Andre Harrell, a veteran music govt is finest recognized for signing a younger Sean Combs to his first file deal and later went on to move Motown Information, has died. He was 59. The reason for dying is as but unclear.
DJ D Good revealed the unhappy information whereas spinning on Instagram Reside for his standard Membership Quarantine collection. Selection has but to obtain official phrase although sources have confirmed Harrell’s passing.
A local of New York, Harrell began his profession in music as an artist, one-half of the rap duo Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. In 1983 Harrell teamed with Russell Simmons, the founding father of Def Jam Information, and had considered one of his early experiences within the enterprise working as a vp and later GM of the label. He left to begin his personal file firm, Uptown Information, the place he signed Sean “Puffy” Combs. He later introduced Mary J. Blige onto the roster and noticed success with each artists within the late 1980s and into the 1990s.
Combs took an A&R place at Uptown which led to him discovering the demo tape for a rapper named Christopher Wallace, aka Infamous B.I.G. Because the story goes, Diddy was fired from Uptown in 1993 after which he launched Dangerous Boy Information and promptly signed Wallace to a deal.
Harrell would later discover a residence for Uptown at MCA productions the place he developed a number of initiatives in movie and tv within the 1990s together with the film and soundtrack “Strictly Enterprise.” In 1995, he went on to run Motown Information as CEO. By that period, the label was residence such acts as Boyz II Males, Jodeci and Al B. Positive.
Harrell and Combs remained longtime buddies and enterprise associates and Harrell served as vice chairman of Revolt, Combs’ multi-platform music community, and a producer on its panel present “State of the Tradition.”
A pioneer of hip-hop and R&B and black leisure normally, serving as govt producer of Harrell may very well be seen at many crimson carpet occasions on each coasts. He seems in Diddy’s 2017 documentary “Can’t Cease, Gained’t Cease: A Dangerous Boy Story” and, in keeping with IMDB, had been engaged on a TV miniseries about Uptown that was within the improvement section at BET. The three-part miniseries titled “Uptown” had Harrell on board as govt producer and was scheduled to hit the airwaves in 2020.
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