Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals in a diner.
Courtesy of The Kurfirst Estate
Upon his eventual return to New York, Kurfirst began to frequent Hilly Kristal’s East Village club CBGB, where he met and signed The Talking Heads as management clients and later signed The Ramones.
Kurfirst would go on to produce several concert films for the Heads, including 1984’s Stop Making Sense, which would be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 2021. Four years after launching Radioactive Records, an imprint for MCA Records, the label scored its first No. 1 album with Live’s Throwing Copper, which went on to sell eight million copies.
In total, Kurfirst managed more than 40 artists and groups during his career, including Steve Winwood, Robert Palmer, the B-52’s, Big Audio Dynamite, Deee-Lite, Dig, Los Amigos Invisibles and Skinny Puppy.
“Gary’s taste, ability to identify star talent, and build lasting brands out of those stars was extraordinary,” says Josh, who himself has risen through the top echelons of live music, leading WME’s festival division.
In the final years of his life, Gary began working with his son booking concerts for Spanish language artists. He passed away in 2009 while visiting the Bahamas. He was 61. One of his final management and label projects was with Blackwell, who was Kurfirst’s neighbor and friend for many years when Kurfirst and his family were living in the Caribbean.
The two developed a management company, Kurfirst-Blackwell Entertainment, as well as Rx Records, an imprint for artists that proffered more contractual flexibility and creative latitude than most major labels.
“He had a gift for getting the very best from the artists he worked with without getting in their way or pushing too far,” Blackwell says. “Gary was not just a great manager; he was an excellent marketer and a very creative businessman. He believed in his artists, and they really believed in him. They knew he would do whatever he could to make their music and their careers a success.”
Gary Kurfirst with a young Josh Kurfirst