The 25 Best A&Rs in Hip-Hop History

When I began researching the book that would become The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, I returned to interview Cory Robbins, the co-founder of the legendary Profile Records, the man who signed Run-D.M.C… and the first person to give me a job doing A&R.

“Cory,” I began, “when you promoted me to A&R coordinator, you called me into your office and gave me some advice. You said, ‘You can’t know what’s going to be a hit. You can only know what you like.’”

“That’s true,” he said.

I then recounted my own mediocre career in A&R—first working for him and then for Rick Rubin at American Recordings.

“I liked everything I signed. So why did you have hits and I didn’t?”

“Well,” he said, thinking for a moment. “I like hits.”

Looking back, I have no ambivalence about the artists I worked with, but rather regret about other missed opportunities. You know, like not signing House of Pain because I told Rick I thought “Jump Around” was their only truly great record. I was right, but at the same time, oh, so wrong. (Maybe Cory was right. Maybe I didn’t really like hits.)

Still, I like to think I’ve made enough mistakes to have a real reverence for the A&R people in hip-hop who had the right instincts and really did it big. I’ve certainly thought a lot about why they were good at their job: an intuition about what makes music timeless coupled with a visceral sense of the moment. With that, I’d like to present to you The 25 Greatest A&Rs in Hip-Hop History.

A few important notes before we begin.

What the hell is “A&R” anyway? It’s actually an old-timey music business term meaning “Artists & Repertoire,” a relic of a time when artists didn’t write their own material and their “record men” at the label had to pair them with songs and session musicians. In the hip-hop context, the “Artists” part means finding and signing talent to a label; The “Repertoire” part means not only corralling producers and beats, but working with the act on musical and lyrical direction. Some A&R people excel at one of these aspects in particular. You can have great talent scouts who don’t give much input on the finished product; and you have in-house A&R specialists who may not have signed the act but give crucial and timely artistic direction in the creation of an album. This list skews a bit towards the former.

Rankings. For this list, we’ve selected folks based on a balance of the above-mentioned skills, and ranked them according to the quantity of successful artists they’ve signed, the quality of their signings, the longevity of their roster, and the endurance of their artist’s work. You will notice in this list a bias towards more established A&R people (a nice way of saying “older”). That’s because this is the “All Time” list. Here, longevity and consistency trumps several years of hotness. There are also some R&B acts included in these proceedings if those R&B acts were significantly influenced by hip-hop and influenced hip-hop in return (for example, Mary J. Blige and TLC).

Who qualifies? Not every A&R person on this list has actually worked for a record company. Some were primarily artist managers, others were producers and DJs. But the rule of thumb here is that if they didn’t hold an A&R title in some place at some time, or work on behalf of their own production company, then they have to manifest some useful service as a talent scout to people with signing power.

Teamwork. The real fact about most creative endeavors—including A&R—is that it's a team effort. Rick Rubin, who signed and produced Def Jam’s first generation of classic artists, had a bunch of folks around him who brought him demos, cajoled him, and reinforced his instincts. And for every star A&R staffer—like Kyambo "HipHop" Joshua at Roc-A-Fella—there's a guy who hipped him to the artist (No I.D., who brought him Kanye West’s demo) and the guy who bet a small fortune and his reputation on him (Damon Dash). So who gets the credit? In this list, I give more emphasis to the highest person in the chain of decision makers who had substantial involvement in judgements of quality. Success has many authors. So, in cases where work is generally shared, the members of the A&R team will either split the billing or receive a secondary mention.

If this list were a bit longer. There’s little difference between the folks who made it onto this list and the ones who are bubbling just below it. So if this list were, perhaps, 10 longer, we might include folks like: Patrick Moxey, founder of Payday Records; Sha Money XL, president of G Unit and the guy who signed 2 Chainz and Big K.R.I.T to Def Jam; Matt Dike and Mike Ross, founders of Delicious Vinyl; Lenny S, another longtime Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam A&R exec; Eddie O’Laughlin, founder of Next Plateau Records; Wendy Day, founder of the Rap Coalition, who never worked for a label but matched artists to labels in landmark deals; Fred Munao, founder of Select Records; Mark Pitts, longtime Bad Boy and Arista alum; Steve Rifkind, founder of Loud Records; and Bryan Leach of TVT Records and Polo Grounds.

Dan Charnas is the author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop (New American Library/Penguin) and the co-author of Def Jam: The First 25 Years of the Last Great record Label (Rizzoli). He worked for Profile Records and Rick Rubin’s American Recordings. He currently serves as Big Payback Officer at ooVoo.

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25. Stu Fine

Title(s): Founder of Wild Pitch Records
Artists They Worked With: Gang Starr, Main Source, Lord Finesse, The Coup

Stu Fine should not have been a great rap A&R guy. But he was.

Before he founded Wild Pitch Records in the late 1980s, Fine was an A&R man for K-Tel Records. (For young’ns who don’t know about K-Tel, they were infamous in the 1970s for creating compilation albums of hit records and selling them like Ginsu knives via corny TV spots.)

Fine and his graphic designer wife, Amy, ran Wild Pitch Records out of a spartan two-room office in Manhattan. With little connection to anyone in the thriving New York hip-hop scene, Fine was able to create, in classic hip-hop fashion, something out of nothing. Who else would have had the chutzpah to take a DJ from Houston and an MC from Boston and put them in the studio together? The two guys, Chris Martin and Keith Elam, had never met each other. But together they became known to the world as Gangstarr, separately as DJ Premier and The Guru.

For plucking these guys from obscurity alone, Stu Fine should be in the hip-hop hall of fame. But Fine was also responsible for some other folks you might know: Lord Finesse. Main Source featuring Large Professor. UMCs. The Coup. O.C. Chill Rob G. That famous ‘90s refrain, “I got the power”? Stu Fine found and signed that record before another, bigger label muscled Wild Pitch’s version off the charts.

Stu Fine’s career was marred by poor relationships with many of his artists. The kind of person Fine was (somewhat rigid, champion of the old school cheap deal) and the kind of people his artists were (kids from the street who wanted to look and be large, and be justly rewarded for their ample talents regardless of what it said on the paper they signed) ended more than a few times in violence, threatened or real.

But Stu Fine’s legacy is clear. Primo, in particular, damn near shaped the sound of hardcore hip-hop for a decade, and can still make hits when the mood strikes him. Without Stu Fine’s ears, the culture would have sounded very different. Plus, as Public Enemy’s producer Bill Stephney once observed, he’s got the best rapper name for a non-rapper, like, ever.

24. Faith Newman

Title(s): A&R at Columbia Recordings, A&R at Def Jam Recordings
Artists They Worked With: Nas, Big L, 2 Chainz

Faith Newman is the woman who signed Nas to Columbia Records.

(We could stop here with a “nuff ‘said” and a salute, but there’s more to the story.)

Back in 1990, Michael “MC Serch” Berrin had the foresight to sign Nasty Nas to a production deal—on the strength of just one verse that the obscure Queens rapper performed on Main Source’s “Live At The Barbeque.” Shortly thereafter, Newman made the move from Def Jam to its parent label as Columbia’s first in-house rap specialist. Newman and Berrin’s working relationship led to Nas’s signing.

But A&R is about more than just signing artists, and Newman performed some very unsung but vital key functions that kept the project afloat. After one of Nas’s entourage threatened one of the drivers from Columbia’s livery service and the label wanted to drop him, Newman fought successfully to keep him on the label. She and Serch also arranged for the stellar roster of beat producers that powered Illmatic. Newman also had the foresight to not overdo it: When the project reached just 8 tracks, she declared it done.

The minimal but potent album was awarded a coveted and rare “five mics” in The Source. Newman, who also signed the hip-hop influenced Jamiroquai, worked with Big L, and signed her former Def Jam intern, Kurious, to a record deal, imparted credibility to Columbia in hip-hop similar to what her predecessor Clive Davis had done by pushing Columbia into rock music in the 1970s.

Newman was eventually squeezed out of her role in Nas’s project because of the ever-more chummy relationship between two men—her boss Donnie Ienner and Nas’s new manager Steve Stoute. Ienner eventually hired Stoute and Newman, feeling betrayed, left. Newman was quickly offered a new job at Jive Records by Barry Weiss, who always had a good eye for both artistic and executive talent.

Newman today works for Reservoir Media Management, where she gave 2 Chainz his first music publishing deal, and represents Danja and Scott Storch, among others.

23. Atron Gregory

Title(s): Founder of TNT Records
Artists They Worked With: 2Pac, Digital Underground, MC Smooth, Above The Law

Atron Gregory—a mild-mannered college grad with one degree in business and four on his karate black belt—got his start in the music business as a road manager for N.W.A. After returning to the Bay Area to start a label, TNT Records, he signed Oakland-based Digital Underground, would do so well independently that it got picked up by Tommy Boy Records and went on to Platinum triumph.

But Gregory’s adoption of a young rapper from across the Bay would turn out to be momentous.

A community activist named Leila Steinberg first brought 19-year-old Tupac Shakur to Gregory’s attention. Gregory paired Shakur with Digital Underground as a dancer at first, then promoting him to MC. When Gregory decided it was time to shop Shakur as a solo artist, he had few takers. Tommy Boy wasn’t interested. But in 1991 he eventually found enthusiastic ears in Tom Whalley and Ted Field, who were starting Field’s new label, Interscope Records.

Though Jimmy Iovine and Suge Knight eventually moved Gregory out of the picture by taking advantage of Shakur’s insecurities and dangling beats from Dr. Dre as bait, Atron Gregory deserves everlasting credit for bringing to the world the man who became a global icon of both genre and generation.

22. Matteo "Matty C" Capoluongo & Schott "Free" Jacobs

Title(s): Founder of The Source's "Unsigned Hype" column, A&R at Loud Records
Artists They Worked With: Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, dead prez

Matteo “Matty C” Capoluongo was an A&R man long before he knew it.

Matty and I were once colleagues at The Source in the early 1990s, and I have a memory of him that illustrates the point. We were crossing Broadway on our way back from attending the DMC DJ Battle for World Supremacy, discussing the incredible performance of Harlem’s DJ Steve D.

“He could be a really great record producer,” Matty said.

I asked Matty what made him think so; it certainly hadn’t occurred to me. Matty responded that the sections of the records he picked, the creative things he did with them, was an easily transferrable skill from two turntables to a sampler and sequencer.

After I moved on to do A&R for Rick Rubin’s Def American Recordings, Matty started a new section called in the magazine called “Unsigned Hype,” where he regularly picked gold from the dirtpile of demos that flooded The Source since its inception. Among the artists he plucked from obscurity and placed on the radar of eager A&Rs across the country? Mobb Deep. Common Sense, now known as simply Common. DMX. DJ Shadow. The Notorious B.I.G., which led directly to his signing by Sean “Puffy” Combs.

Matty also deserves credit for circulating an independent single by a Staten Island group called the Wu Tang Clan, and acted as an early advisor to The RZA before he eventually signed the group’s deal with Steve Rifkind’s Loud Records.

Matty’s ears were too good to languish at the increasingly chaotic magazine, and eventually he was offered a job by Rifkind, at the behest of Matty’s friend Schott “Free” Jacobs. As a team, Matt “Life” and Schott “Free” would sign and refine Mobb Deep and Big Pun, and help to shape Raekwon’s solo album.

21. Will Socolov

Title(s): Co-founder of Sleeping Bag Records and Freeze Records
Artists They Worked With: EPMD, Just-Ice, Nice & Smooth

You might not know Will Socolov’s name. But you’ve definitely heard the artists he signed, artists who continue to further his legacy, beyond any reasonable doubt.

Socolov’s first rap signing at his dance music label, Sleeping Bag Records, was a producer and MC duo called Mantronix. Kurtis Mantronik’s production would power Socolov’s dance signings like Joyce Sims and Nocera, contributing to a hip-hop offshoot called Latin Freestyle. Meanwhile, Socolov continued to find great rap talent, sometimes before it was mature enough for the marketplace.

Socolov was down with the Boogie Down before they even found their name and their stride, when he signed Scott La Rock and KRS-One in their first incarnation as a group called 12:41. Socolov had flavor in his ear before Puffy did, signing a rapper named Craig Mack long before he had his comeback.

Socolov’s most famous finds comprised the roster of Sleeping Bag imprint, Fresh Records: Nice & Smooth. EPMD. Just Ice. Sleeping Bag/Fresh imploded in the early 1990s, and Socolov’s two most successful artist were snatched up by Lyor Cohen for Rush Associated Labels. Def Jam/RAL became the home EMPD cohort, Redman, who first performed on Socolov’s label. Socolov later resurfaced in the mid-1990s with a new, small dance-oriented start-up called Freeze Records.

His first signing? Some guy named Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt would be Socolov’s first and last album with the Brooklyn rapper, as Jay’s partner Damon Dash moved the artist and the Roc-A-Fella label to greener pastures at Def Jam, yet another Socolov-signed artist who migrated to the land of Lyor.

20. Paul Stewart

Title(s): PMP Management and PMP Records
Artists They Worked With: Warren G, House of Pain, Coolio, The Pharcyde

Paul Stewart is an unsung hero of L.A. hip-hop. A white kid who grew up in the middle-class Black neighborhood of Baldwin Hills during a time when other white families were fleeing south central L.A., Stewart became a huge fan of soul, funk and hip-hop. After college, he returned to L.A. as a DJ, record promoter and correspondent for The Source.

Ultimately, Stewart fell fell into artist management: Too much good music passed through his hands to do otherwise. Stewart was uniquely positioned between the trendy parties in Hollywood and the artists in the ‘hood, and he became an invaluable resource for almost every label in the business.

Stewart shepherded The Pharcyde to Delicious Vinyl. He shopped House of Pain and Coolio to Tommy Boy Records. He championed Warren G when Dr. Dre and Suge Knight refused to do so, and instead delivered Warren’s demo tape to Chris Lighty and Lyor Cohen (ultimately jeopardizing Stewart’s job as the head of John Singleton’s label, New Deal Records, where he signed Mista Grimm’s “Endo Smoke”). Cohen returned the favor by installing Stewart as the head of Def Jam West, where Stewart signed Montell Jordan.

It’s ironic, then, that when Stewart finally launched his own label through Loud Records that his long and impressive run came to a halt. Stewart later moved into music supervision and brand consulting.

19. Dante Ross

Title(s): A&R at Tommy Boy Records, Elektra Records, Loud/SRC Records
Artists They Worked With: De La Soul, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Del the Funky Homosapien, 3rd Bass, Brand Nubian, Busta Rhymes, ODB, Action Bronson

Dante Ross—a white kid from Manhattan’s Lower East Side during a time when it wasn’t so common to be a white kid from Manhattan’s Lower East Side—got his first hip-hop job at Def Jam/Rush in the late 1980s, working as an assistant to Lyor Cohen. Ross was eventually hired away by Monica Lynch, the president of Tommy Boy Records, where Lynch put him in charge of a new group she had just signed, De La Soul.

Dante was such a hyperkinetic, passionate odd duck in those sessions that he actually got portrayed as one on the inner sleeve of De La Soul’s revolutionary debut, 3 Feet High And Rising, as “Dante the Scrub.”

After the album’s release, Ross would often get public credit for signing De La, no matter how many times he denied it. Ross also played a role in the signing of Queen Latifah and Digital Underground.

But Ross’s work at Tommy Boy was upstaged by what came next. Bob Krasnow, the flamboyant head of Elektra Records, had long been looking for a way into the rap scene. After reading about Ross and meeting him, Krasnow liked Ross’s blunt style, so similar to his own, and hired him. The hiring, in 1989, made Ross the first-ever major label A&R with true experience and credibility in the rap world.

Ross transferred that credibility to Elektra with some key signings: Brand Nubians. Leaders of the New School, featuring a young, frenzied MC who called himself Busta Rhymes. Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth. KMD. Del The Funky Homosapien.

While he worked for Elektra, Ross also remained part of the Stimulated Dummies production team, which gave Def Jam act 3rd Bass it’s first #1 hit, “Pop Goes the Weasel.” In 1993, when the Wu Tang Clan put out their debut underground single, Ross immediately snapped up the most eccentric one of the bunch, Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Ross left Elektra not long after Krasnow’s departure in 1994. But while Ross was there, he set a high bar for the kind of quality, authentic hip-hip that could be done at a major label. His example opened the door for a generation of rap A&R talent in the record business.

Ross later went on to produce a successful rock album for Everlast and a Grammy for his production work on Carlos Santana’s “Supernatural.”

18. Chris Schwartz and Joe Nicolo

Title(s): Founders of Ruffhouse Records
Artists They Worked With: The Fugees, Cypress Hill, Tim Dog, Kriss Kross, Lauryn Hill

If Chris Schwartz and Joe Nicolo had been based in New York or Los Angeles, they might have ruled the music industry. But if they hadn’t been based in Philadelphia, they might not have enjoyed the unique “just-off-the-radar but close-enough-to-strike” position that enabled them to dominate the world of hip-hop without few people outside of the industry knowing their names.

They made their hip-hop bones in the mid 1980s, as the manager and recording engineer respectively for pioneer Schoolly D. Their label partnership, Ruffhouse Records, began in 1989 with the signing of Cypress Hill, the embarkation point for a string of impressive signings and hits from Tim Dog, Kriss Kross, and The Fugees which included the solo careers of Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.

One more historical oddity: Ruffhouse was also the first home to DMX before he became a star on Def Jam.

17. Sylvia Robinson

Title(s): Co-founder of Sugar Hill Records
Artists They Worked With: The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five

Sylvia Robinson may have been one of the most reviled businesspeople in hip-hop. But you can’t front on the facts: She was the first record executive to sign and produce a commercially successful rap record.

As the Great Mother of all Rap A&R, she deserves her place on this list.

The most notorious aspect of Robinson’s first signing is also the most impressive: She created a hit record by fabricating a rap crew out of nothing. The Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was a pure in-studio creation, musically masterminded by Robinson.

As the first successful entrepreneur in the game, Robinson immediately had her pick of real, reputable artists from across the river in New York City. Still, we gotta give her props for picking right: Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five featuring Melle Mel; the Treacherous Three; Sequence; and the Funky Four plus One.

Robinson’s avarice and inauthenticity would betray her within a few years. She may or may not have had a heart. But the woman had ears.

16. Irving "Irv Gotti" Lorenzo, Jr.

Title(s): Co-founder of Murder Inc. Records
Artists They Worked With: Ja Rule, Ashanti, DMX, Jay-Z

One thing is for sure about the enfant terrible of hip-hop, Irving “Irv Gotti” Lorenzo: He would not like that he isn’t #1 on this list.

Irv Gotti, like many producers and A&R reps, made his bones as a DJ for Jay-Z. In the mid 1990s, Gotti gave TVT Records instant authority by bringing them Mic Geronimo and Ca$h Money Click featuring a little-known rapper named Ja Rule. Moving to Def Jam, he facilitated the signing of Jay-Z, and came into his own with the signing of DMX, an artist who yielded two multi-platinum albums in 1998. The self-described “hottest n----a in the building,” Gotti was given his own imprint, Murder Inc., and slugged his grateful masters with the one-two punch of Ja Rule and Ashanti.

Gotti’s increasing profile put him into direct confrontation with Chris Lighty, who left Def Jam shortly thereafter. Lighty’s answer to Gotti, 50 Cent, eventually silenced him. Gotti responded with threats and—if you believe some unconfirmed accounts—actual violence. But one thing Gotti couldn’t manage to do was respond musically.

We are still waiting for the comeback.

15. Chris Lighty

Title(s): Founder of Violator Records and Violator Aritst Management
Artists They Worked With: Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Mobb Deep, Diddy, Missy Elliott

In the beginning, Chris Lighty didn’t have business on his mind. “Baby Chris,”as he was dubbed by Kool DJ Red Alert back in the 1980s, was the pretty boy in a loose but tough crew called “the Violators.” Lighty kept one eye on Red Alert in the nightclubs, and his other on other guy’s girls.

But Red Alert saw a glimmer of light in Lighty—the solidity of his word and his restraint under pressure. Red made Lighty the road manager for his group, the Jungle Brothers. Lighty was in many ways the fourth member of the trio, but instead ended up taking on more management duties, this time on behalf of De La Soul, as Red Alert transitioned away from the music business.

Lighty migrated his artists to Rush under the aegis and tutelage of Lyor Cohen Lighty’s turn as a creative executive came when Cohen and Russell Simmons decided to close shop. Lighty quickly arranged for a production deal for his “Violator Records” with a large independent label called Relativity, signing three acts—Fat Joe, Chi Ali, and The Beatnuts. Cohen quickly decided that he had made a grave mistake in letting Lighty and his talents slip away: He made Lighty Def Jam’s head of A&R.

In the building, it was Lighty who championed the signing of Foxy Brown, over the initial resistance of Cohen. His repertoire direction reinvigorated and reinvented LL Cool J’s career. Lighty brought in Warren G, which imparted to Def Jam real relevance in the West Coast-dominated mid-1990s.

The A&R angel is a fickle friend, and Lighty seemed to lose his luster just as Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo’s A&R star rose with DMX and Ja Rule. Friction between the two, and Lighty’s unwillingness to jettison his management company, led to Lighty’s departure from Def Jam. Within a few years, Lighty signed the artist who would vanquish Gotti and his artists: 50 Cent. Lighty relinquished 50’s recording contract to Dr. Dre and Eminem in return for retaining management. But it was a shrewd move that in essence purchased his artist’s superstardom.

Lighty returned to management thereafter, maintaining a stable of artists from LL to Busta to Soljah Boy. When Lighty was found dead from a self-inflicted gun wound in 2012, he was mourned by many in the hip-hop industry.

14. Juice Crew (Tyrone Williams/Marley Marl/Mr. Magic)

Title(s): Tyrone Williams - Co-founder of Cold Chillin Records
Marley Marl - Producer
Mr. Magic - Radio DJ
Artists They Worked With: Eric B. & Rakim, Lords of the Underground, Nas

John “Mr. Magic” Rivas was the very first DJ to host a hip-hop radio show. Magic began on a local New York community station called WHBI, and then moved to commercial FM powerhouse WBLS.

By the mid-1980s, they called him “Sir Juice” and his tight-knit group of associates “The Juice Crew.” But the Juice Crew moniker came to stand for the extended family of rap artists championed by Magic and his associates Tyrone Williams and Marlon “Marley Marl” Williams: MC Shan. Biz Markie. Big Daddy Kane. Roxanne Shante. Masta Ace. Craig G. Tragedy. Kool G. Rap. The Genius (later known as The GZA). These artists comprised the roster of Tyrone Williams’ label, Cold Chillin’ Records, later distributed by Warner Bros. Records.

To be sure, Mr. Magic — like Red Alert —was a funnel through which almost every rap artists in the 1980s had to pass in order to become a success. But the talent of each signing was undeniable, and the sounds of these artists were a truly dominant force in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Juice Crew fizzled when Mr. Magic was unthroned at WBLS, and Cold Chillin’ foundered a few years later when that funnel ceased to be a resource.

13. Kool DJ Red Alert

Title(s): Founder of Red Alert Productions
Artists They Worked With: Black Sheep, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, Jungle Brothers

Early hip-hop was largely a New York phenomenon. So it followed that early hip-hop’s success was largely brokered by radio DJ Mr. Magic on WBLS. The only significant rival to Mr. Magic’s dominance of hit-making and hit-breaking was posed by Kool DJ Red Alert on crosstown WRKS, 98.7 Kiss FM.

Magic was one funnel for talent, mainly hailing from Marley Marl’s home base in Queenbridge. Red Alert became the second vortex, mainly for artists from Uptown and The Bronx, beginning with Krs-One and Scott La Rock’s Boogie Down Productions and Red’s cousin Mike G’s group, The Jungle Brothers.

Red Alert launched a production company to handle his foray into the music business. Red Alert Productions had perhaps the perfect acronym for the a business in hip-hop, and through R.A.P. came A Tribe Called Quest. Red’s management arm, helmed by Dave “Funken” Klein and Chris Lighty, took on kindred spirits De La Soul. In fact, Red Alert earned some creative credit for the entire cultural phenomenon that came to be called Native Tongues, including artists like Queen Latifah, Monie Love, and Black Sheep. He also launched the executive careers of Lighty and Shakim Compere.

Red Alert was not successful as a businessman. He was, in many ways, too nice of a guy to take on the shark-like qualities that enable survival in the hip-hop food chain. But he chose the right records on the radio, and chose equally well in his own run as a talent scout. His ultimate creative notion of peace, love and positive vibes—coming straight from his Zulu Nation heritage—gave hip-hop perhaps its most beautiful cultural moment.

12. Damon "Dame" Dash

Title(s): Co-founder of Roc-A-Fella
Artists They Worked With: Jay-Z, Kanye West, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel

The choleric and bilious Damon Dash was 100 percent hustler. Unlike another spiritual brother in charms, Sean Combs, he never showed much interest in what went on inside the studio. But Dash’s visceral understanding of culture—specifically the zeitgeist of the late 1990s—gave the world the two artists who to this very day dominate the game: Jay-Z and Kanye West. That throne you’re watching? Dash was the one who built it.

Now that they’re collaborators and double-daters, it’s easy to forget that Dash once famously championed Kanye West as a potential Roc-A-Fella artist when Jay, to say the least, wasn’t so confident in West’s potential.

Dash also doesn’t get enough credit for Cam’ron, whose Roc-A-Fella album went Gold after his first one, on Lance “Un” Rivera’s label, flopped. Alas, it was Dash’s horse and carriage that ended up on the auction block. Dash had the ability to pick artists who could, when necessary, reinvent themselves to continue their success. Dash himself has lacked that ability, and his virtual disappearance from the hip-hop scene is bound up within that.

Of course, Dash—being less interested in creative concerns—would not have been able to attain his level of success without a great supporting A&R team. In particular, Kyambo “HipHop” Joshua deserves credit for bringing Kanye West into the fold, and both Joshua and Gee Roberson were the irreplaceable creative and operational core for artists & repertoire at the Roc. It’s no surprise, then, that Joshua and Roberson have gone onto great success as managers for Drake, Lil Wayne, Nikki Minaj, T.I and more.

Extra credit: One must give special dap to DJ Clark Kent, who gave Dash his start in the music business and introduced him to Jay-Z.

11. Andre Harrell

Title(s): Founder of Uptown Records
Artists They Worked With: Heavy D & The Boyz, Al B. Sure!

If Russell Simmons hadn’t been such a poor A&R man, his employee Andre Harrell might never have started his own label, Uptown Records as a counterpoint to Def Jam’s “hard as hell” ethos. Simmons belittled Harrell’s idea that an overweight, limerick-tongued “lover” would have any kind of traction in the rap world. So in 1986, Harrell got himself and his MC, Heavy D, a production deal with MCA Records (now Universal).

Harrell won that particular debate in the marketplace. But Harrell’s greatest contribution to hip-hop wasn’t his rap roster. Harrell’s signing of young producer Teddy Riley’s band, Guy, launched the phenomenon of New Jack Swing, the folding of hip-hop style into R&B in a way that even now influences how we make music. Harrell was ultimately responsible for everything that flowed from that: from Al. B Sure, to two artists championed by his A&R man Kurt Woodley: Jodeci and Mary J Blige, who comprised stage two of Uptown’s R&B fusion movement, called hip-hop soul.

This evolution was aided by Harrell’s eye for executive talent. Harrell boosted an energetic Uptown intern named Sean “Puffy” Combs into the creative ranks of his company, and gave him Woodley’s portfolio of artists after the A&R man’s departure. Combs’ styling and studio suggestions imparted a degree of hotness to Jodeci and Blige, and in turn boosted Combs’ own stature in the industry. With that came the inevitable inflation of “Puff Daddy”’s ego, and his firing by Harrell.

Harrell’s own inability to morph his creative and business styles precipitated his eclipse by his protege. But in 2013 we’ll be able to judge his ears once more as we watch how his new group, Hamilton Park, fares.

10. Cory Robbins

Title(s): Co-founder of Profile Records
Artists They Worked With: Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, Run-D.M.C., Dana Dane, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock, DJ Quik

In 1981, Cory Robbins’s struggling little dance label Profile Records was down to the remaining $2,000 in its bank account. As a last ditch effort, Robbins decided to produce his very first rap record.

The result, “Genius of Rap” by Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde, not only saved his fledgling company and launched the music business career of Andre “Dr. Jeckyl” Harrell (who a few years later would become an top A&R man on his own), it also changed Robbins’ perspective on rap. Until that point, rap on record had largely been the domain of one label, Sugar Hill. But Robbins realized that there might be more than enough room for another label that took rap seriously.

Robbins’ sentiments were confirmed for all time in 1983 when a young artist manager named Russell Simmons brought Robbins a demo tape of his kid brother Joey’s group, Run-D.M.C. Robbins bet on the odd, sparse first single “It’s Like That/Sucker M.C.s”; and then funded a first album. Robbins reaped the rewards when “Run-D.M.C.” became the first Gold (and then Platinum) rap album in history.

Run-DMC, the first bona-fide rap supergroup (first video on MTV, first headline arena tour, etc.) secured Profile Records’ fortunes and Cory Robbins’ place in the pantheon of rap talent scouts.

Robbins and the staff he hired were collectively responsible for signing the following artists: Cold Crush Brothers, Dana Dane, Rob Base, Special Ed, Poor Righteous Teachers. Profile was the first of the New York rap labels to open a Los Angeles office, and Robbins signed rap acts from across the country: DJ Quik and 2nd II None from L.A. Nemesis and Ron C from Dallas. N2Deep from the Bay Area.

Robbins sometimes altered the rap landscape unintentionally, like his signing of a record by Queens, New York’s The Showboyz called “Drag Rap,” which became a huge hit in the south and heavily influenced the formation of New Orleans hip-hop. And he sometimes dropped artists before they reached their potential (like Onyx). He also hired some of the best ears in the business: Brian Chin, Dave Moss, and Murray Elias, who played a huge role in bringing dancehall reggae into the mainstream and would later sign Sean Paul.

Robbins cashed out of Profile in 1994 and founded Robbins Entertainment, where he returned to his dance music roots and still finds and produces hits.

9. RZA

Title(s): Founder of Wu-Tang Productions
Artists They Worked With: Wu-Tang Clan

The Wu-Tang Clan—founded by The RZA—was largely composed of his friends and family. But that shouldn’t be cause for an asterisk on his ranking as one of hip-hop greatest ears for talent. After all, producers more successful than the RZA failed by picking those closest to them (witness Run-DMC’s efforts on behalf of The Famlee, or The Afros, or Hollis Crew, or SeriousLeeFine).

With the Wu-Tang Clan, The RZA resurrected his own career and that of his cousin, Gary Grice, aka The Genius, aka The GZA. He loosed Ol’ Dirty Bastard on the world. He corralled Method Man, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killa. The lackluster solo career of Inspeckta Deck was a true shame, because for the Wu he was often first in the batting order.

After the initial five year run of the Wu, RZA’s best efforts were in the world of film scoring. But RZA’s roster of talent continues to be relevant, even today.

8. Birdman and Lil Wayne

Title(s): Birdman - Co-founder of Cash Money Records
Lil Wayne - CEO of Young Money Entertainment
Artists They Worked With: Lil Wayne, Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga

Cash Money and Young Money represent two virtual generations of hip-hop talent. It stands to reason that the men behind each imprint — Bryan “Baby” Williams and Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter regard each other as “father and son.”

After making some local noise in New Orleans for several years, Cash Money charged onto the national hip-hop scene in 1998 as the result of a huge, unprecedented pressing and distribution deal with Universal Music Group, brokered by Rap Coalition founder Wendy Day, who also helped launch deals for Master P’s No Limit Records, Eminem, and Twista. The first superstar of the Cash Money stable was Juvenile, followed closely by other artists like B.G. (who with Juvenile comprised Hot Boyz), Lil Wayne, and Big Tymers.

As Lil Wayne aged and ascended, Baby gave him an imprint and ostensible executive power. Whomever you believe spearheaded the creation of the roster—Baby or Wayne—it’s incontestable that Young Money broke Cash Money out of its exclusively Southern style with the signing of Toronto-based rapper Drake and New York native Nikki Minaj.

7. Tom Silverman and Monica Lynch

Title(s): Tom Silverman - Founder of Tommy Boy Records
Monica Lynch - President of Tommy Boy Records
Artists They Worked With: Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, Stetsasonic, Naughty by Nature

In the early 1980s, Tom Silverman, the publisher of a dance music trade magazine that charted the hits of the day, was getting so many unsigned demo tapes mailed to him that he decided to start putting them out on his own. His record company Tommy Boy Records, scored an early success in 1981 with Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force’s singles “Jazzy Sensation” and the global dance-floor shaker, “Planet Rock.”

After some fallow years, Tommy Boy experienced a rap resurgence, in no small way attributable to the cool aesthetic of Tommy Boy’s fashionable president, Monica Lynch, who opened her doors to all kinds of artistic expression. From the signing of Stetsasonic came the ears of Prince Paul, who brought Lynch a quirky Long Island trio called De La Soul. From Dante Ross and Fab 5 Freddy came Queen Latifah, who still works with Lynch to this day. From Ross and Atron Gregory came Digital Underground. From Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere came Naughty By Nature. From Paul Stewart came House of Pain and Coolio.

Tommy Boy’s triumphant tear through the 1990s was aided by label staff like Albert Ragusa, Ian Staeman and Isaac “Fatman Scoop” Freeman, who for many years guided and advised both Lynch and Silverman, whose good boutique-quality taste, artful packaging and clever marketing made Tommy Boy Records a hit machine.

6. Jimmy Iovine

Title(s): Co-founder of Interscope Records
Artists They Worked With: Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas

Jimmy Iovine went from producing U2 and Tom Petty records to partnering with multimillionaire film producer Ted Field in his new label venture, Interscope.

Iovine immediately put Interscope on the map with two pop-rap hits: Gerardo’s “Rico Suave” and Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations.” Iovine negotiated the Death Row deal that made Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Doggy Dogg’s debuts possible. While not responsible for discovering 2Pac, Iovine presided over his entire recording career as a creative executive.

When the Death Row partnership came apart, Iovine made the separation easier by offering Dre a new deal for Aftermath Records, which begat and continue to beget the following: Eminem. 50 Cent. The Game. Kendrick Lamar.

Over the years, Iovine has shown some savvy that’s surprised even some seasoned industry heads. Why, folks wondered, would he give a group with a weak track record like the Black Eyed Peas a huge deal? Only Iovine knew, and he was absolutely right.

Iovine’s Interscope has also been a graveyard for many artists’ dreams as his priorities shifted and opinions changed. Iovine’s less-than-saintly code of ethics often resulted in art that played to hip-hop’s lesser angels. But Iovine championed the raw at a time when corporations were ready to dump rap at the slightest hint of controversy. Iovine is the man who literally told Time Warner to go fuck itself.

Decades later, it’s Iovine who continues to fuck us all in the earholes, his music now transmitted to your cerebral cortex via his “Beats By Dre” headphones.

5. Antonio "L.A. Reid" Reid

Title(s): Co-founder of LaFace Records, President of Arista Records, Chairman & CEO of Island Def Jam
Artists They Worked With: Goodie Mob, Outkast, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy

Few in the hip-hop business of the 1980s would ever have expected the R&B producer L.A. Reid (famed for his work with The Deele, Bobby Brown, Pebbles, and Paula Abdul) to eventually engineer some of the shrewdest signings in hip-hop; not just commercial coups but truly inspired and genre-changing records and artists.

Not long after the founding of LaFace—his and partner Kenneth “Babyface” Edmunds’ joint-venture with Arista—Reid began mining the incredible talent in the label’s home base of Atlanta, Georgia. Those signings included Goodie Mob (featuring Cee Lo), OutKast (featuring Big Boi and Andre “3000” Benjamin), Usher, and TLC, facilitated by local producers Organized Noize and Dallas Austin.

An enterprising Morehouse student named Shakir Stewart began his career as L.A. Reid’s faithful soldier, first an intern at Reid’s Hitco Publishing, where he signed Beyonce to a songwriting deal, and then at LaFace, where he signed Ciara. When Reid moved to Def Jam, Stewart followed, signing Young Jeezy and Rick Ross (who were, ironically, offered to the label years earlier by Scarface in his days running Def Jam South).

Reid retained Jay-Z in the Def Jam fold by offering him the label’s presidency, and therefore is entitled to take some credit for the signings of Rihanna. Reid also helped revitalize Mariah Carey’s career with the power of hip-hop-fueled production.

Reid is currently the Chairman and CEO of Epic Records.

4. Rick Rubin

Title(s): Founder of Def Jam Recordings
Artists They Worked With: Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Run–D.M.C.

Sylvia Robinson signed the first successful rap record; and Cory Robbins signed rap’s first superstar recording act. But Rick Rubin is the first bona-fide rap A&R man because his label, Def Jam, was the first to claim hip-hop as its main territory.

As a college freshman at New York University, Rubin fell in love with the rap shows taking place at downtown clubs. He wondered: Why didn’t rap records sound as energetic and raw as the stuff he heard live? Thankfully, somebody else was asking that same question: Russell Simmons, who imparted that ethos to Run-D.M.C.’s debut single. Rubin heard it on the radio and, inspired, vowed to produce his own record. The result, T. La Rock & Jazzy Jay’s “It’s Yours,” took Simmons’ “no-music-just-beats” aesthetic to its logical conclusion, and eventually brought the two men together as partners in Rubin’s nascent label.

Rubin’s proposal was simple: “I’ll do all the work. You just be my partner.” And while Simmons indeed toiled greatly to build the business, a definite division of labor emerged: Rubin signed and produced the artists. Simmons promoted them.

Rubin’s signings at Def Jam included L.L. Cool J, Public Enemy featuring Chuck D, Beastie Boys. Original Concept featuring Doctor Dre., and Slick Rick. He’d wanted to sign DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, but Simmons dissuaded him.

Like all A&R executives and entrepreneurs, Rubin retained indispensable talent scouts. It was Ad Rock of the Beasties who dug L.L.’s demo out of the rubble of Rick’s dorm room. And it nearly took a nation of millions to sign Chuck D. to a record deal: Both D.M.C. and Doctor Dre are said to have brought Rick the demo on separate occasions, and Def Jam’s head of promo Bill Stephney eventually convinced Chuck to sign.

Rubin and Simmons’ partnership began to fall apart when Simmons tried his own hand at A&R. While one record proved to be a hit — Oran “Juce” Jones’ “The Rain—his other signings, like Alyson Williams, Tashan, Blue Magic, and the Black Flames, ended up falling flat. And Simmons didn’t think much of Rubin’s much more successful expansion into heavy metal with the signings of Slayer and Danzig.

Rubin jumped his own ship in 1988 to found Def American Recordings, taking his heavy metal acts and leaving Simmons with the rap roster. While Def Jam would struggle artistically and commercially until the arrival of Chris Lighty (hits by 3rd Bass and Redman notwithstanding), Rubin resumed his success with Def American artists the Geto Boys and Sir Mix-A-Lot, and would go on to have a huge career as a rock record producer.

3. Diddy

Title(s): Founder of Bad Boy Records
Artists They Worked With: The Notorious B.I.G., Ma$e, Shyne, The LOX

He may not be the “best” rap A&R man of all time. But Sean “Diddy” Combs is undoubtedly the most famous.Combs did not sign Mary J. Blige and Jodeci—who became his first industry calling cards. But he inherited them and imparted to them his inimitable style.

It’s incontestably in Combs’ eternal credit that he championed Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., a Brooklyn MC who came to his attention by way of two other “MC’s”: Matteo “Matty C’ Capoluongo and Mister Cee.

Combs launched his own label in 1994 with the one-two punch of Big and Craig Mack. He repeated and reaffirmed his R&B diva credentials with Faith Evans’s superb debut in 1995. While some of his signings remained creatures of their own particular time-and-space: Ma$e and 112 — other acts proved to have greater cultural legs—The L.O.X.

But it’s not surprising, given Combs’ lifetime M.O. of self-promotion, that his greatest and most enduring career has been his own, as recording artist, professional A&R, clothier, and huckster. Long after you’ve forgotten Danity Kane and Da Band, Diddy will likely still be in your face telling you he thought he told you he wouldn’t stop.

2. Dr. Dre

Title(s): Co-founder of Death Row Records, Founder of Aftermath Records
Artists They Worked With: N.W.A., The DOC, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Game, Kendrick Lamar

The emergence of N.W.A. in 1987 as the vanguard of L.A. hip-hop is generally credited to the two co-founders of Ruthless Records, Eazy-E and Jerry Heller. And while these two men indeed had the ears for talent (including rapper Ice Cube and producer Andre “Dr. Dre” Young) and the stomach for financial risk, I propose looking at history the other way around. It was Dr. Dre who chose to work with Eazy and make him more than an ex-drug dealer with a loud mouth.

It was Dr. Dre who crafted the brief but brilliant career of The D.O.C.

It was Dr. Dre who chose to start his own label venture and mentor a young rapper from Long Beach named Snoop Doggy Dogg.

It was Dr. Dre who championed and mentored the Death Row Records stable of artists. And, after Death Row’s demise, it was Dre who snatched the Eminem demo tape from Jimmy Iovine’s clutches and funded Eminem’s Shady Records—which in turn gave us 50 Cent, G Unit, and The Game.

Not all of Dre’s choices—business and creative—have been wise ones. But his good ones have attained Biblical proportions. It’s no wonder then that Dre has become overly cautious about his own career. But he’s still making the right moves today with Kendrick Lamar.

RELATED: The 25 Best Dr. Dre Beats

1. Barry Weiss

Title(s): Former CEO of Jive Records
Artists They Worked With: Too $hort, Schoolly D, Whodini, A Tribe Called Quest, Boogie Down Productions, E-40

Who the hell is Barry Weiss and why is this old guy the best A&R man in hip-hop history? Answer: He built the most powerful and lasting roster of hip-hop and hip-hop-influenced R&B and pop music in history as the head of Jive Records.

This begs the question: How much credit should the head of a record label get for a career’s worth of signings that often came to his attention via the A&R people who worked for him? For example, it took the late Sean “The Captain” Carasov—a young, wiry British expat on Jive’s staff—to bring A Tribe Called Quest to his attention. What’s more, label heads like Weiss had the best managers and lawyers coming at them all the time with the choice cuts and prime properties. So Weiss had easier access than most to the best of hip-hop culture in the late 80s and early ‘90s.

But Weiss deserves credit because, unlike many of his contemporaries, he nearly always made the right decisions with his artistic judgment and checkbook. You cannot front on the man who invested in the following artists: Whodini. Too Short. Schoolly D. Steady B. Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, which launched the career of Will Smith. Souls of Mischief. UGK. Spice One. Keith Murray. R. Kelly. Aaliyah. And in later years, T-Pain and Chris Brown. Weiss’s shrewd but dignified business practices gave E-40, a Bay area artist already making hundreds of thousands of dollars on his own without a label, the incentive to sign with Jive when other bigger labels were clamoring for his business.

(And let’s not forget that Weiss is also responsible for greenlighting a few other projects you might have heard of: The Backstreet Boys. N’Sync and Justin Timberlake. Brittany Spears.)

Extra credit goes to Ann Carli, who’s creative genius for packaging art and soothing sensitive artists was a crucial ingredient in Jive’s early success; and Jeff Sledge, discovered by Stu Fine at Wild Pitch but a longtime member of Jive’s promotion and A&R team.