He's signed superstars like Wu-Tang and Akon, revolutionized rap promotion, built an empire, and is now searching for the future of music in a digital age.
Backstage, Raekwon helped usher Rifkind through security. Masta Killa
greeted him with a pound and a hug and jokingly called him “Mr.
Rifkind”—a formality he knows his former boss hates. Someone in Wu’s
entourage exclaimed, “You looking like ’97! This guy is looking great!”
referring to Rifkind’s recent loss of 50 pounds following a health
scare. Wu’s manager, Mitchell “Divine” Diggs, and the RZA chopped it up
with Rifkind’s collegian son, whom they remember from back when he was a
shy little boy.
Rifkind, 52, is arguably best known for signing Wu, but at Loud he also shepherded careers for Mobb Deep, Big Pun, Tha Alkaholiks, Three 6 Mafia, Xzibit, Twista, dead prez, and others. After selling Loud to Sony in June 1999 and leaving the company in 2002, he started SRC Records, which broke artists like David Banner, Melanie Fiona, Asher Roth, and, most notably, Akon. A master of rap promotion, Rifkind’s name is also synonymous with “street teams,” the crews that spread the word about the majority of rap releases in the ’90s. Rifkind left SRC in 2012 because of label politics, but in July 2013 he found a new venture, teaming up with Russell Simmons and film director/producer Brian Robbins for All Def Digital and its offshoot, All Def Music. He’s not as iconic as Simmons, or as infamous as Suge Knight, and he doesn’t maintain the celebrity of executives-turned-rappers like Puffy, Birdman, or Master P, but Rifkind is one of hip-hop’s greatest executives, one who’s consistently found ways to win in the always-evolving music industry.
“Any rap record from 1989 to 1999, besides [ones on] Death Row, we did promotions for it. We had our hand in everything.”
—Steve Rifkind
Despite suffering from dyslexia and nearly getting expelled for fighting with the principal, Rifkind graduated from high school, but after only three days at Hofstra University he dropped out to work for his dad at Spring. Still a teenager in 1979, he helped promote the FatBack Band’s “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”—one of the first hip-hop records ever, predating “Rapper’s Delight.” Rifkind eventually became the vice president of promotion at Spring. (DJ Scott La Rock, of Boogie Down Productions fame, was his intern.) When he was 24, Rifkind moved to L.A. to manage New Edition for a year before he started doing promotions for indie label Delicious Vinyl. In 1987, he went into business for himself and started the Steve Rifkind Company, promoting records for acts like Boogie Down Productions and Leaders of the New School.
By the early ’90s, the Steve Rifkind Company was billing hundreds of thousands of dollars doing retail, radio, and video promotions for indies like Delicious as well as major labels like RCA. Along the way, Rifkind discovered “street promotion,” which bypassed all three forms and focused on things like word of mouth, getting music in the hands of urban “tastemakers,” and plastering stickers and posters for upcoming albums anywhere rap fans might gather. Thanks to his upbringing, he understood both hip-hop and the music industry. Rifkind began growing a national network of street teams but eventually realized he was better off starting his own label rather than solely promoting acts for others. He founded Loud in 1992 with his childhood friend Rich Isaacson but kept SRC’s lucrative street promotions teams open for business. “Any rap record from 1989 to 1999, besides [ones on] Death Row, we did promotions for it,” says Rifkind. “We had our hand in everything.”
“We built Loud Records through SRC, Steve’s original idea of street marketing,” explains Isaacson. “Loud Records already had a built-in marketing and promotion apparatus through SRC. When we got a tiny bit of funding from BMG, we were able to sign something cheaply and promote it.”
Loud was a family affair. Jonathan Rifkind, one of Steve’s two brothers, served as the label’s executive vice president; his mother was their travel agent; his father even did some independent radio promotion for them. The first acts Rifkind signed to Loud were Twista and Tha Alkaholiks, but for him it always comes back to Wu-Tang. In 1992, the Wu came swarming out of Shaolin with “Protect Ya Neck,” a five-minute lyrical beatdown armed with karate chops on the dusty, lo-fi beat. Rifkind left messages on RZA’s answering machine for weeks trying to get in touch with them. On his 31st birthday, he got the best birthday present ever when RZA showed up to his office.
“Everything that I know and try to do now, I learned from being on Loud [with Steve Rifkind].” —Prodigy of Mobb Deep
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