We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sylvester Hill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sylvester below.
Alright, Sylvester thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
My first earned dollar as a creative came in the form of upfront payments for ghostwriting for rappers who needed their songs polished or help the artist achieve their creative levels with guidance on song structure, melodies, bar counts etc.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I first entered the music business as a production assistant in 1998 for Moe Z MD who’s worked with everyone from Tupac, Snoop Dogg, John Mellancamp, and The Wallflowers. With his blessings me and another protege of his moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and started a production company and began the arduous task of shopping music production. In the midst of our tenure we had the pleasure of working with Nelly Furtado, Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes, Black Ice. Shortly after I took an A&R position at Priority and worked on Organized Konfusion’s final album and No Limit’s Don P, which lead me to be offered a position at Universal Records while simultaneously securing production budgets for my production company and still maintaining ghostwriting duties for unseasoned artists. Over the ensuing years I would help with touring duties for the Sprite Liquid mix tours and that’s when the management bug hit me. I felt my strengths would further serve me being an artist advocate while guiding them through the pitfalls of the music business. As an A&R I would literally fly to different cities and meet with various program directors and local DJ’s to get an ear for who was the next artist to come up through the indie ranks. Also my duties included finding the right producers for the artist, artist media training developing artist’s sound while being a liaison to the recording label, handing recording budgets and what not.
Now my days are spent hosting podcasts talking about the changes of the music industry, artist consulting and working with creatives in different industries in the capacity of brand management. What sets me apart from the others is my wealth of vast experiences of the music business from helping artists obtain GED’s to rearranging show dates to witness the birth of their children. My ability to quickly assess the needs of an artist and craft short and long term plans on the fly has served me, artists and the labels extremely well, along with a vast array of network contacts at my disposal. My proudest moments are watching the artist “find their voice” and the confidence behind it to challenge themselves from seeing their videos online, meeting their fans, or the excitement of their first national tour.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Honestly this may sound weird but reading Psychology books has helped me tremendously when dealing with a myriad of personalities. It’s helped me quickly identify people’s motives, desires, and wants which helps me make more detailed and informed decisions as to best interact with them.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish there was somebody to tell me to not take everything personal and keep my ego in check which contributed to a lot of hindered growth in my early years in this business. Resource wise I would say having a mentor is tantamount between early and often success vs a long and spotty career filled with unnecessary losses.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Supasly75
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvester-h-b9313410/
- Youtube: Heavily Flawed Individual
Image Credits
Sylvester Hill