Around midnight, the day after Halloween, Mariah Carey was sitting in the lavish Bel Air mansion of music producer Antonio "L.A." Reid. The 56-year-old Carey may be one of the top-selling recording artists of all-time - with five Grammy awards and 19 number-one hits (the most by any solo artist) - but she still solicits the opinion of Reid, a friend of more than 20 years, and the man who shaped the careers of Usher, TLC, Pink and other artists as the chairman of Epic, Arista, and Island Def Jam record labels. Also in the attendance was Larry Jackson, the 44-year-old CEO of the two-year-old music startup, Gamma.
As Carey played tracks to from her upcoming 16th album, Jackson, who has been in the business for more than 30 years, was awestruck by the moment. "Why am I in this room?" he recalls thinking. But as Carey told him, "I know who you are. I know what you've done. And I think you're the right person to take me to new heights."
With the midnight release of Carey's new single, "Type Dangerous", the ultimate challenge begins. Among the heights Carey wants to reach is having a 20th number-one single - which would tie her with The Beatles - and then a 21st. It's the music equivalent of LeBron James breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's NBA all-time scoring record. And Carey is counting on Jackson to put her on top of music's Mount Olympus
"I think that Larry might be downplaying his popularity," Reid tells Forbes. "Mariah Carey knows who Larry Jackson is."
A cofounder of Beats Music with Dr. Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine, and one of the masterminds behind Apple Music, Jackson started the industry at 11, as an intern at KMEL radio station in San Francisco and became music director at 16. "It would be unthinkable today," he says of the gig. "But these were more unregulated times." Jackson soon began being mentored by Clive Davis, the legendary founder and CEO of Arista Records, who launched the career of Whitney Houston, among many other artists.
Throughout his career, Jackson produced the late Luther Vandross, once managed Kanye West and produced Houston's last studio album. He eventually moved to Interscope records to work with Iovine, who later co-founded Beats with Dr. Dre. In 2014, the company sold to Apple for more than $3 billion, which is how Jackson became the creative force behind Apple Music.
"I didn't graduate high school and didn't go to college," Jackson told Billboard about his career trajectory in 2023. "My university was working with Clive. Graduate school was working with Jimmy."
After seven years at Apple, Jackson did what few executives in Cupertino ever do - he left to start his own venture. He launched Gamma in 2023 with backing from billionaire Todd Boehly's Eldridge Capital, the independent film studio A24, and Apple itself. Gamma soon acquired Vydia, the New Jersey-based digital distribution company that serves as its technology platform, signed deals with Usher and Rick Ross, and took a stake in the Death Row records archive, which Snoop Dogg purchased the previous year. Late last year, Gamma also partnered with Snoop and jewelry entrepreneur Carolyn Rafaelian, the founder of Metal Alchemist and Alex and Ani, to launch Snoop's jewelry brand, Lovechild.
"He's as a straight shooter as it gets," Boehly says of Jackson. "And he cares more about the artists and wants them to build their businesses and think differently about what the opportunities are, and not just go down the traditional label path. I see entrepreneurs backing entrepreneurs in a world that's becoming more entrepreneurial. And you've got great artists like Snoop and Usher and now Mariah Carey coming to Larry because they're becoming more entrepreneurial."
"What Larry Jackson is building at Gamma," Carey tells Forbes, "is beyond music. It's a cultural shift, and I'm excited to be part of something that honors legacy while pushing boundaries. This next chapter is about owning my narrative and creating freely on my own terms."
Adds Reid, who will executive-produce Carey's album under his new company, Mega, "It is a game-changing moment because it's one of our premier stars who has made a decision to join forces with an independent, self-contained company that is not associated with any of the major labels. It's a game changer for both Gamma and Mariah."
Jackson and Carey chose June, which is Black Music Month, to make their partnership official. The parties tell Forbes they agreed to a multi-album deal as she aims for music history. "I don't have a crystal ball," Reid says. "But my intuition tells me that this one works. She's fighting to stay contemporary. He's fighting to stay contemporary, to be contemporary. I think it's a win-win."
(Forbes)
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