![]() Within his two years at Rush, Harrell became vice-president and general manager, playing a pivotal role in building the careers of artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Whoodini. In time, Simmons persuaded Harrell to come to work for Rush at a mere $200 per week. In 1983, Harrell met Russell Simmons, the founder of Rush Management, a company that launched the careers of cutting-edge black "street" artists. After three years, however, he dropped out and went to work selling air time for a local radio station. The duo became popular weekend rappers, but having set his sights on becoming a newscaster, Harrell went on to study communications and business management at the Bronx's Lehman College. Hyde enjoyed three top 20 hits: "Genius Rap," "Fast Life," and "AM/FM." ![]() Harrell said he turned to rapping because, "I couldn't play basketball well enough to be on the starting team, but I could rap well enough." In fact, Harrell and Brown rapped so well that Dr. For their first performance, the duo stood atop chairs and rapped for a crowd of 40 that had gathered at the DeWitt Clinton Housing Project. While his parents were divorcing, he teamed up with high-school buddy, Alonzo Brown to form the successful rap duo, Dr. Harrell's 16th year was a watershed period in his life. Though he was a self described poor, inner-city kid, he explained that, "I grew up thinking wonderful things could happen, I always believed I'd have a wonderful life." While both of his parents labored for their meager existence, young Harrell was somehow confident of a promising future. Upscale magazine noted that Harrell quickly gained a reputation as having a "golden finger on the pulse of what's hot in the music industry," and left the entire entertainment industry "standing at rapt attention, waiting for his next successful move."īorn Andre O'Neal Harrell to a supermarket foreman and a nurse's aid, Harrell grew up in the housing projects of the Bronx, New York. "I'm promoting the whole spectrum of black lifestyles, from the teenage street hip-hop lifestyle to an adult, upwardly mobile black lifestyle." While heading Uptown Records, Harrell promoted the "black lifestyle" by catapulting former unknowns Jodeci, Heavy D and The Boyz, Mary J. "I am a lifestyle entertainment entrepreneur," he said in Upscale magazine while president of his own Uptown Entertainment. It's like being inducted into some kind of musical royal family." As one of the reigning kings of black entertainment, it's an appropriate analogy. building, the birthplace of Motown, shortly after becoming the company's president and CEO, he told Brian McCollum of the Detroit Free Press, "This is so much bigger than just being president of a record company. When Andre Harrell was touring the legendary Hitsville U.S.A. ![]() Addresses: Office-Motown Record Company, 5750 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. ![]()
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