Rob Markman can’t believe how much time has passed. On a humid August afternoon, the MediaLab VP of Music opens his web browser to take a quick look at the video for “My Dawg,” a 2017 Lil Baby single that announced the Atlanta rapper’s presence to the world of Hip Hop. “Look how short his hair is,” the VP tells HipHopDX, staring at Baby’s breakout visual.
These days, Baby’s hair is a lot longer, and so is his list of accomplishments. But it more or less started with the video, which premiered through WorldStarHipHop’s YouTube channel six years ago.
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While just uttering their name became a warning for impending viral beatdowns — and its often low-brow content played a role in earning that reputation — WorldStarHipHop had held down an unquestionably large role in music discovery in the blog era and beyond.
From Rae Sremmurd’s “No Flex Zone” to Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow,” a variety of cultural touchstones have unfolded on the platform. More recently, it was Ice Spice.
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One year ago today, the Bronx artist teamed with the brand’s distribution umbrella, WorldStar Distro, to release “Munch (Feelin U),” a drill anthem that embedded the typically scabrous genre with a decidedly playful twist.
You know the rest of the tale: Ice Spice immediately beat one-hit wonder allegations with her subsequent single, “Bikini Bottom” and her Like … ? EP, cementing her status as a superstar and WorldStar Distro’s first great success story.
WorldStar’s expansion to distribution outfit is one that started with conversations between brand founder Lee “Q” O’Denat and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Cotton. Tragically, Q passed before the idea could be realized, but WorldStar had started dabbling in distribution by the end of 2017.
They found some initial success distributing Lil Donald’s “Do Better” in 2018. The track eventually went platinum. WorldStar Distro officially launched in partnership with Create Music Group in July 2021. The idea was to add more dimensionality to the brand.
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“It’s like we, we are a vessel to grow artists and, we’re showing the world, and WorldStar has been doing that,” says Markman. “But the relationship is just a little bit deeper now.”
Before locking in with MediaLab, Markman had worked as a journalist in conventional media for years before joining Genius, which was acquired by MediaLab in 2021. That same year, Markman was made MediaLab’s VP of Music, the position that saw him sign Ice Spice and arrange for her to get her masters for “Munch” and her follow-up single, “Bikini Bottom.”
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Around the same time Markman was settling into his new position, Spice and RIOTUSA, the son of DJ Enuff, were beginning to hit their stride as collaborators. Jourdain Dutton, who works as MediaLab’s Head of Distro Operations, says he’d known of RIOT since he was a teenager, helping him navigate parts of the industry.
He met Ice Spice at some point during the pandemic, with RIOT even bringing her out to L.A. to link up. Interacting with the emerging rapper, he noted her authenticity.
“You see a GloRilla or you see a Sexyy Red or a Cardi B, they represent where they’re from to the highest degree,” Dutton says. “That’s who Ice is. She’s unapologetically a Bronx girl and she has a great balance, being able to reach certain demographics.”
Dutton had a feeling Spice would be successful, and that belief was only reinforced when she began to distill her personality through drill beats. As someone who worked in the fashion scene and with artists like Yung Lean, Dutton has developed an eye for talent, and he was sure Spice was on her way to big things. Eventually, Dutton passed Spice’s music to Markman, who quickly realized she had a unique combination of attributes.
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“It had the drill sound, but it didn’t have the content that I think would scare people,” Markman remembers. “Being a New Yorker, I’m like, ‘Yo, this is like my cousins from the Bronx.’” Liking what he was hearing, Markman sent links to Ice Spice’s “Euphoric” and “No Clarity” to a younger friend, who quickly confirmed what he and Dutton had already surmised: Ice Spice had it.
By June 2022, Markman and the team had heard “Munch,” and by that August, Ice Spice was signed to WorldStar Distro. After releasing “Munch” and “Bikini Bottom,” Spice went on to leave the deal and sign to 10K Projects and Capitol Records.
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This past June, Markman presented Ice Spice with a gold plaque for “Munch” as she performed at Hot 97’s 2023 Summer Jam. The moment was a micro-culmination for one of the first chapters of WorldStar Distro, a venture that spawned from both ambition and necessity. While artists still use WorldStar to premiere videos, things have changed a lot since the blog era — or even the late 2010s.
“We knew we had to kind of adapt and adjust to the distro side because everyone started kind of figuring out the game,” says Cotton, remembering a time before artists simply released music through their own YouTube channels.
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Things change, and the growth of WorldStar Distro is one of them. “You might not hear WorldStar screamed as much, but we’re bigger than ever,” he adds. “It is just now we’re spread out and competing in these different places.”
“A lot of what I do currently is to continue Q’S legacy, so seeing the success with WorldStar Distro is definitely something we’re all very proud of,” he continues. “And we hope that he’s looking down and feels the same.”
