Lyor Cohen sat down with Elliot Wilson and B.Dot on Rap Radar’s latest podcast and discussed the sudden popularity of 300 Entertainment artist Fetty Wap.
Fetty Wap‘s self-titled debut album is set for release tomorrow, September 25.
“There’s a lot of people that want to see that man win,” says the 300 Entertainment CEO. “He’s engaging. He’s nice. He’s focused. He’s come to play and he is thoughtful enough to say, thank you or say what is it that we need to do now and focus on.
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“He’s working and doing many, many things,” he continues. “We’re trying to be smart and thoughtful. We don’t look at this in the moment in time. We are trying to in-visualize next year, this time. What would Fetty mean next year this time? We are already in April, March and May trying to think about what’s the architecture of this. How can he continue [to] build upon the strengths and sometimes that means leaving money on the table.”
Fetty Wap broke out into mainstream success with his previously released hit single, “Trap Queen” this year. When asked what made the record executive want to re-master the 1738 artist’s old SoundCloud uploads, he credits them to being great songs.
“Let’s peel back what the digital revolution actually provides us,” the former Def Jam CEO president says. “The digital revolution provides that the cream of the crop will rise to the top, and Fetty has hit that nerve. It’s melodic. It’s interesting. It’s not regurgitated. It’s not word-smithing. It’s something really special. It’s not just once, it’s twice. It’s a lot of signature to it. I would like to take a lot of credit but the fact of the matter is that there is a lot of hard work, a lot of marketing, a lot of promotion, a lot of thoughtful timing, but come on, we got to put our hats off to this kid. This kid is doing it on every level.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, Cohen denies that the Atlanta rap trio Migos has left 300 Entertainment after the release of their debut album Yung Ruch Nationonly selling 20,000 records at it’s release.
“Migos is still under contract,” Cohen says. “They’re still part of the 300 family. So I don’t actually know what you’re referring to. I will investigate that when I get back to the office. They’re incredibly talented. Those guys are unbelievable talent.”
