MASTER- MINDS OF QUALITY CONTROL 22 “MY SKILLS. HIS CREDIBILITY. It all came together,” Kevin “Coach K” Lee told the New Yorker in 2017, recalling the genesis of Quality Control Music, which he’d founded four years earlier with Pierre “P” Thomas. Indeed, QC COO Coach K is the business-savvy executive, mild-mannered and cool; CEO P brings the street cred. “I’m not sitting in no office just look- ing at analytics; I’m out here on the ground,” he confirmed. Teaming with Motown and Capitol Music Group, the QC bosses have used their divergent strengths to turn an Atlanta recording studio into the hot- test hip-hop label in the game, a designation buttressed in 2020 by the ascent of Lil Baby. The man who would become Coach K grew up in Indianapolis but made his bones in Atlanta. He managed rappers RAINMAKERS 2020 Jeezy and Gucci Mane during the ATL’s transition from the crossover explosion of OutKast, Ludacris and T.I. to the estab- lished hip-hop stronghold of today; his clients were acknowl- edged as foundational figures in the city’s rising trap scene. Having met Jeezy in a studio while managing underground rap sensation Pastor Troy, Lee was mesmerized by the aspiring rapper. His charisma was obvi- ous, but Lee suspected radio would be hesitant to play Jeezy’s gritty tales of the street. So he enlisted his then-neighbor, under- ground-compilation master DJ Drama, to release a pair of unof- ficial albums to be sold as mix- tapes. He even took out radio ads to declare one of them, Trap or Die, cause for a national hol- iday—“All traps closed today,” the promotion announced. The mixtapes were hailed as street classics, with hundreds of 22 23 P, Steve Barnett, Migos, Ethiopia Habtemariam and Coach K. thousands said to have been dis- tributed. Recognizing Lee’s stel- lar guidance, Jeezy gave him the nickname “Coach K,” after Duke hoops coach and NCAA Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski. Though Jeezy and Coach K parted ways in 2008, the rap- per’s elevation led the latter to Gucci Mane, then emerging as the South’s hottest rhymesmith. Coach K kept Gucci’s music flowing and his brand afloat even as the artist served several terms in prison. As he told The Fader: “[Gucci] was signed to Warner Bros. Records. Todd Moscowitz was running Asylum/Warner, and Todd brought me on as a consul- tant to help put Gucci’s album together … I started managing him after that.” Gucci’s remarkable productivity start seeing artists … put these mix- act and proved critical from a devel- afforded his creative team flexibility; tapes out commercially.” opment and marketing standpoint. Coach K would finish the projects Moscowitz elaborates: “I real- Gucci recorded behind bars and ized, not just from my experience s for QC’s other deliver them to the label. The mix- with Gucci but also with Dipset half, Pierre Thomas tape run continued, and Warner/ and Cam’Ron, that the mixtapes grew up on Atlanta’s Asylum released The Burrprint 2. were the albums. The majors were rough West Side, too caught up in the distinction hustling his way out ollowing its success, between what’s a mixtape and of a drug-ridden Coach K told The what’s an album. Especially with environment by any Fader, “They were the Internet, the kids were past that. means necessary. Though P served like, ‘Let’s just get his Sometimes we’d give them away; Atime for gun possession and drug music out there to his sometimes we’d sell them. We’d offenses as a youth, he managed to following.’ On Mr. say, ‘It’s a mixtape, but fuck it; it’s thrive. “Do you know what I had Zone 6, we did 100k 17 songs that you can love—why to do to get my first half a million … After that, we set the trends. wouldn’t you buy it?” dollars?” he asked the New Yorker. FI went into Warner and restruc- The mixtape strategy would, in “I can’t even tell you, but it wasn’t tured … negotiated a whole deal fact, become standard practice. Jeezy easy.” Thomas made “safe” invest- for three mixtapes—outside of and Gucci’s instinctive ethos of releas- ments in real estate once he had the [Gucci’s] album deal. It hadn’t ing a constant stream of music influ- funds to do so. been done. After we did that, you enced nearly every subsequent hip-hop P knew Gucci from the local “I GIVE IT ALL UP TO ETHIOPIA, MAN. WE WERE IN A PLACE WHERE WE WERE LOOKING FOR A PARTNER THAT WOULD SEE OUR VISION AND LET US DO OUR THING BUT ALSO WATCH OUR BACK.” —COACH K 24 Uzi Vert. The trap anthem reached a mass audience when it achieved prominence via meme, then a relatively new phenomenon— user-generated content before the advent of TikTok. The meme went full-blown nuclear in 2017 when Donald Glover worked Migos into his acceptance speech after his show, Atlanta, took the Golden Globe for Best TV Series, hailing “Bad and Boujee” as “the best song ever.” Within weeks, it became the group’s first #1 single. The album Culture then debuted at #1, amass- ing 131k units and solidifying Migos’ stature. Disinclined to rest on these Ethiopia Habtemariam, Lil Baby, P, Sir Lucian Grainge and Steve Barnett laurels, Coach K and P got to work developing new acts. “Our strip-club scene, which brought of the biggest songs of that year. main thing from day one has been him into Coach K’s orbit. In 2013 You had the kids—everybody was flooding the market,” P reflected he approached Coach about doing it. But we couldn’t sell it. in HITS. That would certainly cofounding a label and signing a We couldn’t stream it. Because we hold true with their next signing: hot young rap trio called Migos. was in a battle.” Lil Baby. Toting a duffle of cash, P secured Somehow, QC effectively extri- Baby wasn’t even a rapper Migos: hookmeister Quavo, his cated itself from 300 before Migos when Team QC began cultivating fast-rapping nephew Takeoff and had a chance to cool off. A bad him. “I was like, ‘OK, I see a lot of his magnetic cousin Offset. Quality deal was followed by a good one, star in him,’” Coach K told HITS Control was born. courtesy of Motown President of the prospect, who was then P and K relied on the strip-club Ethiopia Habtemariam, via Capitol mostly hustling dice. “His voice circuit to develop the Migos brand Music Group/Motown. “I give it was unique, and he just had style.” locally. After they caught fire with all up to Ethiopia, man,” Coach Beyond Baby’s “it” factor, QC “Versace,” QC issued a handful K told HITS. “We were in a place capitalized on his work ethic, of mixtapes to build buzz on the where we were looking for a part- harking back to Coach K’s days streets. Coach K then reconnected ner that would see our vision and with Jeezy and Gucci; in the first with Moscowitz, who’d moved to let us do our thing but also watch 15 months of the rapper’s career, 300 Entertainment, to partner with our back.” Habtemariam had the label released five projects. QC for the release of Migos’ first initially approached them about a proper album. publishing deal, then pitched the y 2018 Quality Control That record, Yung Rich Nation, idea of a label joint venture—and had become the domi- failed to meet expectations. But a meeting with CMG boss Steve nant hip-hop shop. thanks to the dance that emerged Barnett. “One conversation, and Migos’ Culture II— alongside it, off-cycle single “Look we shook on the deal,” Coach home to multiplatinum at My Dab” swept the nation, with related. “We haven’t looked back.” Bhits “Motorsport,” “Walk It, athletes, influencers and even presi- Talk It” f/Drake and “Stir Fry”— dential candidate Hillary Clinton n 2016 QC signed oddball rap- debuted at #1, with 199k in total busting out the “Dab.” QC and per Lil Yachty to a record deal. activity. It was certified double Migos were ready to seize the viral The new-school Internet sen- platinum before the year was out. moment, but by then the deal with sation soon thereafter scored As Migos became superstars, 300 had gone south. a platinum single with “One Lil Baby built up enough traction “We got a company saying, Night” and 750m streams with for his debut album, Harder Than ‘Y’all can’t put no music out. We his first two mixtapes. Ever, to bow at #3. A Drake ain’t letting y’all sell nothing,” P QC and Migos subsequently co-sign and guest feature on the explained to Complex. “It was one Ileaked “Bad and Boujee” f/Lil smash “Yes Indeed” transmitted 24 25 Baby’s status as the hottest young the stratosphere with his sopho- MC in the game. A few months more album, 2020’s #1 My Turn, later, he and Gunna dropped the deluxe edition of which their collaborative mixtape Drip cemented the project as the year’s Harder, which would result in biggest—and the only album a Grammy nomination for the to cross 2.5m in total activity streaming giant “Drip Too Hard.” Giving Back in 2020. “The Bigger Picture,” Solid Foundation, the manage- meanwhile, captured the unrest ment arm of Quality Control Music, and anguish following the death was likewise making waves, oversee- of George Floyd.