MCA PROMOTES ITS HIT-MAN

If the music industry handed out a Grammy for hottest record exec of the year, you could throw all the ballots up in the air this year and still come up with an easy winner--MCA Records’ Vice President Jheryl Busby.

The 37-year-old black-music division exec has been largely responsible for the label’s chart resurgence, signing and promoting such young hitmakers as New Edition, Ready for the World, the Jets and Klymaxx, as well as reviving the career of Patti LaBelle. (All five artists had either platinum albums or Top 5 singles in the past year.)

Busby’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. MCA Records President Irving Azoff said the label will announce this week that Busby has been promoted to executive vice president of talent acquisition and artist development and president of black music at the label. It’s more than just a fancy new title. In what Azoff called “an industry first,” Busby will run both MCA’s A&R; (talent acquisition) and artist development departments, two key areas that have traditionally been under separate leadership at other labels.

Busby’s expanded powers represent another first of equal importance, making him the highest-ranking black exec at a major record label. Even in an era when many black performers “cross over” from the black charts to the pop Hot 100, most black record execs find themselves ghettoized in black-music and dance departments, unable to promote, market or publicize most white pop artists.

“I know there are plenty of (black execs) out there who feel pigeonholed,” Busby said. “But maybe this move will signal a new era and set an example for other record labels. It’s good to see that, at least at MCA, there’s a record company that’s willing to make decisions based on ability, not on color.

“I think sometimes that opportunity is the important thing. When I came to MCA, the company didn’t have an established pop roster. And when you’re hungry for some hits, no one makes a lot of distinctions between black and white. So if you’re good at something, then suddenly everybody really starts to believe you’re good at it.”

Azoff downplayed the race issue: “This wasn’t a minority issue at all. This decision was made because of Jheryl’s abilities, not his color. All we care about is getting the job done.”

According to industry insiders, Busby’s promotion was well deserved. As one rival label exec, who asked to remain anonymous, put it: “Jheryl really put MCA on the map when the new leadership over there was really struggling to have some hits. And he’s not only broken a bunch of new black artists, but he’s helped give them a real identity. That way they’ll have a loyal core of fans who won’t abandon them after their first bad record.”

Busby has also pioneered a host of promotion techniques at MCA. When his promotion staffers go out into the field, they’re armed with portable video machines that allow them to play an artist’s new video for individual radio programmers, often long before the artist’s new single has been released.

Busby acknowledged that he’s particularly image-conscious: “This is show business and we’re in the business of selling images,” he said. “Radio guys are like everyone else--they want to know what an artist looks like. And if you can build up your artist’s image, then radio has another good reason to play their record.

“I’m certainly not running around trying to be a music guru. But the way this department is structured now, which will let the people who signed the artists (the A&R; team) have some input into the how they’ll be marketed and promoted, is going to help us get more good ideas from people and make them work.”

Will Busby’s “crossover” success help other black execs gain broader areas of responsibility at other labels?

“You always hope that your work is your real report card,” he said. “It hasn’t always been that way, but when it is, let’s salute it. Maybe someday I’ll be the executive who happened to be black. That’s the way it should be.”