When Nico Baran was 10, he discovered the popular digital audio workstation FL Studio during a class presentation and started making dance tracks. “That helped me build up my skills for making loops,” says Baran, who soon transitioned to R&B and trap productions.

Seven years later, in 2020, the Houston-born, Madrid-based producer started DM’ing loops to members of the producer collective and record label Internet Money. One member, oktanner, played the beats for CEO Taz Taylor, who brought Baran onto the team that year. Taylor asked Baran to send him ideas ahead of his session with The Kid LAROI, which led to Baran scoring his first major placement on LAROI’s debut mixtape, F*ck Love, co-writing and co-producing “Tragic” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

He has since compiled a genre-spanning résumé — and an impressive original loop library, which he often shares as sounds on TikTok — producing songs for rappers like Lil Tecca, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Shy Glizzy, as well as Latin artists like Bad Bunny with Young Miko, Eladio Carrión and Fuerza Regida. In June, when Baran posted a now-viral snippet titled “Love Is Gone” — a moody instrumental that has since amassed 1.8 million TikTok plays and 4.3 million official on-demand global streams, according to Luminate — Drake caught wind of the hype. “He reached out to me through Instagram,” Baran says. “I’m still sending him stuff to this day.”

Wallace Joseph, SVP of A&R at Warner Chappell Music, calls the producer a “genius,” saying his talent is “purely natural. What he’s doing is next level; whether he’s playing keyboards, producing, or anything else, everything he touches goes viral.”

Ahead, Baran is hoping to make time for his own music as well, saying he “definitely” wants to release an album of his own — “kind of like Metro Boomin and DJ Khaled,” he says, “where I can bring artists into my own sound.”

¥$ (with Lil Wayne), “Lifestyle”

Last November, Baran wrote, “POV: Ty Dolla $ign & Kanye need beats for their next album,” over a TikTok featuring one of his loops. In December, when Ye previewed “Lifestyle” during an Instagram Live filmed at a private Las Vegas party teasing Vultures 2 (despite Vultures 1 not having dropped), Baran noticed a familiar beat: The song sampled “Love Is Gone.” As Baran recalls, “People were sending me screen recordings through Instagram like, ‘Kanye sampled you!’ ” One of the song’s producers, Australian duo FNZ, had sent Ty “Love Is Gone.” Baran says, “He liked it a lot. He showed it to Kanye, and Kanye loved it. It still feels unbelievable.”

Ice Spice & Central Cee, “Did It First”

In 2023, songwriter-producer Lily Kaplan sent Baran a Dropbox link and asked him to tinker with her vocal tracks. He built a loop around one of them by chopping up the line “Baby, do you understand?” and adding synths before sending it to RIOTUSA, Ice Spice’s go-to producer. RIOT ultimately used it for Ice and Central Cee’s “Did It First,” one of the buzzier singles from her debut album, Y2K!, that dropped in July. “Ice Spice really loved that one loop, and it kind of went crazy,” says Baran of the track, which hit No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

The Kid LAROI, TBA

Four years after “Tragic,” one of LAROI’s producers reached out to Baran about sampling a loop that he had posted on TikTok to use on a track from the Australian artist’s forthcoming second album. (His debut, The First Time, arrived last November.) “That’s mainly what I’m focusing on right now,” Baran reveals. “I’m sending a lot of ideas to LAROI’s producers. Aside from that one song, hopefully more [will] come about.”

A version of this article originally appeared in the August 31, 2024 issue of Billboard.

Sabrina Carpenter has been one busy woman. Just one week after dropping her sixth studio album, Short n’ Sweet, the 25-year-old pop star released a surprise bonus track — and Barry Keoghan was first in line to download.

Sharing an outtake from her Short n’ Sweet cover shoot, Carpenter announced the new song on Instagram Thursday (Aug. 29). “surprise b—h!” she captioned the post.

The “Feather” singer went on to explain that she penned the song — titled “Busy Woman” — with producer Jack Antonoff and cowriter Amy Allen after she turned her new album in to her record label. “[I] was so sad i couldn’t include it…,” she added, noting that the song would only be available to purchase on her website for a limited time. “it’s one of my favorites so i wanted to give it to you as a thank you for all of the love!!!!!”

In the comments, her Academy Award-nominated boyfriend was quick to show support. “Lets feckin go!! 🔥🥵” Keoghan wrote.

After Carpenter dropped Short n’ Sweet on Aug. 23, fans were quick to speculate that the Work It star wrote some of the project’s songs about the Irish actor — particularly the NSFW “Bed Chem.” “I was in a sheer dress the day that we met/ We were both in a rush, we talked for a sec,” she sings on the track. “Who’s the cute boy with the white jacket and the thick accent? … Who’s the cute guy with the wide, blue eyes?”

Keoghan also stars opposite Carpenter in the music video for her Billboard Hot 100-topping single “Please Please Please,” which is featured on Short n’ Sweet. The pair first sparked dating rumors in late 2023, a few months before making their public debut at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in March.

See Carpenter’s post below.

Welcome to another edition of Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. While you’re here, we also have a weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.

HYBE-owned label ADOR appointed Kim Ju-young to replace founder Min Hee-jin as CEO of the imprint, home of K-pop girl group NewJeans. The decision was made on Tuesday (Aug. 27) by ADOR’s board of directors following a turbulent several months of legal disputes, allegations of defamation and an earlier attempt by HYBE to dismiss the exec, who co-founded ADOR in 2021. ADOR said Min, formerly a creative director at SM Entertainment, would continue to produce music for NewJeans. Additionally, ADOR said it will restructure in order to separate its management and production sectors. Kim most recently served as HYBE’s chief HR officer and was previously head of HR at South Korean video game publisher Krafton. The move is the second major leadership change in a month for HYBE, which recently promoted Jason Jaesang Lee to CEO, replacing Jiwon Park in the top spot ahead of what it has since dubbed its “HYBE 2.0” strategy.

TikTok elevated Toyin Mustapha to head of music partnerships for the UK, Ireland and Sub-Saharan Africa. He joined the ByteDance-owned platform in late 2018 as music content and artist partnerships manager before shifting over to music promotions lead at SoundOn, TikTok’s DIY distribution service. “I’m really looking forward to helping the incredible team continue to build on all of their great work driving music discovery and making TikTok a true home for artists at every stage, as we support as much incredible homegrown talent as possible,” Mustapha said in announcing his move. Back at SoundOn, Nichal Sethi was upped to head of SoundOn for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He joined the ByteDance family in 2022 from BMG, where he held a senior director-level position. Remarked Sethi: “I’ve been lucky to work with some amazing artists and teams so far and looking forward to working with many more in the future as we help more independent artists break through on TikTok and beyond.”

Universal Music Group Nashville appointed Derek Anderson as senior vp of commerce. Anderson has more than 15 years of industry and music distribution experience and in this new role, he oversees e-commerce, retail and streaming teams for the label group. Anderson’s career includes time at Sony Music’s RED Distribution, Kobalt/AWAL, The Orchard, Black River Entertainment and New West Records. “Having followed [UMGN’s] industry dominance from afar, I’m very much looking forward to building upon their great foundation and continuing to grow personally and collectively with the UMG team,” said Anderson. –Jessica Nicholson

Sony Music Publishing Australia hired Julian McGruther as senior A&R, a new position at the publisher. He’ll focus on boosting the company’s roster of local talent and report directly to Craig Hawker, Sony Music Publishing’s head of A&R/creative. McGruther joins from Mushroom Music, where in seven years he rose to creative director and worked with artist including Amy Shark, Nat Dunn and Mona Khoshoi, among others.

The Country Radio Broadcasters revealed its elected members for the organization’s 2024-2025 Board of Directors. Returning board officers for 2024-2025 are Kurt Johnson (Townsquare Media) as president, John Shomby (Country’s Radio Coach) as vice president, and Beverlee Brannigan (Beverlee Brannigan LLC Creative Coaching) as secretary. Elected/appointed members of the new board are Emily Cohen Belote (Amazon Music), Justin Chase (Beasley Media Group), Mike Harris (UMG Nashville), Debra Herman (Apple/Shazam), Jennifer Johnson (Riser House Records), Ashley Morrison (iHeartMedia/WFUS), Jordan Pettit (Opry Entertainment Group), Greg Strassell (Hubbard), Allison Warren (Cumulus Nashville) and Kristen Williams (Warner Music Nashville), while those continuing their terms are Chuck Aly (Country Aircheck), George Couri (Triple 8 Management), Gator Harrison (iHeart Country), Steve Hodges (Sony Music Nashville), Clay Hunnicut (BMLG), Kenny Jay (Albright & O’Malley & Brenner), Jon Loba (BMG North America), Mike McVay (McVay Media), RJ Meacham (Curb Records), Brent Michaels (KUZZ), Charlie Morgan (Apple Music), Rod Phillips (iHeart Country), Joel Raab (Joel Raab Country Radio & Media), Royce Risser (The Familie), Tim Roberts (Audacy/WYCD) and Matt Sunshine (The Center for Sales Strategy).  –J.N.

BOARD SHORTS: Former Warner Music executive Linda Walker will be joining the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) as the UK org’s new chair, effective Sept. 1. She succeeds Ben Drury, who served for 18 months in the role. Walker spent nearly 20 years at WMG, rising from an account manager to senior vp of commercial for UK and Europe … Creator-run nonprofit Artist Rights Alliance added songwriter and voice actor Dan Navarro to its board of directors and beefed up its music council with the likes of Aerosmith, Creed, Wolfgang Van Halen, Lauren Daigle, Jerry Flowers, Myles Kennedy and Sevendust. Founded in 2013, the ARA’s mission is to provide “artists and their allies with resources, knowledge, and tools to navigate the complex music business landscape.” It launched its music council, along with an Artists’ Bill of Rights, in mid-2020 with names including Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris. The board and council both provide advisory input and offer their oomph to advocating for legislation to benefit artists rights.

Creator-centric marketing company QYOU Media hired Karen Kehm as vp of communications. Kehm is tasked with overseeing all marketing and communications efforts, along with B2B initiatives, at the company. Prior to QYOU, she held senior communications roles at influencer marketing firm BENlabs and at AOL. “We’re thrilled to welcome Karen to the team to help continue QYOU’s forward trajectory as we head into 2025,” said Glenn Ginsburg, president of QYOU Media. “We are excited to continue to shed light on the innovative work we’re doing across the influencer marketing space, tapping into the cultural zeitgeist to connect our client partners with their target audiences, through socially relevant and authentic campaigns.”

Mike Lisanti recently departed Prodigy Artists to launch MLennial, a new artist management agency with clients including BARELY ALIVE, Kompany, MUZZ and SABAI. The Los Angeles-based manager previously served as chief operating officer at Prodigy, where he was credited with helping to revitalize the career of dubstep DJ/producer Crankdat.

ICYMI:

Former Universal Music executive and longtime music tech futurist Celine Joshua joined BMG for the newly created role of executive vp of global marketing … Dr. Kenji Kitatani is Warner Music Japan‘s first chairman in a decade … and Warner Music Brazil onboarded Tatiana Cantinho and Mariana Frensel to fortify its genre-focused strategies and strengthen its market presence.

Last Week’s Turntable: Warner Music Bolsters Global A&R Team

In August 2022, Allison Crutchfield, an A&R executive at ANTI- Records, traveled to Asheville, N.C., on a mission to sign the rising singer-songwriter known as MJ Lenderman. By year’s end, Crutchfield succeeded — and had also joined his tight-knit circle of friends.

“I’ve never had a meeting with an artist where they’ve been like, ‘Just come over and we’ll have a barbecue, we’ll just drink beer and eat,’ ” recalls Crutchfield, who got to know Lenderman at the property where he was living with several others, including members of the ascendant alt-country group Wednesday.

At the time, Lenderman had just released his breakthrough album, Boat Songs, a collection of detailed vignettes set to fuzzed-out country-rock riffs, on independent label Dear Life Records. And the 25-year-old hasn’t slowed down since: In late 2023, Lenderman made his ANTI- debut with his acclaimed live album Live and Loose!; in early 2024, he hit the road with Wednesday, for which he sings and plays guitar; and in March, Waxahatchee (fronted by Crutchfield’s twin sister, Katie) released her lauded album Tigers Blood, for which she invited Lenderman into her small creative circle. Lenderman made his Billboard chart debut, on Adult Alternative Airplay, with his feature on that set’s aching lead single, “Right Back to It,” and performed it alongside Waxahatchee on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

As Lenderman’s profile grew, he was assembling Manning Fireworks, which is set for release Sept. 6 and his first studio album for ANTI-. “It was kind of strange,” he says when reflecting on the whirlwind that accompanied becoming one of indie rock’s most heralded new artists. “I guess it was more of an obstacle of making the new record — just trying to figure out how to not think about that and make a record like I would before.”

For Lenderman, that wasn’t so long ago. A child of music lovers — “My dad was a Deadhead,” he says, detailing the Derek Trucks and Gov’t Mule shows he saw as a kid growing up in Asheville — Lenderman began playing guitar in early grade school and eventually gravitated toward indie and punk music as a teenager playing in bands around his hometown. Soon he began recording, and the pandemic afforded him more time to complete 2021’s Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and, eventually, Boat Songs.

When Lenderman’s manager, Rusty Sutton, passed along a Boat Songs promo to Crutchfield, she knew she had to sign him “probably 10 seconds” into its opening song. “In a medium like indie rock,” she explains, “where there really is only so much you can do, for someone to do something where they’re honoring the tradition of this type of music but to do it in a way that does totally feel refreshing and like something that we haven’t heard, it’s really exciting.”

Lenderman is heavily influenced by Neil Young — “I can trace back most bands that I like to Neil,” he says, citing the rock legend’s scuzzy mid-’70s phase — and he also counts Drive-By Truckers, Dinosaur Jr. and Will Oldham as key touchstones. But his music has connected with younger audiences thanks to its modern sensibility and the way it careens from absurdist humor to deep, sometimes dark, profundity. (One new song, “Wristwatch,” is an ode to loneliness where the narrator notes that he’s “got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome.”)

“Obviously, my real life is going to bleed through a little bit, but I try to keep it more from a third-person perspective,” he says. “I feel like that opens more possibilities — and it’s kind of more fun writing fiction.”

For Manning Fireworks, recorded whenever he could find time between tours, Lenderman followed a familiar approach, reuniting with producer Alex Farrar at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios, where he has recorded tracks several times before. But the album, which expands Lenderman’s country-rock creative palette without losing its signature wit or intimacy, is far from a redux.

“I want my records to be dynamic,” Lenderman says. “For a while, I was trying to maybe take it up a notch and go louder or faster or something — and then that just really wasn’t where I was at. So I decided to go in the opposite direction and make it more acoustic and quieter.”

On Manning Fireworks, Lenderman does a bit of both. The music has never sounded richer, with fiddle and brass bolstering his guitar, but he also explores the flip side, like on album closer “Bark at the Sun,” which ends Manning Fireworks with a ­multiminute noise outro driven by “bass clarinet abuse drone.” While Lenderman “couldn’t tell you why” he made the creative choice — “it just felt right to me” — it’s indicative of his growth. “There’s a level of confidence coming from [him] at this point that feels different from Boat Songs,” Crutchfield says. “This is a person who is unbelievably talented and now understands how to wield that.”

Not that the eternally nonchalant Lenderman would ever describe his intuitive choices so grandly. 

This story appears in the Aug. 24, 2024, issue of Billboard.

When André 3000 released his debut solo album, New Blue Sun, in November, hip-hop die-hards were understandably upset: The set spanned 88 minutes, showcased flute-playing in a new age and jazz paradigm and included zero words.

At 49 now, André 3000 suggested that topics like getting a colonoscopy and checking his eyesight didn’t fit into hip-hop subject matter. “Sometimes it feels inauthentic for me to rap,” he told GQ at the time of the album’s release, “because I don’t have anything to talk about in that way.”

Less than a month later, Lil Wayne, 41, said on Young Money Radio that he was “depressed” to hear 3Stacks’ comments because he has “everything to talk about.” Pusha T, 47, agreed, telling Idea Generation in live-event footage uploaded in December, “It is kind of stifling to the genre to even think like that. As long as you live in hip-hop in all capacities and as long as you’re still sharp with that pen, you got something to say. We want to hear it.”

Ironically, the chatter about rappers reaching an expiration date occurred at the end of a yearlong celebration of hip-hop’s cultural longevity. In 2023, genre pioneers including DJ Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow and Roxanne Shanté were honored with a celebratory Hip Hop 50 Live event at New York’s Yankee Stadium. Meanwhile, icon-heavy arena tours kicked off, including Masters of the Mic: Hip-Hop 50 Tour (featuring Big Daddy Kane and Doug E. Fresh, among others), and LL COOL J’s F.O.R.C.E. Live outing (featuring Queen Latifah, Rakim and more).

That attitude has continued well into hip-hop’s 51st year, with sold-out shows and buzz-worthy albums released decades into artists’ careers. “It’s been interesting to watch rappers get older and redefine what’s acceptable and possible in hip-hop,” says Carl Chery, creative director and head of urban music at Spotify. “Rap has historically been perceived to be a young man’s game, but we’re now seeing rappers have critical and commercial success [into] their 40s.”

In July, Eminem released his long-teased concept album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), led by the top 10 Hot 100 hit “Houdini.” Its debut atop the Billboard 200 ended Taylor Swift’s record-breaking streak at No. 1 with The Tortured Poets Department. That same week, Common released his Pete Rock-produced The Auditorium Vol. 1, and in August, Rakim dropped his first album in 15 years with G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth) while Killer Mike delivered Songs for Sinners and Saints. Still ahead, LL COOL J will return with his first album in 11 years with The FORCE, due Sept. 6, and Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre have teased their joint album, Missionary, fresh off a performance at the Summer Olympics’ closing ceremony in Los Angeles. Will Smith has even returned to music with his first Christian/gospel single, “You Can Make It,” featuring Fridayy and Sunday Service Choir, which they debuted at the 2024 BET Awards in June.

How, then, are these rappers staying active while entering their fourth or fifth decades? Common believes it’s a matter of understanding the difference between “legacy” and “veteran.” “Sometimes when I hear ‘legacy,’ it makes me think that people don’t view you as still present in it,” he says, “that you are still creating music that is palatable and viable for the times. To me, it’s an honorable way of saying, ‘Man, you had a good run.’ ”

Meanwhile, being a veteran, he says, not only alludes but gives respect to the length of time an artist has sustained. “They have experience and some time in the art form,” he says — which is something Common felt was missing when he was starting out, as hip-hop was still a relatively new commercial art form. But now, at 52, he believes there is victory in having a passion that burns strong enough to want to keep writing raps.

“When we were coming up, we didn’t have any examples of people in their 40s and 50s making music,” he observes. “In my 20s, I was thinking, ‘Man, how am I going to make it in my 30s? Who is going to listen? I have to hurry up and make this happen.’ And now, in my early 50s, I’m like, ‘Wow, it’s a new life to this.’ ”

Chery says he’s been paying special attention to Eminem and Ye, both of whom have managed to appeal to a Gen Z audience. “Granted, Ye and Em have a unique appeal, but I wonder how many artists will be able to change their audience moving forward,” he says. “I’ve always been envious of how young rock listeners take pride in knowing Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. They’re students. A lot of younger rap listeners are dismissive of older music.” (Upon the release of Common’s The Auditorium Vol. 1, Grammy Award-winning producer 9th Wonder proposed on X that “adult contemporary hip-hop needs its own category” at the awards show; during this year’s ceremony, Killer Mike swept the rap categories.)

While Common is less concerned with how the music he makes today is perceived, there is one thing he knows he wants: longevity. He admires the arc of many jazz musicians’ careers, recalling seeing pianist Ahmad Jamal, who died in 2023 at 92, play in Chicago; as Common says, Jamal “played until he left the planet.” He says the same of drummer Roy Haynes, who is 99 — and whom Common saw perform just a few years ago.

“If André 3000 decided to rap about a colonoscopy, he’s going to make it dope as hell,” Common asserts, “because this dude rapped about going to Whole Foods and made a whole story out of that.”

This story will appear in the Aug. 31, 2024, issue of Billboard.