Last year, Jeff Weiss celebrated the tenth anniversary of his popular Passion Of Weiss blog with a concert which featured artists from The Outfit, TX to Vince Staples.
Taking things a bit further, he spent 2016 building the foundation to his own record label POW Recordings. According to Weiss, the label was started as an outlet to give artists ignored by major labels a shot.
“For me personally, it was the kind of thing where there are all these amazing artists that people weren’t necessarily believing in,” Weiss said in an exclusive phone interview with HipHopDX. “The industry climate is so hype-driven and trend driven. I always loved labels. You can go down the line starting with something like Death Row or something like Stones Throw. A lot of my favorite stuff came out of there. It wasn’t always a do-it-yourself kind of indie, but I feel like something gets lost in the major-label system. I started the label ultimately because of that.”
Finding himself on the other side of the music industry, the label, also co-founded by artist Hannibal Moncrief, is hoping to find artists with lasting value beyond popular trends.
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“It’s not about paying attention to what’s hot right now,” Weiss said. “I think what is hot right now is a bad way to run an artistic endeavor, but good way to make money. I think we’re striving for something that’s timeless. Sometimes things that are timeless are out of their time or exactly right on their time.”
Earlier this year, POW MC Chester Watson was one of the first Up NeXt By DX recipients and is set to perform today (December 13) at The Echo in Los Angeles alongside several other artists on the label including Natia (who received a co-sign from Earl Sweatshirt), Jordan Raf and Pioneer 11. Stones Throw instrumentalist Dam Funk and another special guest are slated to headline.
