Rimas Entertainment
From its new headquarters in Milla de Oro in San Juan, Rimas Publishing is redefining what it means to champion music from Puerto Rico for the world. Celebrating one decade of success as an independent publishing house — and with more than 150 authors in its catalog, including major names like Bad Bunny and Eladio Carrión — the company has established itself as one of the most influential indie players in the Latin music industry. This includes ranking at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs Publishers year-end chart for 2021 and 2022.
The story of the publishing house began in 2014, when its founders launched an innovative idea that initially seemed “crazy” at the time, explains Rimas Publishing president Carlos Souffront, who was involved since its inception. “It’s a concept born from two partners who had a vision,” he tells Billboard Español. From the beginning, Rimas Publishing was tied to Rimas Entertainment, but in 2023, it became a completely independent entity. According to Souffront, “The decision was based on a change in equity within the group of companies.” From that moment, they relocated to their new offices in Puerto Rico.
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This independence has allowed them to explore new territories and expand their global approach beyond the Caribbean, reaching markets like Chile, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. “It was in 2020 that we signed our first talents in Chile. Today we represent six of the top 10 artists in Chile, which I consider a significant responsibility, even with the Chilean society. This reflects our global commitment,” says the company’s CEO, Emilio Morales.
In addition to its geographic expansion, Rimas Publishing is also diversifying its catalog — signing 12 new authors in the past year — moving beyond its roots in urban music to explore genres like pop, regional Mexican music, and Christian music. “Our commitment is to creators, regardless of genre,” Morales emphasizes. “We were born in urban music, but today we work with writers in various styles who are making a difference in the industry.”
Billboard Español spoke with president Carlos Souffront and CEO Emilio Morales to gain insight into the company’s journey and its vision for the years ahead.
10 years have passed since the beginnings of Rimas Publishing. How has the journey been from its creation in 2014 to now? Could you also share a little about the origins of the company?
Carlos Souffront: I had the pleasure and opportunity to be here in 2014 when this idea was created. It’s a concept born from two partners who came together with an idea that initially seemed crazy to me. But clearly, they both had a vision, and from that vision came the publisher and the record label [Rimas Entertainment], which grew together — up until 2023, when we separated.
The decision was based on a change in equity within the group of companies. This week (week of March 17), we are inaugurating the new offices, completely separating operationally from everything that was previously connected. We were integrated in areas like human resources, accounting, legacy marketing, and now we’re fully separated both physically and operationally.
You’ve worked with renowned artists like Bad Bunny and Eladio Carrión, as well as emerging talent. How has the process of supporting both established artists and new generations been, and what kind of impact has this had on Rimas Publishing’s international expansion?
Emilio Morales: On the creative side, the company’s beginnings were very closely tied to artists shared between Rimas [Entertainment] and Rimas Publishing. Originally, we supported a group of Puerto Rican artists led by Eladio Carrión, Lyanno, Súbelo NEO, and Bad Bunny, who was part of that initial phase. Between 2016 and 2017, the company began expanding beyond those initial artists, reaching talents from Colombia and eventually Chile. If you look at it from the point of view of urban and pop music, when we started, it was that 2016 generation — Bryant Myers, Anonimus, Bad Bunny — that were all the talk.
In 2019-2020, with Carlos’s help, we extended the company’s footprint internationally, focusing especially on Chile and Medellín, Colombia, where we now have an established presence. In 2020, we signed our first Chilean talents, marking an important step in Rimas Publishing’s evolution, which had previously been primarily Caribbean-focused. In the early days, we worked with creatives like Amenazzy and La Manta in the Dominican Republic, but our focus was largely regional.
With Chile’s connection to other international markets, our agenda became much more global. This led us to build an extraordinary professional team, composed of Puerto Rican local talent, collaborators from regions like Mexico, Colombia (especially Medellín), and the Dominican Republic, and support from our CFO based in Miami. We now represent six of the top 10 artists in Chile, which we view as a significant responsibility, not just to the artists but also to Chile’s society.
In Puerto Rico, musical talent has always been abundant, but many artists signed with companies based in places like Miami. For us, it’s been special to witness how this new generation of creatives has fostered an extraordinary scene, with songs like “Gata Only” and “Una Noche en Medellín.”
In Mexico, we’ve also observed a major movement, particularly in regional Mexican music. Michelle Maciel, who writes for artists like Carín León and is part of our roster, exemplifies the way we’ve expanded in the last five years. Beyond entering new territories, our focus has always been on broadening the repertoire and supporting creatives’ dreams.
You’re opening a new office in Puerto Rico. What strategic role does this location play in Rimas Publishing’s global operations now that you have this new headquarters?
Souffront: Although we are based here, as Emilio mentioned, we continue serving clients worldwide, and that will always be a key part of our approach. Not only are we expanding globally, but we’re also diversifying into other genres, such as Christian music, where we’re investing heavily in the talent we’ve signed and continue looking to sign. Why Puerto Rico? Because the team is Puerto Rican, the company was founded here, and our roots are here. Almost exclusively, with one or two exceptions, everyone on our team is Puerto Rican, and we take great pride in that. In addition, many of the artists we represent are based here. We want them to understand that they don’t need to hold Zoom meetings or travel to Los Angeles; we’re just 15 minutes from their homes, ready to welcome them with our full team. That’s something that sets us apart from many large publishing companies.
Rimas Publishing Office in Puerto Rico
Courtesy of Rimas Publishing
Morales: Being in the Caribbean is strategically a huge advantage. It allows you to travel to Colombia in two hours, which is challenging for large companies based in Los Angeles. For us, it’s much more efficient. We can move quickly to South America, North America, or even Europe directly. Additionally, Puerto Rico has immense talent and individuals who, unfortunately, often end up in industries unrelated to music. Someone had to take on the challenge and create jobs here, especially in something as dignified as music publishing. Today we are proud to serve as a business model for our city and our country. We believe this represents a new economy for Puerto Rico and a new chapter for our company. We chose to invest in families who needed opportunities the most. Many talented people here have been educated in prestigious institutions like Berklee College of Music or Loyola University Museum of Art, and were perfectly prepared. However, they couldn’t find jobs aligned with their true passions. We’re proud to welcome them, provide opportunities, and support Puerto Rican families.
What are some of the most important plans for Rimas Publishing in this new phase as an independent publishing company?
Morales: First, we are undergoing a strategic expansion of our business, as I mentioned, into places like Chile, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, where we’re increasing talent investments. Second, we have a very important project called Faith Sounds. It’s a program in which we support the best composers from our roster and aim to impact the region with faith-based and Christian music. Featured artists in this project include Shammai, Gabriel EMC, Lizzy Parra — a Dominican artist with an impressive career trajectory — and Barajas, with a presence in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and other countries. The goal is to enhance their creations and strengthen our licensing efforts because we see significant opportunities in this space.
Over the past 18 months, we’ve hired key personnel to optimize our synchronization and commercial licensing operations. This includes everything from Christian films and positive music to broader markets aligned with that philosophy. Furthermore, we’re making strategic alliances with important brands like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Films, and others we’ve historically collaborated with.
Souffront: From a broader perspective, our vision rests on three main pillars. First, growing responsibly. We currently have 150 artists under contract, and our goal is to maximize their output — their art. Current technology provides tools that allow us to further amplify their work and optimize their impact. Second, expanding into other genres. While our roots are in reggaeton, and we will never abandon that essence, our aspirations extend far beyond being just a reggaeton publisher. Third, we are actively exploring the acquisition of existing catalogs, which is critical for our future. Our growth plan is clear and systematic.
Rimas Publishing Office in Puerto Rico
Courtesy of Rimas Publishing
Looking ahead to the next five to ten years, what is your vision for the publishing company? What impact do you want to have on Latin and global music?
Morales: Our goal as a company is to become a worldwide leader in service and technology for our clients — a core part of our DNA that we embody daily in our mission and vision. We want to be recognized not only for the success of working with the biggest Latin artists in the world but also for delivering the best technology, service, and attention. We aim to take that to the next level, increasing our cultural impact and creating opportunities to connect with the global movement. We’re investing heavily in developing our authors, taking them to places like Brazil, France, and other destinations to collaborate with companies of all sizes—from major American record labels to companies in China, Africa, and beyond. Our goal is to build a sustainable and successful ecosystem for authors in Latin America and the world. We’re getting closer to achieving the milestone where people say: “They’re not the biggest, but they’re the best.” That’s our true aspiration, and we’re on the right path.
Souffront: Beyond the plans I mentioned earlier, within the next ten years, one of my aspirations is for us as an independent Latino company to provide services to other small independent publishers in Latin America or Spain. We want them to join the family of this publishing house, letting us provide them with services. That will only come when people continue to know and recognize us as the best.
Originally in Spanish, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rimas Entertainment, home to Bad Bunny and the No. 1 label on Billboard‘s 2024 year-end Top Independent Labels chart, has acquired a “significant” stake in Dale Play Records, the maverick Argentine label that’s home to DJ Bizarrap, Rels B and rapper Duki, Billboard can reveal.
The partnership includes Sony Music Latin Iberia, which continues to own a stake in the label. Helping bring the deal to fruition were Rob Stringer, Sony Music Group chairman and Sony Music Entertainment CEO; Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Sony Music Latin America, Spain and Portugal; and Brad Navin and Jason Pascal of The Orchard.
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Fede Lauria, the Argentine executive who founded Dale Play out of Argentina and grew the label to its current stature, will retain a smaller percentage of the company and continue as CEO. The Orchard will also continue to distribute Dale Play as it has for years. The company’s other business verticals, which include booking and management — including the management of Duki, Nicki Nicole and Bizarrap — are not part of the deal and will remain solely under Lauria.
The partnership brings together two indie companies that have redefined the way Latin music is made and promoted on a global scale, with both developing and capitalizing on a new wave of urban music in Spanish — one centered in Puerto Rico (Rimas) and the other in Argentina (Dale Play) — with international ambitions. Rimas has already expanded its roster beyond Puerto Rico, signing Spain’s Quevedo and Mexico’s Latin Mafia.
“From day one, our mission has been to support and develop artists with authenticity and respect for their identity,” said Rimas Entertainment CEO Noah Assad in a statement. “With Federico and Dale Play, we’ve built a relationship founded on trust and mutual admiration. This alliance will allow us to break new boundaries and create opportunities for our artists and teams.”
In an earlier conversation with Billboard, Assad noted that this is Rimas’ first major acquisition and that it follows a longstanding friendship and years of business dealings between him and Lauria.
“We’re working hand in hand and all we’re doing is adding more value to each other, him to me and me to him,” he said. “The collaboration already existed. We’re formalizing something that was already happening.”
Lauria was already an established concert promoter in Argentina with the company Dale Play (which currently sells over 1 million tickets per year, mostly in Argentina) when he created the label portion of his business, Dale Play Records, in 2017, focusing on a previously untapped rap and trap music scene bubbling out of Argentina. Sony Music came in as a partner in 2020.
“Afo and I have had a long-standing friendship for many years, united by a mission to elevate Latin music to the highest level,” said Lauria in a statement. The new partnership with Rimas, he told Billboard earlier, “reflects a journey we have been on for many years with Noah, Jomy and the RIMAS team. We share the same vision and values. Our companies are 360 companies with similar philosophies and origins. They’re rare in the global market. We do management, booking, label, publishing. The potential that these two ecosystems have together and the mutual collaboration that our artists and businesses can have is huge.”
Fede Lauria, Noah Assad and Afo Verde.
Afo Verde/Sony Music Latin Iberia
Added Verde in a statement: “I have great admiration for the achievements of both Fede and Noah. They epitomize the new generation of executives and label leaders, characterized by their independent spirit and innovative approach. It is a privilege to continue our partnership with them, and I love that they wanted to work together.”
Assad and Lauria’s working relationship dates back to Bad Bunny’s early days as an artist playing small venues in Buenos Aires, which Lauria booked. Today, he still promotes Bunny’s Argentina stadium and arena dates. The two have since worked together on multiple artist collaborations and started discussing a possible partnership three years ago, with conversations solidifying last year.
“This alliance is key to expanding our global reach and connecting with talent wherever it may be,” said Jonathan “Jomy” Miranda, president of Rimas Entertainment, in a statement. “We have always been at the forefront of discovering new artists, and now, through this partnership, we will have ears in more corners of the world to support and develop the next generation of stars.”
“Rimas is still Rimas and Dale Play is still Dale Play,” said Lauria during his conversation with Billboard, when asked about the future management of the respective labels. But, he adds, both labels have been “an essential part of the development of a cultural movement, and we’re in the process of shaping artists in Spain and Mexico that aren’t Argentine or Puerto Rican. Being together gives us huge power.”
Everything aligned to make the partnership come together now, said Assad. “We want a partner that has a clear vision, knows what they want and knows their destination,” he adds. “Culturally speaking, we share a lot of the same culture, and that’s why we’re doing this strategic alliance.”
Puerto Rican salsa singer Christian Alicea has signed a record deal with Rimas Entertainment, Billboard can announce. The announcement comes ahead of the release of Alicea’s upcoming single “Hello, What’s Up?,” which is set to drop Thursday (Feb. 20) at 7 p.m. ET. “I’m feeling a lot of emotions but mainly I feel proud,” Alicea […]
At this point in his career, Bad Bunny is way beyond breaking records. In 2020, he became the first artist to notch a No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an all-Spanish album, and he’s the only one to repeat the feat — not one, not two, but four times.
Now, Bad Bunny’s latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, has spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — and it currently seems poised to notch a third consecutive week atop the tally. Of his four No. 1 albums on the all-genre chart, it’s now the second longest running at the top spot; his 2022 set, Un Verano Sin Ti, collected the most weeks there with 13 non-consecutive weeks.
This week, Debí Tirar Más Fotos is also No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and the song “DtMF” is No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart for the second consecutive week. Bunny, in fact, occupies more than half the top 10 on the Global 200. On Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, nine of the top 10 songs are Bunny’s, including “DtMF” at No. 1.
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It’s an astounding showing, even for an artist as big as Bad Bunny. It’s also worth considering that Debí Tirar Más Fotos debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 following an incomplete debut tracking week due to his decision to release the album on a Sunday — Jan. 5 — in anticipation of the Jan. 6 celebration of Three Kings Day, which is a big deal in Puerto Rico and ties with the album’s love of Puerto Rico theme.
But Bunny quickly made up for lost time with a blitz of finely-tuned and very creative publicity efforts that ping-ponged from the U.S. to Puerto Rico, including his stint co-hosting The Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon, playing a surprise concert at a New York subway station, co-hosting a morning news show in Puerto Rico and surprising local podcaster Chente Ydrach with Puerto Rican parranda.
The final flourish was announcing a 21-date residency at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo de Puerto Rico, with the first several dates available exclusively to Puerto Rican residents.
A major architect in Bunny’s marketing and promotional strategy is Monica Jiménez, director of marketing and brand partnerships at Rimas’ Bad Bunny Division.
Jiménez, who worked with brands like Coty and Procter & Gamble before joining Bunny’s label and management company, works together with Rimas CEO Noah Assad on everything Bad Bunny and was pivotal in executing the artist’s complex vision. The success of Debí Tirar Más Fotos earns her the title of Billboard‘s Executive of the Week.
What exactly was your role in this album’s roll-out?
One of my duties is understand and bring to life the vision of the artist for the album. Benito is an artist who fully immerses himself in the many facets of a release process, including marketing, and it’s crucial to achieve what he visualizes for the project. I usually bring together the amazing ideas of the entire team and also look for new ideas to ensure a robust and strategic plan. I also focus on implementing the plan so it meets expectations, but above all, so it truly represents Benito’s essence as an artist and conveys the message of the project.
So, what was this message? And what was the overlying strategy for the album?
The strategy was telling a story through nostalgia and taking a message of love and appreciation for our upbringing, regardless of where or what that upbringing was. With this album, we underscored our pride for Puerto Rico, and we wanted the whole world to feel this same pride. That’s what we’ve presented in all our storyline and in everything we’ve done inside and outside the island. I think that’s what’s pushed such a special connection between the album and its listeners.
We’re closing in on a third consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, more than any other of Benito’s albums except for Un Verano Sin Ti. What do you attribute that success to?
DEBí TiRAR MáS FOToS has been a very special project. I think the entire world has seen and understood the essence of what the album wanted to communicate: Benito’s love for his culture and for his Latin people. I believe this has made the reception to the album different [from other albums].
This feels like more of a passion project than any of Benito’s previous albums. Do you think that has had an impact on people’s obsession with it?
Definitely. Benito has always been very vocal about his commitment and love for Puerto Rico. But here, he’s devoted an entire project to his island — not only conceptually but also musically, betting on root genres and on young, local talent like Los Sobrinos [the band on the album, made up of students from Puerto Rico’s Escuela Libre de Música] and Los Pleneros de La Cresta. It’s made people look at the project from another point of view and value it even more.
Benito did more promo for this album than any other. Why? And how did you convince him to do it?
I truly think his connection with the project made everything flow easier. He wanted to do it that way, to support the release in the way he did. The key is ensuring that what we do resonates with him, with his personality as an artist and with his vision. Once we have that, everything is easier.
Can you give me examples of marketing strategies that you thought were particularly effective?
Our strategy to reveal the song names generated a lot of buzz. We collaborated with Google Maps and Spotify, and as part of the collaboration, coordinates for each song on the album’s tracklist were revealed on Spotify, encouraging fans to dive into Google Maps for hidden clues. We not only looked for a different, interactive way to do this, but it led to many people discovering different places on our island.
Another major effort was the short film released prior to the album. The story it told [of an older man, played by filmmaker and actor Jacobo Morales, who reminisces of his life and love for Puerto Rico] was a great preamble to the album. It was an emotional, well-done piece [directed by Bad Bunny himself] that connected with many people in and out of Puerto Rico. Plus, those short previews of different tracks that were included in the video opened up an enormous conversation on social media on what people could expect from the album.
Does it surprise you that such a Latin album is the most consumed in the U.S.?
More than a “Latin” album, it’s about the [Puerto Rican] rhythms that make up the album. I’m definitely positively surprised, and as a Puerto Rican, it fills my heart. It’s a huge step for music as a whole.
What’s next with this album?
We never stop. There are many things coming up around the album. Plus the residency in Puerto Rico, which is something historic and will definitely be special for everyone who comes to visit and enjoy.
Tony Dize has inked a record deal with Rimas Music, and will make his highly-awaited comeback with new music, Billboard can exclusively announce today (Sept. 24). With a trajectory that spans over 20 years, the Puerto Rican artist born Tony Feliciano Rivera gained popularity as “La Melodía de la Calle” (the melody of the streets) thanks to his smooth vocals that backed his signature romantic reggaetón sound.
Rimas — home to Bad Bunny, Arcángel, and Eladio Carrión, to name a few — will not only “revive his classic reggaeton sound but also propel his music into the future, pushing the boundaries of Latin music,” according to a press release.
“This is a very important moment for Rimas and for Tony Dize,” said Junior Carabaño, co-founder of Rimas, in a statement. “Tony’s signing is a testament to our ongoing mission to work with artists who have not only shaped the culture but continue to drive it forward. Over the past year, we’ve been committed to making this partnership a reality, and it’s an honor that Tony has trusted us for this new chapter in his career. Together, we aim to take his timeless sound to new heights and reach even broader audiences worldwide. We can’t wait to make history together.”
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On the Billboard charts, Tony secured nine entries on the Hot Latin Songs chart including “El Doctorado” at No. 8 in 2010. The song also reached No. 1 on Latin Rhythm Airplay for two weeks that same year. In 2014, he peaked at No. 2 on the latter chart with “Prometo Olvidarte.”
He additionally secured his first and only entry on the Billboard 200 chart with his debut album, La Melodía de la Calle, in 2008. He reached No. 1 on Latin Rhythm Albums in 2009 with La Melodía de La Calle (Updated); and in 2015, his set La Melodía de La Calle, 3rd Season, debuted at No. 1 on both Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums charts.
Most recently, he was a featured artist on Bad Bunny’s “La Corriente,” part of his Una Verano Sin Ti album. The infectious collab earned Dize his only entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2022, and on both Global charts: No. 17 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 20 on the Global Excl. U.S.
On the heels of the signing, the “Permitame” singer will release his new single “Quisiera,” accompanied by a conceptual video directed by Nuno Gomes.
Rimas Publishing, known for its influence in urban music and its management of stars like Bad Bunny, Arcángel and Eladio Carrión, is launching Faith Sounds, a platform dedicated to supporting and elevating Christian music artists, Billboard Español can announce today (Sep. 16) exclusively. The project seeks to offer a formal structure and advanced resources to Christian artists, providing collaboration opportunities, songwriting camps and a support network to boost their careers.
Faith Sounds is not a recent idea, but rather the evolution of a commitment that Rimas Publishing has maintained since its beginnings: supporting music with a positive message, Emilio Morales, managing director of Rimas Publishing, and Christopher Hernández, who will lead the marketing division, tell Billboard Español. “This was born from a need to be able to give even more visibility to these significant artists within our roster,” says Hernández. “The goal is to elevate them, create new collaborations and take them to different areas that perhaps they could not have reached on their own.”
The platform currently has a roster of 12 artists, covering a wide range of genres within Christian music. Among the most notable names are Lizzy Parra, a Christian trap singer from the Dominican Republic; as well as producer Barajas; Christian reggaeton artist Gabriel EMC; and gospel crooner Shamaai, all three hailing from Puerto Rico.
Additionally, they have established key alliances with companies such as Adarga Entertainment, and the Gospel Music Association (GMA), which has allowed them to access new opportunities in the niche and give greater visibility to their artists at important events such as the Dove Awards. According to Morales, the support of influential Christian companies has allowed Faith Sounds to gain credibility and establish itself in the sector.
Faith Sounds also seeks to foster collaboration between Christian and secular music artists. Camps have already been held in conjunction with Capitol Christian Music Group, with talents from both sides participating. “We invest in ensuring that our A&Rs, who are exposed to the biggest artists and producers in the world — the same person who may be serving Cris MJ, Lyanno, or Eladio [Carrión] one day — are the same persons who will be providing service to the client who is participating in the camp,” Morales adds.
With Faith Sounds, Rimas Publishing seeks to continue breaking patterns and offer Christian artists a broader and more diverse audience by breaking down barriers between Christian and secular music.
Rimas Entertainment has announced new corporate appointments, adding two key executives to its leadership team, Billboard has learned.
Rodrigo Prichard has been named general manager of Rimas Entertainment, and will begin July 1, reporting directly to the company’s chief operating officer, Jorge Bracero. Kristen Quintero-Garriga has been named vice president of brand partnerships under RIT.MO, Rimas’ new division that acts as a creative consultancy and sales force.
“I am thrilled to welcome Rodrigo Prichard and Kristen Quintero-Garriga to our corporate leadership team,” Bracero said in a press statement. “Their deep knowledge and experience in the music industry and in creating strategic alliances are invaluable to us at this time of growth and evolution. I am confident that their leadership will be crucial in further driving Rimas’ success in the future.”
Prichard, who was vp of legal and business affairs at Universal Music Latin before joining Rimas, will oversee all departments of the record labels within the Rimas conglomerate (Rimas Music, Sonar, Nain Music) in Puerto Rico, the United States and all other markets.
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Prior to joining Rimas, Quintero-Garriga was market manager at Puma Energy LATAM, Burger King and Advice Global. In her new role, she will lead brand partnerships, offering her expertise to Rimas, Habibi, Rimas Sports, Fundación Rimas and Rimas Nation, among others.
“Rimas is what all other brands aspire to be right now: agile, smart and passionate,” Prichard expressed. “I am honored to join this family of visionary professionals and look forward to contributing to the brand’s success.”
Quintero-Garriga added: “The speed and efficiency with which each business line under Rimas Entertainment has developed have created great opportunities to forge strategic alliances with local and international brands, which we will capitalize on. We are focused on creating unparalleled collaborations with brands and our world-class artists, athletes and events that we are bringing to Puerto Rico.”
Ñengo Flow has signed an exclusive record contract with Rimas Entertainment in a bid for his international expansion, Billboard can announce today (Oct. 31). The alliance that includes touring, merchandising, and brand partnerships strategies, “marks a significant step in the evolution of the reggaeton genre pioneer, known for the distinctive touch of his rhymes and […]
Rimas Publishing — home to renowned songwriters and producers such as Bad Bunny, Eladio Carrión, Mora, and Súbelo NEO — has inked a strategic partnership with music metadata Muso.AI, Billboard has learned. Focused on businesses, catalogs, and individual profiles, the new deal will provide a new standard for next-generation transparency that will directly benefit Rimas’ […]
For Rimas Entertainment CEO Noah Assad, it was a night to celebrate. On Feb. 1, seven years after signing Bad Bunny, Assad, 32, took the stage to accept the Executive of the Year award at the annual Grammy-week Billboard Power 100 event to honor the most important executives in the business. In front of an audience that included Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge, HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk and music mogul Clive Davis, Assad, sporting white sneakers and a ponytail, accepted the award from fellow Puerto Rican Bad Bunny. Minutes later, manager and executive Scooter Braun told Assad from the stage: “You’re the best of us now.”
Bad Bunny’s fifth studio album, Un Verano Sin Ti, ended the year at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — the first non-English album to do so — and his 81 concerts in 2022 grossed a record $434.9 million. Assad was the force behind a lot of this success, as the artist himself noted onstage. “There is no Bad Bunny superstar without Noah,” he said in halting English, then handed Assad the obelisk-shaped plaque. “Without [Bad Bunny],” Assad said as he accepted the award, “a lot of my dreams would have never become true.”
The same could be said of another figure, Rafael Ricardo Jiménez Dan, who founded Rimas nine years ago but has had no interaction with Bad Bunny or the company’s other stars. He went unmentioned in Assad’s acceptance speech, andfew of the executives in that room even knew that he existed. Jiménez says he was the sole owner of Rimas — which manages, records and publishes Bad Bunny — until 2018, when he says he made Assad a 40% owner, though a source close to Assad disputes that description of their initial deal. Before that, Jiménez had been a vice minister in authoritarian leader Hugo Chávez’s Venezuelan government; while in the regime he worked to modernize the country’s information systems and was charged with helping oversee the development of a national ID that Chávez wanted to deepen his control over the populace.
Also unknown to most of the Power 100 attendees, Assad had spent the last few months embroiled in negotiations, which were so intense they continued through the year-end holidays, that would buy Jiménez out of Rimas. After working to build Rimas together for nearly a decade, the relationship between the two men broke down, and for the past five years, multiple sources say, Assad has been pushing to get him out, for “business reasons,” says the source close to him. When Rimas was initially formed in March 2014, Assad believed Jiménez was simply an investor who owned restaurants and packaging companies.
After they started working together, Assad began to hear talk about Jiménez’s connections to the Chávez regime, but when Assad inquired on one occasion, Jiménez told him he had “nothing to hide,” according to the source close to Assad. Now, though, Jimenez may finally be on his way out.
Under the terms of Sony Music Group’s potential deal with Rimas, which is still under discussion, Sony would put up capital toward buying out the 60% stake owned by Jiménez and, through an ownership restructuring, assign a significant minority stake to its independent distribution subsidiary, The Orchard. Bad Bunny, who does not currently have a stake in Rimas, could get some equity and Assad could get a bigger stake in the company, which Billboard estimates could be valued at more than $300 million overall, not including publishing. Together, sources say, Assad and Bad Bunny would likely emerge from the deal controlling Rimas, although the agreement is still being discussed. A separate Rimas publishing arm, also believed to be 60% owned by Jiménez and 40% by Assad, which Billboard estimates is worth about $70 million, will likely be sold in a separate deal, sources say.
Jiménez, Assad and a spokesperson for Sony Music Entertainment declined to comment about any deal in the works.
The size of the potential deal speaks to the growing sway of Latin music and especially of Bad Bunny, who has helped grow the San Juan-based Rimas into a 100-person company that essentially functions as a label, publisher, manager and booking agency and also works with other Latin artists like Arcángel and Karol G.
In a series of email exchanges through his lawyer, Jiménez gave Billboard an unprecedented look at his unlikely journey from an army captain raised in Portuguesa, a rural part of Venezuela, to one of music’s most successful behind-the-scenes investors. The image that emerges is that of a savvy operator who positioned his business enterprises in ways that benefitted from his government connections in Venezuela — and who in both his five-year government career and his second life in the U.S. music business has remained out of public view while playing a role in the lives of prominent people, like an unseen gravitational force.
Jiménez, 56, who played violin in Venezuela’s youth orchestra system and got his first taste in the music industry managing a Venezuelan urban duo, formed at least a dozen companies from 2005 to 2013, in Venezuela and the Caribbean, and he also served as CEO of a cardboard and paper packaging firm that Chávez nationalized. He tells Billboard that the funding to start Rimas and his life in the United States came from a Miami restaurant and from a company that imported food products from Brazil and other countries.
Assad was always thought to be the co-founder of Rimas. Although he privately acknowledged the company had a silent partner, he previously told Billboard on the record that he co-founded the company with José “Junior” Carabaño, a 20-year-old Venezuelan graffiti artist. But Jiménez tells Billboard that after meeting a 22-year-old Assad in 2012, he formed Rimas in Puerto Rico in March 2014 and hired Assad as an employee — an arrangement that continued until 2018, when Assad became part-owner after he “agreed to assume more responsibilities.” A source close to Assad disputes that claim but wouldn’t provide more detail. Billboard was unable to obtain documentation of the initial deal terms.
Assad “demonstrated a great talent in the artist development side of the business and worked hard to scale up the growth of the company,” Jiménez says, adding that he brought Assad aboard as part of “a strong team of talented people were brought aboard to take over the day-to-day operations.”
Jiménez would not tell Billboard how much he initially invested in Rimas. A 2017 corporate filing for Risamar Business Group, the entity Jiménez used to hold his share of Rimas, shows $1.34 million in assets and $648,098 in liabilities. Property records show that, in 2014, while still living in Caracas, Venezuela, Jiménez also purchased a foreclosed property in an exclusive beachfront neighborhood in San Juan for $390,000 in cash to turn into Rimas’ first offices and recording studios.
Rimas Entertainment’s first office in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Juan R. Costa
Assad served as the face of Rimas in the music business, but Jiménez says he led the company for four years before effectively handing the reins to Assad. Until then, Jiménez had to approve — and often vetoed — artist signings that would exceed the company’s budget, and he was also kept apprised of the label’s other big decisions, including the very important one to sign Bad Bunny. Jiménez was copied on the April 11, 2016, email from Rimas attorney Jessie Abad to Assad about the “360 deal and songwriter agreement” for Benito Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), according to a copy of a partially redacted email in a civil case in San Juan and one person familiar with the matter.
From Army Captain to Vice Minister
Like many leaders in Venezuela, Jiménez’s career started at a military academy. He graduated in 1987, No. 3 in his class. He finished the same year as Diosdado Cabello and Jesse Chacón, he noted, both of whom participated in Chávez-directed coup attempts in 1992; Rodolfo Marco Torres was a class below them. All three went on to become high-level officials in the Chávez regime.
Venezuela’s legacy as one of the wealthiest and most-stable democracies in the region began to change on Feb. 4, 1992, when Chávez, then a disaffected army officer, led a failed coup attempt. Once out of prison, he rose to fame and was elected president in 1998 on an anti-establishment platform. A disciple of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, he later veered toward autocratic socialism by silencing opposition parties, packing the courts, harassing the media and nationalizing more than 1,000 businesses.
While Chávez’s “missions to save the people” initially helped stem poverty, his policies laid the foundation for the oil-rich country’s descent into full-blown dictatorship after his death in 2013. His legacy also included “an institutionalized kleptocracy the likes of which the world has never seen before,” Marshall Billingslea, former assistant secretary for the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the U.S. Treasury Department, wrote in 2021. Over the past two decades, Chávez and Maduro, his successor, “and their cronies,” Billingslea wrote, “plundered at least $300 billion from state assets.”
President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez gives a speech during the closing session of the 4th PetroCaribe Summit in the Camilo Cienfuegos refinery Dec. 21, 2007 in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
Sven Creutzmann/Mambo photo/GI
Jiménez, who was commissioned as an army captain, retired from the military in 1999, by which time he had earned degrees in both law and systems engineering. Once Chávez took power in 1999, the new president initiated a sweeping modernization program, and Jiménez’s knowledge of telematics, which involves the long-distance transmission of computerized information, proved valuable. He joined the government in late 2002, serving initially in a management and technical unit that oversaw the operational side of the Judiciary, helping to digitize the country’s law enforcement and criminal and civil administration.
After he was briefly ousted from office in 2002, Chávez launched Misión Identidad (Mission Identity), a program that became a cornerstone of his “Bolivarian Missions,” or social programs, and a way for him to tighten his hold on power after the failed coup —at the expense of civil liberties. Its focus became developing a national ID card with biometric data embedded in a chip that would be modeled after China’s smart card, which Beijing uses to track social, economic and political behavior. Chávez launched his ID program in 2003, employing a Cuban company to help implement it, according to the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), a conservative national security think tank in Washington, D.C., that has testified in Congress about the dangers of the Venezuelan regime.
Mission Identity involved transitioning Venezuela’s passport and naturalization system from what was called ONIDEX to the higher capacity SAIME system. Beginning around 2003, Jiménez worked with a hand-picked team on the automation of the project, according to two people familiar with the matter. SAIME went online in 2009. President Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s successor, finally rolled out the national ID, later called the carnet de la patria, or “fatherland ID,” in 2018. (Jiménez would not comment on whether he worked on the transition to SAIME.)
Jiménez’s government career peaked in March 2006 when Chacón appointed him vice minister of legal security in the Interior Ministry. That led to a seemingly plum assignment the following January when he became one of five directors of Mission Identity, according to a government document.
Chávez officials in 2007 allegedly used Mission Identity to provide false identities to Cuban agents to enter Venezuela, and to facilitate the travel of suspected Islamist terrorists, Colombian guerillas and drug traffickers, says the SFS.
Despite his official designation as a director, Jiménez says he “personally never worked with Mission Identity” and that the directorate had “no decision-making authority.” He resigned from the Interior Ministry after about a year and a half, “due to frustration with the government’s unwillingness to fairly and justly apply the rule of law.” (Jiménez provided a copy of his resignation letter signed on Oct. 11, 2007, by Pedro Carreño, the Interior Minister at the time.) He adds that he “sought to implement several projects aimed [at] improving legal certainty, to guarantee a better participation of the civil society and to increase the standards of transparency but these were obstructed and stopped by the minister (Carreño) above him.”
Jiménez overlapped in the Interior Ministry by about five months with Tareck El Aissami, a powerful member of the regime who served as a vice minister through September 2008, and then as Interior Minister from 2008 to 2012. The Trump administration sanctioned El Aissami in 2017 and the Justice Department indicted him in 2019 for alleged international narcotics trafficking and money laundering; U.S. Treasury officials have also been investigating his ties to the terrorist group Hezbollah. (El Aissami responded to the accusations in 2017 on Twitter, calling them “infamy and aggression; Maduro said he had “delivered the strongest blows against the heads of drug trafficking” in Venezuela.)
Venezuela’s Vice President Tareck El Aissami delivers a speech during a rally against the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, in Caracas on March 28, 2017.
FEDERICO PARRA/AFP via GI
El Aissami was the chief architect of the national ID program, according to Joseph Humire, who heads the SFS, and who testified to Congress about the program in 2015. El Aissami also allegedly oversaw a multiyear program to sell hundreds, if not thousands, of legitimate Venezuelan passports for as much as $50,000 apiece to people from Middle Eastern countries, says Mauricio Claver-Carone, former senior director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council. (Delcy Rodríguez, then Venezuela’s foreign minister, told CNN in 2017 that allegations of selling passports and visas were “totally” false.)
Through his lawyer, Jiménez says he has “no knowledge” of the passport-selling program and “has never had any personal, business or political relationship with Mr. El Aissami.” Jiménez’ lawyer adds that “the presence of individuals like Mr. El Aissami was one of the factors that led Mr. Jiménez to resign.”
On the Money
Jiménez was initially reluctant to discuss his investment in Rimas, which he first told Billboard derived from “private business activity,” without offering more details. He later clarified that the funding came from a food import company and a restaurant in Miami, as well as a line of credit he said was from a bank in Florida, “which was secured by his assets in Florida.”
Risamar Business Group also controls a Florida-based food company of the same name. The company’s website says it specializes in “high-quality, ethically produced snack foods, canned fruits and vegetables, cleaning supplies and animal care products.”
In October 2006, at the peak of his career in the Chávez regime, Jiménez also started an import-export food company in Venezuela, Agropecuario Ravigg C.A. It imported food to Venezuela from Brazil, Argentina and other countries, generating a net profit of 8,897,246 bolívares ($1.4 million) in 2013, according to the Registry of National Contractors (RNC). Ravigg shipments from January to May of 2014 alone totaled $7.9 million in value, according to Venezuela’s National Center for Foreign Commerce (CENCOEX). The firm, which is 85% owned by Jiménez and still operates, did business as food shortages were beginning to mount in the country after the price of oil plummeted. Food imports became controversial in 2019 when the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Colombian national and others for allegedly orchestrating a scheme that enabled Maduro and his regime to “significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela” as far back as 2016. (Ravigg was not named in the sanctions.)
When asked to clarify if Ravigg was the company he was talking about that helped him fund Rimas, Jiménez said it was not and that he had been referring to a third “international food-trading entity,” founded in 2008, which he declined to name.
Jiménez also handled a variety of Venezuelan government contracts through Rialfi Consulting C.A., a company he set up in August 2005, seven months before joining the Interior Ministry. By the following August, when he was a vice minister, Rialfi landed a contract with the Venezuelan Institute of Social Services (IVSS), which manages employee pension funds.
Between 2006 and 2018, Rialfi completed 17 contracts, 15 of which were with government-controlled companies or institutions, including the national oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, the Bank of the Treasury and Banco de Venezuela. (Jiménez was still listed as CEO in 2019; Rialfi is 100% owned by Consorcio Riso C.A., which Jiménez also controls.)
In an email, Jiménez says no funds from Rialfi were invested in Rimas and notes that with the “year-to-year devaluation of the bolívar, those proceeds would have had very little value if they were ever converted to dollars.” (A government document from 2019 shows Rialfi had total assets of 2.84 billion bolívares, worth $6,100 in December of that year, when the currency was cratering from hyperinflation of 9,586%.)
After Jiménez resigned from the Interior Ministry in October 2007, he didn’t stop doing business with the government. Since Jiménez left his post, Rialfi has executed at least 14 contracts with Chávez-controlled companies or institutions, according to the 2019 document. Jiménez says the contracts were granted “via a public bidding process.”
Jiménez, downplays his government service, describing himself as “an entrepreneur for over 20 years in different industries, including food and beverage, technology, packaging, hospitality and entertainment.” In April 2010, the board of Envases Internacionales S.A., a cardboard and paper packaging firm, named him CEO (and majority shareholder, he says); two months later, Chávez nationalized the company, in what became a common practice of appointing current or former military officers to lead companies the government had taken over.
Jiménez eventually controlled or ran at least 15 companies in Venezuela and Panama, and later in Barbados, Florida and Puerto Rico, according to corporate records.
He made his first foray into the music industry in Caracas in 2011, when he started managing and funding Kent & Tony, a newly formed urban act. The duo wanted to work with Puerto Rican producers Los de la Nazza, and in October 2012, Assad, their manager, flew with the producers to Caracas to work with the Venezuelans in the studio. Jiménez asked Assad to also manage Kent & Tony, and in January 2014, they signed a license agreement with Siente Music.
After that, Jiménez moved quickly, founding Rimas two months later in Puerto Rico, when he saw an opportunity “for a well-run full-service independent label focused on a genre that was growing exponentially.”
Helpful to the early interactions between Assad and Jiménez, say two people familiar with the matter, was Carabaño, the son of a Venezuelan folk singer from Barquisimeto popular with military veterans. Later, working with Assad at Rimas, Carabaño signed Venezuelan artists like rapper Big Soto. (Carabaño did not respond to requests for an interview.)
After Chávez died in 2013, Jiménez left Venezuela in November 2014, he says, and moved to the Miami area, where he had already bought a house in 2008 for $925,000 with his now wife Dayva Soto Vallenilla, a former Venezuelan judge, in Weston, a suburb known as Westonzuela for its popularity with Venezuelans. They purchased the home about six months after Jiménez left the Chávez government. They emigrated at a time when U.S. officials were allowing in few Venezuelans with high-level government backgrounds. Jiménez maintained his connection to his native country, traveling from Miami to Caracas 10 times between December 2014 and July 2018, according to Venezuelan passport records.
Rimas to Riches
“I’m from a place called Carolina, Puerto Rico,” Assad said to the audience of about 400 at the Billboard Power 100 event. Assad’s hometown, just outside of San Juan, is known as “Tierra de Gigantes” (Land of Giants), for 7-foot-11-inch resident Don Felipe Birriel González and for baseball star Roberto Clemente, the first Latin player named to the Hall of Fame.
By 2013, Assad was living in a small apartment in Carolina while organizing parties and booking performers in Colombia and other Latin American countries. By that time, he had already been managing future reggaetoón star Ozuna. Soon after, Assad created a YouTube business, striking the first direct partnership in Puerto Rico with the platform to more easily monetize content, says Mauricio Ojeda, YouTube’s manager of label partnerships, U.S. Latin. He says he first met Assad in San Juan in early 2014 — before Rimas existed — and decided to partner with him because of his connections to the underground Latin urban scene on the island. At the time, major labels and important markets like Mexico were not optimistic about the future of reggaetón and Latin trap music, and Ojeda says he was looking to recruit a partner in Puerto Rico, where the scene was heating up.
Jo-Ann Toro
“We spoke for hours, we hung out in Puerto Rico, he introduced me around,” says Ojeda, who says he also met Jiménez during that period. “[Assad] said he was going to come out with a ‘road map and a plan’ for becoming a YouTube partner,” says the YouTube executive.
YouTube signed a deal with Rimas in February 2015, Ojeda says, for a partnership that involved sharing revenue from video ads and other monetization features like channel memberships and merch sales. “This was providing the artists the opportunity to export their content and reach their audiences, during a time when nobody was really paying attention to them,” Ojeda says.
In 2016, with the YouTube partnership and Jiménez’s financing in place at Rimas, Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión, an early Rimas signing, introduced Assad to Martínez, a then college student calling himself Bad Bunny, who was appearing at a Ponce show with Carrión. At the time, Bad Bunny was earning money for school by working as a bagger at the Econo supermarket near his home in Vega Baja. Martínez dropped out of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, where he was studying audiovisual communication, and switched to a sound engineering program at the College of Cinematography, Arts and Television. (He chose his stage name after posting a picture of himself as a child wearing a bunny suit and a dour expression, then created a Twitter handle.)
After Bad Bunny uploaded some of his early music on SoundCloud, Assad in April 2016 signed him to the 360 deal with Rimas, collaborating on some early tracks with DJ Luian’s label Hear This Music.
Eventually, as Assad’s differences with Jiménez became increasingly apparent, Assad began seeking better opportunities for himself and his team, says a source close to Rimas. Days before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Assad met with manager Scooter Braun, whom he’d long admired, about a potential deal in which Braun would provide investment, making Jiménez aware of their discussions, according to multiple sources. The deal got close to the finish line but didn’t come to fruition.
Econo market in Vega Baja where Bad Bunny worked before Rimas signed him.
Alexei Barrionuevo
By mid-2020, with Bad Bunny’s success accelerating, Rimas had moved into newer offices in San Juan’s Miramar neighborhood on the top floor of a small office building. That November, Assad branched out, forming his own management agency, Habibi, which signed Karol G. The industry took notice: Even before Sony Music started negotiating a deal to help Assad buy out his majority partner, other companies were sniffing around Rimas, including HYBE, which has prioritized adding Latin companies to its portfolio.
This month, Bad Bunny and Rimas made history yet again when the Puerto Rican star performed at Coachella as the first Spanish-language headliner. The next night, Karol G, whose fourth studio album, Mañana Será Bonito (Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful) debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in March, performed on Saturday Night Live.
Behind the scenes, Sony and Rimas continue to work on the deal that could give both Assad and Jiménez — two driven hustlers from different generations and different worlds — keys to their futures. Assad would get the freedom to pursue his mogul dreams without an investor pulling at the purse strings, while Jiménez is expected to pocket what Billboard estimates could be more than $200 million for his stakes in the recording and publishing businesses he formed less than a decade ago.
Additional Reporting By Marcos David Valverde and Ed Christman