Nurturing the Next Rock Legends

Benny Medina has seen the record business from virtually every angle. He’s been a singer and a writer-producer at Motown Records as well as a senior vice president at Warner Bros. Records, where he worked with such major figures as Prince, Ray Charles and Paul Simon.

After coming up with the idea for the hit TV sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” in the ‘80s, Medina left Warner Bros. and now is partner with Jeff Pollack, James Lassiter and Peter Golden in Handprint Entertainment, which is involved in everything from artist management to TV-film production.

At Handprint, Medina, 38, works with Will Smith, the actor-rapper who starred in the “Fresh Prince” series, and he remains a major player in the music world by helping guide the careers of two of the most acclaimed figures in contemporary pop, Kenneth (Babyface) Edmonds and Me’Shell Ndegeocello.

In his Los Angeles office, Medina looked at the issues--from sales and politics to talent development--that dominated the record industry in the last 12 months.

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Question: There are a lot of issues causing concern in the record industry these days, including slumping sales and the failure of so many best-selling acts to live up to expectations. Let’s start with the overall sales picture. What are your feelings about that?

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Answer: I think we have been living in a somewhat inflated time in the record business because a lot of the growth in recent years was illusory. It was caused by the arrival of CDs, and people going out and buying a lot of the same records in CD that they already had in vinyl. Now that people have all their old favorites on CD, they have started looking more closely at the new artists to find something that stands up to the stuff they have loved all these years, and I’m not sure they are finding what they want. To me, there are fewer legends being created in the ‘90s than there were in earlier decades.

Q: Do you think it is cyclical, or is there a deeper problem?

A: The problem is that record companies aren’t devoting enough time to nurturing and developing new talent. They have begun settling for one-hit wonders . . . artists who don’t have the depth as writers or musicians to justify a long career but who meant some quick dollars on the year-end salessheets. There are some excellent artists there, but I think the lack of a nurturing process has kept some of those artists from coming to the surface.

Q: Why is that?

A: As an industry, we seem to be caught up in promoting instant winners or instant losers. If one act doesn’t sell, you go on to another one rather than show your faith in your best artists by sticking with them. That sends a message to new artists that the “hit” is the most important thing and a message to best-selling artists that they’d better think twice about trying to stretch or grow . . . anything that might change their successful sound. Record companies need to show patience. Look at Prince. It took several albums before he really started finding an audience, and it took until “Purple Rain” [his sixth] before he really took off. I’m not sure a lot of worthy artists would be given that much time today.

Q: Why is there less patience today?

A: I think it is a reflection of the hyper-reality in society. . . . The whole feeling of “It’s gotta happen now or we’ll find something else.” America knows now how a film opens in a weekend. More than what the quality of the film might be or the point of the film, they know it opened to $30-million box office in 2,000 theaters. And recording artists are being placed in that same context. If they don’t sell 500,000 copies the first week or enter at No. 1, they are looked upon as losers . . . and that [stigma] tells radio that the record’s not as hot as it should be and it even tells consumers that something’s “wrong” with the record . . . when all it is telling you is how many people bought the record.

Q: One of the most remarkable stories in the record business this year has been the success of relatively small labels, from Interscope and Death Row to Trauma and Maverick. How can a company like that compete against the major labels?

A: Well, you notice all the companies you mention are owned in part by major labels, so the majors are winning even if the small labels are the ones coming up with an amazing percentage of the new bestsellers. When Jimmy Iovine [at Interscope] or Freddy DeMann [at Maverick] wins, the big companies win, too. One reason the small companies do so well is they can devote more personal attention to each project.

Q: One of the most dramatic developments in the record business in the ‘90s has been black artists or black entrepreneurs getting their own labels. Do you see that continuing?

A: I think we are pretty much right now just at the tip of the iceberg in the black music world . . . in terms of building companies. One of the challenges is to diversify and go beyond, say, R&B; or rap or hip-hop. These new companies should be in the music business, not just the black music business.

Q: How did you feel about the attacks on rap music--both from the public and private sectors?

A: It always worries me when art comes under fire in this fashion. Mostly, what worries me is that the public often doesn’t take the time to research what it is being told and starts thinking that what Me’Shell or Tupac Shakur or Trent Reznor is saying is going to endanger the growth and well-being of your child or your brother or your sister. But it’s part of a larger pattern in society . . . people relying on a clever ad or a sound bite to decide ballot issues rather than researching the issue themselves.

Q: Getting back to sales, do you think there’ll be a new format for recordings . . . like the mini-CD or Digital Audio Tape, that will help make people go back and buy their albums all over again?

A: I hope not. Let’s forget about technology for a while. Record companies should stop trying to figure out a way to resell us old product. They should focus on getting us into the stores for new product . . . get us excited by new records, new ideas, new concepts. The industry has got to remember that it’s all about music.