Tommy Boy prospers, says Silverman, not because the company is small, but because it is holistic. He offers a cautionary tale for companies that fail to meld all parts of their organization.
At a recent music convention, three people gave Silverman demo tapes of new artists they thought Tommy Boy should sign. All three said the same thing: This is a hit, but a major label would only blow it - if the out-of-touch A&R department would even listen to it. Silverman, like Lynch, frequently has tapes thrust upon him, but in this case the donors could be expected to know what they were talking about. All three were experienced record promotion people. The major labels they didn't think were worthy of the tapes were the ones for which they worked.
Bruce Tucker writes on business, popular music, and American culture. He is the coauthor of The New Individualists (HarperCollins, 1991). He also co-wrote James Brown: The Godfather of Soul (Macmillan, 1985).
Making Markets of cultures can be a tricky business, especially when the culture is black and the marketers are white. When the question of economic justice arises, Tom Silverman is less likely to tick off the list of highly placed African-Americans in the company than he is to talk about economic empowerment. Tommy Boy artist Queen Latifah co-owns The Flavor Unit, an entertainment company that manages a score of musical acts and runs a record label associated with Epic.
A joint venture with Bill Stephney, one of the founders of the searing, black nationalist rap group Public Enemy, takes Tommy Boy a step farther in its commitment to black empowerment - and allows the label to grow without becoming unwieldy. Stephney, a gifted black record executive whose fondness for progressive music and progressive marketing matches Silverman's, will try to replicate the success of Tommy Boy with his StepSun Records.
Says Stephney, "I've recently done an analysis that shows that 75% of rap records in the last nine years have been sold through the quasi-independents - hybrids like Tommy Boy/Warner, Jive/Arista, Def Jam/Sony. The rap market changes so fast you need the smaller, swifter company. As Tommy Boy grows, doin
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