Quality Control Control With Coach K
Coach K is the COO of Quality Control, a highly successful label from Atlanta responsible for the success of Migos and Lil Yachty, whose influence is evident within any club and across radio. It can be witnessed at any of the live shows around the world or online via social media, but it wasn’t always like this. It took them a minute to get to the point where they were recognised as household names.
Before the raging chart success of ‘Bad and Boujee’ or ‘1 Night’ the creative merit of both acts was questioned, doubted, and ridiculed at different points within their career. The internet is a gift and a curse. Within moments you can be internationally known and heralded as ‘the next one’, but you can be bullied into conforming or condemned just as quick by social media and the online ‘rap supremacists’.
Most MC’s will tell you that their come up wasn’t easy. That it was challenging, that they were either dissed, booed, blocked, or told to give up at some point. Despite the challenges, most artists eventually climb their mountain and get to the other side if they have the resolve to get there.
Even though they don’t know it, every hater is a potential fan that needs to be turned, convinced, or won over by a moment that will override any doubt. The high streaming skip rate eventually evolves into the highest searched title. The countless mixtapes and guest features eventually pay off, and there is no doubt that this is the case for Migos and Lil Yachty.
“I’m trying to bridge this gap between America and the rest of the world”
The adversity is the necessary battery in the back for any artist, it’s needed to power the journey down the road to the riches. But that journey also requires a team that will ride with them regardless of what happens along the way. People that will help navigate their journey, guide them, and help aspiring MCs evolve into genre defining artists. Coach K and the team at his Quality Control label do this very well.
Before Coach K secured the signatures of two of the hottest successful Hip Hop acts; Migos and Lil Yachty, Coach K’s own personal journey was equally complex and he had to traverse down his own path of adversity.
This podcast is a priceless insight into what it takes to manage and guide the careers of overtly creative artists. How to find the right artists at the right time, to crack that code, to be the COO of your own label, and launch successful international acts across the world.
Coach K said that “I’m trying to bridge this gap between America and the rest of the world.” Given the speed at which Migos and Lil Yachty shows sell out in the UK and across Europe, it looks like he is already doing this.
Catch Migos and Lil Yachty performing at the O2 Brixton Academy on April 25th /26th. Tickets on sale now.
Subscribe to the ‘Hip Hop Raised Me’ podcast here.
