L.A. Reid American Singer Born 1956 in Cincinnati

Early life

Antonio Marquis Reid, known as L.A. Reid, was born on 7 June 1956 in Cincinnati. He picked up the nickname as a child because he often wore a Los Angeles Dodgers shirt. Music came first as a hobby and then as a trade: he played drums in the Ohio R&B band Pure Essence from 1973 and joined The Deele, alongside the future business partner Babyface, in 1981. In 1997 he took the six-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, in preparation for running a major label.

Career

The Deele broke up and then regrouped as their song "Two Occasions" climbed the charts in 1988, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1989 Reid and Babyface founded LaFace Records through a joint venture with Arista Records, funded by Arista's founder Clive Davis. The label was based in Atlanta and became an important part of that city's music industry. Reid signed Usher when the singer was fourteen, and other artists on the roster included Toni Braxton, TLC and Outkast. In 1996 he formed Hitco Publishing Group as a joint venture with Windswept Music.

In May 2000 Reid and Babyface sold their remaining stake in LaFace to BMG, and Reid succeeded Davis as president and CEO of Arista Records. Among the artists he signed there were Avril Lavigne, whose debut album Let Go sold six million copies in the United States, as well as Pink and Ciara. Usher's 2004 album Confessions and Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below were released during his tenure.

After the merger of Sony and BMG, Reid moved in February 2004 to become chairman and CEO of the Island Def Jam Music Group. He is credited with helping to revive Mariah Carey's commercial standing through her 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi, and he worked with artists including Kanye West, Rihanna and Justin Bieber. He stepped down from the post in March 2011. That year he served as a judge on the first season of the American version of The X Factor, mentoring the Boys category, and he returned for the second season in 2012 with the Over 25s category, which was won by Tate Stevens. He announced in December 2012 that he would not return for a third season. His screen credits also include appearances in POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011) and Bad 25 (2012).

In July 2011 he became chairman and CEO of Epic Records. Under his leadership the label released number-one debuts by Future, DJ Khaled, Travis Scott and A Tribe Called Quest, and it also worked with pop acts such as Meghan Trainor and Fifth Harmony. Epic's market share rose from 2.56 percent to 3.63 percent over his tenure. In May 2014 Reid oversaw Xscape, a Michael Jackson album that took vocals recorded between 1983 and 1999 and set them to new productions; it was certified Gold. In 2016 he published a memoir written with Joel Selvin, Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next, which reached the New York Times bestseller list.

He left Epic in May 2017. In January 2018 he founded Hitco Entertainment with Charles Goldstuck, with offices in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta. Its roster included Big Boi of Outkast and Dinah Jane of Fifth Harmony, and Yella Beezy's "That's on Me" became its most successful release. Hitco's assets and artist contracts were sold to Concord Music Group in 2022, after which the company ceased operations.

Recognition

Reid has won three Grammy Awards, among them one as songwriter for Boyz II Men's "End of the Road". In 2006 he and Babyface were honoured as BMI Icons, and by that year he had won 18 BMI awards. Together the pair wrote or produced R&B songs that included more than 40 number-one singles. The Recording Academy gave him its President's Merit Award in February 2013, Harvard University presented him with its Alumni Award of Excellence in Media in 2014, and in March 2016 he received the Business of Entertainment Award at BET Honors. UNICEF gave him its Spirit of Compassion Award in 2009.

Personal life

Reid married the singer Pebbles in 1989, and the couple divorced in 1996.