A TASTE OF RAINMAKERS:
NICOLE WYSKOARKO
Interscope Geffen A&M EVP Co-Head of A&R Nicole Wyskoarko comes by her intense work ethic and passion for music honestly, both of which were inculcated in her from a young age. Like many of her predecessors and more than a few contemporaries in the biz, Wyskoarko began in the legal trenches before making the move to the creative side. A longtime hip-hop fan, she began her career with a dream job at Island Def Jam. Her subsequent tenure as a partner at law firm Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Barr and Karalian LLP sharpened and expanded her skill set. By the time she arrived at John Janick’s IGA in 2018 (as EVP, urban operations), Wyskoarko had cultivated a deep understanding of everything from dealmaking to record-making.
“There’s no one path,” the USC grad says. “Everyone has their way of getting there.”
How did your path unfold?
I ended up interning for a female-run PR firm, Stellar Quest, which represented a lot of film and TV people. They wanted to hire me. I loved our clients, and I loved the women I worked for. But the job meant reading the film and TV trades every day when I wanted to read the music trades! It all boiled down to this question of what you’d do if you weren’t being paid—how would you spend your day?
I wanted to work in music, and at the time the music industry felt to me really heavily based in New York. So I had to figure out how to get to New York. I liked reading liner notes; I’d read the acknowledgements and look at the label credits and job titles. I always noticed business and legal affairs, which told me, these people exist; this job exists. I thought once I got to New York, I could get an internship at a record label—preferably Def Jam, because it had all the hip-hop acts I listened to at the time. I took the LSATs, applied to law school and got accepted at Brooklyn Law with an offer of discounted housing in Brooklyn. I’d actually always wanted to move to New York. Being from the L.A. area, it was so different and exciting and raw. That energy.
How did you find your way to IDJ?
I sent out over 100 resumes, but I didn’t get a single response—until I finally heard back from Island Def Jam! They invited me to come in and interview. I thought, they may not realize this, but they are definitely hiring me. So I went and met with the business and legal affairs team. I think what struck them was I knew everything about the label, including the names of all the executives. Also, weirdly enough, I’d worked at a restaurant in L.A. where [Uptown Records founder/Motown CEO] Andre Harrell was an investor, and Brian Robinson, one of the IDJ lawyers, had spent a few months in L.A. while I worked there and realized we’d met before.
And you were ultimately hired in Business and Legal Affairs.
Yes. Jeff Kempler led the department at the time and Brian Robinson was SVP. I started off interning. Everyone told me that they didn’t hire interns in that department, so I tried to be indispensable. Then there was a change in leadership and Jeff left. So the exec I’d spent all that time building a relationship with was gone. What do I do?
Steve Gawley came in from Arista with L.A. Reid. I needed to build a relationship with him quickly because I was at the end of school and about to take the bar. I pitched him and built from there. Eventually, they found a position for me, but it wasn’t as an attorney. At this point I’d graduated from law school, but the offer I got was to be the file clerk. I thought, well, it’s like starting in the mail room. And I didn’t stay in that position very long; after about nine months I moved up to attorney. But it was sink or swim. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I was the first one in in the morning and the last one out at night.
I think it’s really important to note what an incredible mentor and guide Steve has been to me, and that he saw something in me quickly and took a shot on hiring me. Fortunately, another incredible attorney, Michael Seltzer, had overlapped with me in that transition, and Steve and Michael really took me under their wing.
Did you get face time with Reid?
Yes, I got to work really closely with L.A. on signings, which was a great experience. Everyone’s opinion was valued, so it was never like I was too junior to have that type of interaction. It was incredibly empowering.
That was an era when we were doing a lot of on-the-spot signings. We’d have artists come in to showcase—we’d be in the office at four in the morning on a Saturday—and it was like, all right, don’t let them leave the building!
I worked closely with Ludacris’ imprint, Disturbing tha Peace. They were really gracious; Chaka Zulu and Jeff Dixon, who ran the company, were important mentors to me. And then [current Roc Nation execs] Jay Brown and TyTy came into the building with JAY-Z, and they were always really great as well; they provided a lot of guidance on how to maneuver in the business.
At this point you’re stretching your wings in a lot of ways, but you decided to go into the law-firm world. What drove that decision?
Early in my career, I avoided working at law firms. I wanted to get into the music business but not necessarily the law side of it. Around 2016, I was able to work with the team at Republic in addition to IDJ. I had all this incredible experience and knew I could continue to excel at Universal, but I felt I needed something outside the label space—to be challenged in a different way, outside my comfort zone. I also wanted to be closer to the artists. Managers and artists were constantly coming to me for advice, asking me to break it down for them. I enjoyed that, being able to explain what’s going on and lay things out clearly and succinctly, cut to the chase. And I was willing to be completely uncomfortable to do it. So I decided to take a leap and leave what had become a really comfortable space for me.
It was also about learning the full record business, not just the record-label business. I knew I could serve people better if I were more well-rounded. There was also something incredibly entrepreneurial for me about going to a firm and that was something I needed to do—betting on myself. And there was a part of it that was a steppingstone to A&R with finding my own clients.
Fortunately, I had great relationships at several firms. I joined Carroll, Guido & Groffman, which I’d worked closely with on the label side. I knew we’d be aligned in terms of philosophy. They pulled me in as a partner out of the gate because of my stature on the label side. But I didn’t have any prior experience at a firm. So once again it was sink-or-swim time...
