2025 Impact 50 Honoree: Brent Smith

BRENT SMITH
EVP & Managing Executive
Wasserman Music

WHERE HE LEARNED THE BIZ: “When I was 15 I got a job working the McDonald’s drive thru in Houlton, Maine.”

During the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Kendrick Lamar delivered a historic, engaging performance packed with symbolism as the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the slot. He was joined by tennis star Serena Williams crip walking (calling back to her controversy during the 2012 Olympics at Wimbledon) and Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam, not to mention a duet from SZA (for “Luther” and “All the Stars”) and a decidedly all-Black posse of dozens of people on stage making for a true, super-sized NFL spectacle broadcast to some 128 million viewers around the world.

Now, Lamar is on tour with SZA, the concept featuring both of them taking the stage as headliners and trading off songs throughout the night. For Wasserman Music’s Brent Smith, who represents both Lamar and SZA, the “Grand National Tour” stands as his biggest achievement of the year.

When prompted about his most impactful initiative, he notes, “Kendrick Lamar and SZA breaking stadium grosses across North America and Europe. Not genre specific.”

The tour launch scored a Top 5 debut on Pollstar’s APX chart in April following its kickoff at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on April 19. Highlights from the trek include two nights at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 8-9 and a run at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles from May 21-23 with special guests Lizzo and Justin Bieber. After the North American leg concludes in June 18, the tour heads to Europe July 2 through Aug. 9.
Smith maintains one of the strongest rosters in the hip-hop and R&B space, with his clients also including Childish Gambino, Drake, Kehlani, Baby Keem, Frank Ocean, Ice Cube, Jack Harlow, John Legend and more.

He credits part of his success to a job working at a famed fast food restaurant in his teens. “When I was 15 I got a job working the McDonald’s drive thru in Houlton, Maine,” Smith says. “Taught me everything I ever needed to know about working in the music business.”