Def Jam CEO Steve Bartels recently sat down for an interview with Billboard in which he dropped names with reckless abandon. First of all, this dude has already heard Kanye West's new album.
"It sounds incredible," Bartels said. "He's focused, energetic, happy and making unbelievably great music. Kanye always wants to make sure that when it actually arrives it's at the best possible place it could be, that the first song is as big as the last. He's the absolute bar of perfection in terms of that. I tell him all the time: Some of his previous albums are still testing out in the marketplace as high, if not higher, than when they first came out because the music is still fresh to people."
Oh, and there was the time he met Rihanna while hanging out in Hova's office.
"She was signed in [then Def Jam president] Jay Z's office - I remember her eyes and how amazing her presence was in the room," he said. "I remember taking ["Pon de Replay"] to a studio in midtown, this was probably 2006, I think LA Reid was there, and we played it to a bunch of radio programmers. Everybody was like, 'I've gotta leave and put this on the radio right away.'"
The CEO also deals with Justin Bieber from time to time.
"I don't think he is overexposed," Balters said. "I think he had the unfortunate task of growing up in front of the world. I don't know how you could be judged by every left turn, every shoelace you tie -- it's a very unfair trajectory. It's part of what comes with [stardom], but for somebody to grow up through that...being with him and [seeing paparazzi] bait him and goad him, and having people literally throw themselves across the car -- I think with much scrutiny, anything you do is going to get embellished or highlighted to a degree that maybe isn't fair."
Bartels was named top dog at Def Jam on April 1, and the 51-year-old former DJ picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award at the VMAs in 2010.
