Strategies for Creating a Hip Hop Production Company

In this discussion, Loyola University, New Orleans music business professor and entrepreneur George Howard advises student Kelvin Brown on the formation of his hip-hop production company, Third Shift Entertainment. Howard describes the three major types of business entities (sole proprietorship, corporation, and limited liability company (LLC)), and offers suggestions on which will best protect Brown’s assets. Howard also discusses the importance of having a strategy to achieve long term business objectives, and uses case studies to demonstrate ways in which other hip-hop producers have created successful partnerships with rappers.

Kelvin Brown, a student at Loyola University New Orleans and a hip-hop producer, shares some of the lessons he’s learned as he’s made his way in the business so that others can do the same.