Six years ago, Drake delivered a message to Apple Music’s then-global creative director Larry Jackson that would change his life.
“Someone get Larry Jackson on the phone,” Drake rapped on the first verse of Lil Wayne’s “Family Feud,” a song Jackson first heard while vacationing in the Maldives. “I need some ownership when we go to print.”
“I really sat down and started thinking about my life,” Jackson recalled recently during one of a series of interviews, the last at one of his regular tables on the terrace of the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where the 42 The year-old often spends mornings with powerful music business brokers, answering a steady stream of calls from A-list artists seeking his advice on everything from creative projects to sponsorship deals. Drake’s verse shook him out of a “sleep”, which he said was brought on by his corporate “hamster wheel” routine, and got him thinking, “What if there was another level in the video game?”
Jackson says that wake-up call inspired him to revisit an idea for his own venture, which he’s now launching as gamma, a one-stop-shop media company that creates, distributes and markets content from music to podcasts to movies, and offers resources and guidance. to artists who want to build their brands and go beyond music. Backed by investors including Apple and Todd Boehly‘s Eldridge (which also has a stake in Billboardparent company) range — registered with a lowercase “g” — debuts as the “highest-capitalized music company competing with the major labels and signing superstars,” says Raine Group partner Fred Daviswho advised Jackson during his fundraising process, though neither he nor Jackson would reveal the amount raised to date. Bloomberg reported that gamma has about $1 billion available in equities and debt.
“There are many catalogs for acquiring private equity,” Davis says Billboard“but this is unprecedented.”
Jackson acquired the Vydia distribution platform in December, which employs 76 mostly New Jersey-based employees, and has struck deals with a dozen of the world’s most influential creators, from Usher to Rick Ross to Naomi Campbell Unpleasant Angelica Nwandufounder of The Shade Room, one of Instagram’s most popular news outlets.
In December, gamma also quietly acquired a stake in the Death Row Records catalog from Snoop Dogg, who had bought the catalog last year and pulled it from streaming services. Jackson would not disclose the terms of his deal with Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, but said it’s a long-term partnership that includes two future albums and returns the rights to Broadus after “we work together to enrich the value of the IP.” Jackson released the back catalog exclusively on TikTok last month without disclosing his participation, allowing fans to create their own videos featuring clips from classic albums such as Doggy style, and to transform themselves into different dog breeds using TikTok’s “What Dogg Are You?” AR filter, an attempt to drive buzz and engagement for the music before it returns to streaming platforms.
Jackson bets that with its own distribution pipeline, a bevy of big names, an array of culture-boosting shows, and an alliance with indie film and TV studio A24 (in which Boehly is also an investor), TikTok’s range is a run for its money and “the new become radio, where you can really break records,” plus sell a range of other goods from concert tickets to beauty products.
“Having everything from A to Z creates a kind of farm-to-fork situation,” says Jackson. “Everything can’t be about one place where your music breaks – I’m not going to say what that one place is, but you know what I’m talking about. For us, as a company, I want to reduce our reliance on outside resources. I don’t see that happening anywhere.”
He also hopes his leadership as Black founder and CEO will bring more diversity, inclusion and equality to the top of the music business. He wants to run gamma with a stronger focus on — and more sensitivity to — black culture than the major labels, while structuring deals that help artists maintain ownership of their work and build wealth for generations.
The gamma billboard on Sunset
To build intrigue, Jackson mysteriously teases his new company as he might make a new album, building on his many years in the record business. For example, after the Grammys in February, he organized a party at the Mr. Brainwash Art Museum in Los Angeles, where he invited a mix of bankers and stars such as Lil Wayne, Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna, making guests say “gamma” as the entry password. This month, he put up billboards on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and Times Square in New York, featuring cymbal-banging monkeys and the company’s new logo.
Jackson’s core team consists of his co-founder and COO Ike Youssef, with whom he worked at Universal Music’s Interscope Records, where Youssef was CFO. It also includes Ben Cook, who left his position as president of Atlantic Records UK in 2019 amid controversy over an old photo of him dressed as a member of Run-DMC; Cook apologized in a statement at the time, saying he realized his appearance was “offensive” and that he had only tried to honor his musical hero.
“I believe in redemption,” says Jackson, noting that he was grateful to be given a second chance himself after being fired from Sony’s RCA Records for misconduct in 2010. (He had offered to personally pay Alicia Keys an amount in excess of what had approved the rights to have Jennifer Hudson record one of Keys’ songs, in an effort to speed up the release of Hudson’s second album.) It was more with a magnanimous spirit to ensure the album got out, which would have helped the company hit its numbers and all 170 employees got their bonuses. I tried to honor the artist and my colleagues.”
Jimmy Lovine gave Jackson another chance and almost immediately hired him at Interscope, and it was there during a whiteboard brainstorming session that same year that Youssef says they first came up with the idea for a company like Gamma.
Jackson then worked closely with Iovine and Dr. Dre to found Beats, their headphone and streaming service company, and became Apple Music’s global creative director when Apple acquired Beats in 2014. Youssef, meanwhile, joined Yeezy, the Kanye West-Adidas venture, as CFO from 2017 to 2018, and in 2019, Jackson and Youssef began raising capital for gamma and buying assets.
Jackson is “very resourceful in creating events that differentiate artists in the marketplace. 100,000 songs are uploaded to Spotify every day? You need someone like Larry to make people pay attention. In this he is unparalleled’, says Youssef. He “knows how to cut through the clutter.”
Jackson says he learned his tricks from Iovine, who “used Best Buy to market Beats” and “worked with artists to market the headphones.” He only intends to flesh out Iovine’s ideas, use fashion and film as means of fame, keep Iovine close as his “chief consiglieri,” and heed his advice like “don’t get caught speeding,” don’t spend money foolishly’ and “Always stay at the table.”
One of gamma’s first musical releases will be a new album from Usher, through a new joint venture between Usher and veteran music manager LA Reid that gamut will divide. (Jackson says he’s known both Usher and Reid since he was 17, so he’s “much more involved” than a typical distributor.) He’s also developing new podcasts with Naomi Campbell and says he’s been in close contact with Frank during the launch. Ocean of Gamma, seeking feedback from the artist on details such as the name of the company, but declined to comment on projects they may have together.
In addition to Death Row, Gamma has also searched for catalogs, for example bidding on some of Dr. sold them to Universal and Shamrock. Jackson says catalogs “were never part of the business plan,” and that he’s only interested in acquiring them “on terms favorable to the original creator.”
“I only make offers,” says Jackson, “for things I think we can improve on.”