Agency Intel: ICM Partners Rides The Wave of Urban Pop

What makes Quality Control stand out is that, from its inception, Coach K and Pee have been consistent in identifying and developing talent and with their partners at Motown-Capitol, they’ve been able to control and really dominate what’s considered popular music.

Most impactful shows: Migos headlined major festivals like Smash (Stockholm), Mawazine (Morocco) and Lollapalooza (Paris) and two Rolling Loud appearances this year. They also continue to conquer in the branding space with major television commercials for both Finish Line and Mountain Dew. 

Strategy: The compilation album Quality Control: Control the Streets, Volume 2, was released Aug. 16, with contributions from Migos, Lil Yachty, Lil Baby, Layton Greene, City Girls and Marlo, with guest appearances including Young Thug, Saweetie, Gucci Mane and DaBaby. 

Ari Bernstein (Khalid): 

Khalid is such a special artist because of the way he moves between genres refusing to be put in a box. He has a talent for working with other artists across the musical spectrum and is constantly reminding us that it’s about the music, full stop.

Most impactful show: Lollapalooza Argentina was definitely a career highlight. The audience was so invigorated that they sang every word of every song. It also gave Khalid the opportunity to debut “Suncity,” his first Spanish-language song.

Strategy: Selling out arenas and large theaters around Europe/U.K. in September, including two O2 arena shows in London and a full arena tour of Australia/New Zealand in November/December.

It’s just a pleasure to work with an artist like Jon as far as his work ethic, talent, creativity and vision that he and his management team bring to the equation. It only makes me want to make sure I bring my best to the game as well. He’s one of the most inspiring and special artists that I’ve seen in my 15 years in the business.

Most impactful show: We set up two charity shows in New York for his best friend who was injured in a very serious accident and raised approximately a quarter of a million dollars. Just being there, knowing that as an agent, your business acumen is used more than just for making people money. It’s also for giving people a new lease on life. With Jon’s vision, his management and his family donating their time to help, it was truly just a remarkable event, probably one of the most satisfying days for me professionally.

Strategy: Jon’s currently on his first world tour in over two years in support of his most recent album, Glory Sound Prep. It’s a culmination of everything that we’ve worked towards which had led us to boutique amphitheaters across America and theaters and small arenas around the world. He’ll be in the States until the middle of August and then we start Europe, Australia and New Zealand in late summer, early fall.

Phantom Planet has one of the most dedicated fan bases around. This reunion and new music have been a decade in the making. We started on their roll-out with some underplay shows in Southern California, and they all sold out within 30 minutes of the on-sale. For a band to have been on hiatus for as long as they did, and just to see that kind of rally and fan engagement was really exciting and drove home just how incredible the fan base was and how dedicated they still are to this day.”

Most impactful show: The recent show at The Lodge in Highland Park, which had to be moved from the Resident in the last hour, forcing the band to find a new venue on a Friday night in Los Angeles. It was all hands on deck between the individual band members engaging with fans, me, Mike [Hayes] and management. As our first time in the trenches together, we came out ahead with just a high energy and an incredible, memorable performance by the band.

Strategy: We take a 360-degree approach to everything that we do, including the live side. Every performance has a full marketing strategy, not just to move inventory, but to significantly augment social media stats and re-build our mailing list, and drive consumer engagement to the band via the socials. If you wanted to get tickets to their 

underplay shows in southern California, you had to follow a link to phantompla.net, which allowed us to be directly engaged with our fans. These underplays proved very successful on the West Coast, and we’re planning something special for the East Coast and Las Vegas soon.

Teyana is truly a visionary! I have been a part of her career for six years and watched her grow into a phenomenal performer, actress and director who never takes no for an answer. She has an all-female team at ICM and established an all-female production company, The Aunties. She is a person who doesn’t just talk about it… she’s about it and she is empowering other women.”

Most impactful show: Teyana recently did a high-concept show in association with Red Bull at the Grand Ballroom in New York, “House of Petunia,” which truly showcased how she gets involved in all aspects of the creative direction of her shows. It was a spectacular audio-visual experience and her most ambitious performance to date. She also burned down the stage at J. Cole’s inaugural Dreamville Fest. Accompanied by her husband, basketball star Iman Shumpert and daughter, Junie, who stole the show as the crowd chanted her name. 

Strategy: Teyana is finalizing her next album, a follow-up to K.T.S.E (produced by Kanye West). We are planning a domestic headline tour of theatres in 2020. She is performing alongside Cardi B and City Girls on a series of Live Nation “Femme it Forward” dates in the fall and appearing on several upcoming festivals including New York Pride with Grace Jones, Essence Fest in New Orleans and ONE Musicfest in Atlanta, Ga. 

Kamasi is such a groundbreaking artist, there is no genre to put him in. It’s like we’re in a movie walking around life and his music is the soundtrack.”

Most impactful show: Performing at Jerry Garcia’s 75th birthday. Let’s just say he plays the saxophone. I don’t want to say the style of music, because I don’t know what the style of music is. And I don’t want to have it defined for him and put him in a box either. But 10,000 people go see a person playing real live music that has a jazz influence, and to see how diverse that crowd is, I don’t know if we’ve ever seen that. 

Strategy: In the past year alone Kamasi’s performed and toured with Florence and the Machine, played shows with Alt-J and Sylvan Esso, and did a run of amphitheater shows with Herbie Hancock this summer. On top of playing with all these mainstream artists on large stages, he’s selling 5,000 tickets by himself in London. We’ll continue to develop Europe on our overseas tours and Southeast Asia, and he will be going out on a headline run in the fall.

J. Cole is one of the most authentic artists out there and he has created the same ethos with Dreamville. When you look at the body of work and stable of artists they have, it’s undeniable, showcasing true artist development from J.I.D, Bas, Ari Lennox, EarthGang, Cozz, Lute and Omen from the music to the road.”

Most impactful show: J. Cole’s recent Dreamville Festival was incredible in Raleigh, N.C., which attracted 40,000+ fans. All the credit goes to the Dreamvile team – J. Cole, Ib and Sascha (ScoreMore) – on delivering and executing flawlessly an incredible vision that will only get better.

Strategy: The compilation album Revenge of the Dreamers III was one of the most highly anticipated projects to come out this year. Touring continues to dominate, with Bas coming off a sold-out headline tour of 60+ shows around the world in support of his album Milky Way. J.I.D just wrapped 65+ date sold-out headline tour in North America, followed by a headline Europe run end of this year. and will be direct support to Logic this fall – all on his album DiCaprio 2. Ari Lennox just wrapped her sold-out headline tour in support of her album Shea Butter Baby and just announced European dates. After co-headlining with JID in 2017, followed by direct support to Billie Eilish in Europe in March, and Smino in North America this past April, EarthGang is up next with their album Mirrorland. Lute, Bas, Cozz and Omen will all have new music out within the next six months, as will J. Cole himself.