![]() This year, for the first time, Republic tops all three of Billboard’s leading year-end label rankings, placing atop the Top Labels, Billboard 200 Labels and Billboard Hot 100 Labels charts. Republic ends 2021 as the No. 1 label on Billboard’s year-end chart - its fifth time finishing at the top within the past seven years - thanks to a roster studded with stars like Swift, Drake, The Weeknd and Ariana Grande. As the only current heads of a major label they also founded, their longevity in the industry is unprecedented. That’s not just because their story has a happy ending, but because it has been shared with each other. Finally, the brothers could escape the subsidewalk apartment - and, Monte notes with a laugh, upgrade to a Times Square office previously used as a broom closet. Suddenly the Lipmans’ phones wouldn’t stop ringing with inquiries about the group and partnership deal offers. Then, a few days later, that break came: KROQ, the Los Angeles alternative radio juggernaut, had just played “Fire Water Burn” by the Bloodhound Gang, rap-rock goofballs who were the Lipmans’ first signees. ![]() “This was our postage desk.”Īvery hovers his hand over its center: “This is actually where I filled out my Chapter 11 paperwork.” Roughly two years after launching Republic as an independent label in 1995 - spending every spare moment and penny hustling for a big break - the Lipmans found themselves on the brink of declaring bankruptcy. “When we look around, all we remember is just stacks and stacks of vinyl records and cardboard and envelopes,” says Monte, stroking the edge of the table. The Lipmans made themselves a mini assembly line inserting, taping and labeling vinyl records and writing personal letters in a desperate attempt to launch their careers. Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shootīack then, the 20-something brothers spent countless hours at this table preparing mailers for a pre-digital music industry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |