Craig Posey Talks Managing Kenyon Dixon & Curating SXSW Showcase RnB Forever

For independent artist manager Craig Posey, this year’s Grammy season was extra sweet because in addition to celebrating that client Kenyon Dixon received a Grammy nod for Best Traditional R&B Performance, the Recording Academy named Posey as part of its #GRAMMYsNextGen 2024 Class of ambassadors and advisors.

A January announcement from the Recording Academy explains that the #GRAMMYsNextGen 2024 Class “consists of 22 individuals working to forge the future of the music industry.”

On top of guiding the career of Dixon, Posey serves as the community manager at music tech platform Vydia and he’s also the co-founder of events brand RCE, which has overseen collaborations with companies including YouTube Shorts, Complex, Pandora, Footlocker, Microsoft, and Gibson.

RCE and Reflection Music Group are teaming up to produce the second annual RnB Forever showcase at South By Southwest. Put on in partnership with XERJOFF, The Orchard, Black Music Collective and Guin Records, RnB Forever takes place on March 15 at Marlow. The lineup features Susan Carol, Jai’len Josey, Luck, Tempest, Frex, Äyanna and more.

Ahead of SXSW, Posey caught up with Pollstar to chat about RnB Forever and managing Dixon.

Pollstar: What did being named to the #GRAMMYsNextGen 2024 Class mean to you?
Craig Posey: I went to school for marketing on the sports side, so anything I did on the music side, it was all done independently. I never had a mentor. … To be able to work your way through managing artists and clients and on the independent scale to being noticed by the biggest organization in music was super fulfilling and dope. To actually be able to get some recognition from the Grammy Academy, I was like, “Oh, okay. I’m doing something right. I’m still on the right path and this is meant for me.” And it was perfect because my artist was also nominated that year for the Grammys for his first solo nomination and he’s an independent artist. For both of us, we’ve been independent our whole careers … so that was a good moment.

Can you share a bit about your journey as an independent manager?
So I got books, read them, and [went] to networking events – anything I could do to get in the industry. I have a lot of friends in the industry, but they were working in it for a while. Getting into certain rooms, you have to have some type of track record. So even with knowing people it’s hard for them to refer you if you don’t have anything to refer. (laughs) Luckily, my artist was fairly established. …

When I got together [with Kenyon Dixon], I said, “Where do you want your career to be in five years?” [He said] “I still wanna be a touring artist. I love live performance. I want to make music that transcends over generations.” … I’ve learned that the event side and the music side meshes very well. … I’m an event producer so I would put on shows and I would invite [brands] to come see the shows that I want to partner with in the future. But what I would do is have [Dixon] perform at all those shows. So that was an indirect way of getting the relationships versus cold emailing and things of that nature. I think that works really well because almost any company we wanted to work with … once they saw him live it was like “Hey, he has it – let’s work together.”

What’s Kenyon Dixon’s live show like?
[He’s] bringing a new sound that still feels nostalgic … When he started his career as a background singer, it was with Tyrese, Ginuwine, Mary J. Blige, Brandy – all of the R&B greats.

So he was able to learn how to perform from the [artists] people look up to in R&B. [And he] toured the world with Justin Timberlake … So if he’s able to connect on the larger stages, it’s easy to do that on the smaller ones too.

Let’s talk about RnB forever.
So we kind of went back and forth and finalized on [the name] RnB Forever because it’s very catchy. I think long term if we want to do merch, it is something that doesn’t sound like a company name, but like a lifestyle. With RnB Forever it’s perfectly timed now with R&B getting pushed back to the forefront of mainstream popular music.

Last year was our first official one at South By, we had my artist Kenyon and Jade Novah co-headline that one. … This year we have Susan Carrol and Jai’Len Josey performing. I met Susan through Kenyon because she was on our last album that we did. And she came on tour with us, too. And crazy enough they both were nominated for a Grammy this year – and she won. And then Jai’Len Josey I met her through a friend of mine at Pandora. We did an RnB Forever pop-up with Complex in November. Jai’Len Josey also co-wrote “Pressure” for Ari Lennox, which is one of her biggest songs.

Our lineup is a group of very very talented people. … It’s a mix of traditional R&B and some pop R&B but true to R&B elements. … R&B is supposed to be sexy music. When I think of R&B, I think of Ginuwine. I think of Janet Jackson … that era of music so I try to curate the lineup to fit that nostalgia of what you missed about R&B.

How has the genre of R&B been represented at South By?
I feel like the last [few] years prior there was a need for R&B at South By. It isn’t traditionally R&B-focused. … Last year it was our show and maybe one or two other R&B shows. And this year we’ve noticed there’s a lot more R&B, which I’m grateful for and which also means a lot more competition.

What’s next for you?
Things I’m excited about: my client’s second headlining tour, putting out more music, hopefully another Grammy nomination. For myself, being more visible within the music and entertainment space … building our community at Vydia … and scaling RnB Forever. We want to tour it – I have plans on pitching it to do a stage at Essence Festival and every other major festival or moment that I think deserves an R&B stage.