I.B.’s HISTORY LESSON:
THE ’90s “SUPER LABEL”

In his latest column, I.B. Bad find a precedent for Republic’s business model in a company that existed shortly before the end of the last century.

He describes Monte Lipman’s superpower as “a new hybrid, structurally if superficially resembling PolyGram Label Group in the 1990s, initially headed by Rick Dobbis and subsequently by Johnny Barbis.

“That so-called ‘super-label’ combined Chris Blackwell’s Island (which included Larry Mestel), Russell Simmons’ Def Jam (with his road manager Lyor Cohen also involved), Roger Ames’ London (with right-hand man Peter Koepke) and Polydor, which was run by Davitt Sigerson and Hooman Majd. Having the larger-than-life personalities of Blackwell, Simmons and Ames crammed under one roof put enormous pressure on Dobbis and Barbis to keep their respective demands in check.

“The PLG labels shared one promotion department (which included Joe Riccitelli, who was named SVP in ’97) until the demand outstripped their bandwidth to handle the supply. In those days, of course, marketshare was less of an obsession than it has become during the last decade.”