RIFKIND ON BOARD
AT UNIVERSAL MOTOWN

Urban music pioneer and Street Records Corporation (SRC) founder Steve Rifkind has joined Universal Motown Records Group as Vice President, it was announced today by Chairman Mel Lewinter, Universal Records President Monte Lipman and Motown Records President/CEO Kedar Massenburg in perfect three-part harmony.

Rifkind will work closely with many facets of the company, including A&R and marketing. He will also continue to run SRC, which is distributed through Universal Motown Records.

Lewinter praised Rifkind’s contributions to the company: "Steve has been an invaluable resource to our company on a broad range of issues. Moreover, I have had the privilege of knowing him for many years, and he is one of the industry’s most talented and driven executives. He has helped discover and shape an amazing array of innovative artists, and we are delighted he has chosen to accept a more formal role within the Universal Motown family. And he's got me putting up snipes all over the office."

Added Rifkind: "The executives and artists of Universal Motown made this an easy decision for me. The executive team led by Doug Morris, Mel, Monte and Kedar are second to none, and I look forward to working with them to further cultivate one of the most dynamic rosters of talent in the business. I haven’t seen a posse like this since Mobb Deep."

Rifkind launched SRC with Universal earlier this year to immediate success. SRC’s first release, Mississippi: The Album by platinum-selling producer David Banner, was a Top 10 album, spawning the radio hit "Like a Pimp."

Rifkind’s rap music roots go back to his family’s label, Spring Records, where he helped release FatBack Band’s "King Tim III," the first hip-hop record ever. He began marketing hip-hop acts like Leaders of the New School, Brand Nubian and Tone Loc, and became the architect of the modern Street Team. In 1989, Rifkind took this concept a step further and launched his own consulting firm, the Steven Rifkind Company, attracting such clients as Nike, Pepsi, HBO, Rolling Stone Magazine and Levis. Rifkind started Loud Records in 1992, inaugurating the first bi-coastal hip-hop label and recruiting Tha Liks as his first act.

Loud was one of hip-hop’s most successful and culturally influential labels, releasing many of the most important albums of the ’90s from the Wu-Tang Clan, Big Punisher, Mobb Deep, Funkmaster Flex, Xzibit, Three 6 Mafia and Raekwon, among many others.

He recently sold 50% of his Steven Rifkind Company to Mosaic Media Group, and along with Koral Industries, owners of Seven Jeans, launched a new clothing line, entitled Street Team.