Welcome to The Manager’s Playbook, my personal newsletter where I share insights from Music Executives and Artists for aspiring and emerging music managers, executives and artists on how to navigate the music industry. This newsletter is brought to you by Mauricio Ruiz.

THE MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK PODCAST

(FEAT. Steve Rifkind)

Steve Rifkind is the type of guy who makes you realize the “music industry” is mostly just a fancy word for people making decisions under fluorescent lighting.

And sometimes… those people are wrong.

Steve built Loud Records, later SRC Records, and helped bring hip-hop to the front of global culture. But the part I can’t stop thinking about from our episode isn’t the accolades.

It’s how he did it.

Not with a deck.

Not with “content pillars.” (I swear that phrase should come with a warning label)

Steve did it the way most real breakthroughs happen:

Street-level first. Corporate later.

The street team wasn’t a “strategy.” It was a survival instinct.

Steve tells this story about being on the road early.

He’d check into the hotel, then immediately go to the nearest college campus, because his brain would start racing with ideas. That’s where the street team concept started forming for him, because mainstream radio wasn’t even playing hip-hop yet.

Then later, after working with New Edition, when he had $5,000 to his name, he spent $3,000 making booklets to sell the “street team” concept: what it was, how it worked, what he’d charge. He flies out, goes meeting-to-meeting, and comes back with half a million dollars worth of business. Not because the booklet was pretty… but because the idea was real.

Lesson:
If you’re an indie artist or manager with no “machine,” stop waiting for one. Your machine is proximity:

• proximity to listeners (in real life)

• proximity to tastemakers (local DJs, creators, community pages)

• proximity to feedback (what actually hits when you play it for real people)

Corporate playbooks optimize what already works. Street playbooks discover what works.

Wu-Tang didn’t “test well.”

That was the point.

One of my favourite moments: Steve meets Wu-Tang on his birthday. Nine of them walk in to his office. No hook, no polished presentation, just raw energy.

And while they’re performing the record in this small room… a dude in a custodian jumpsuit runs in yelling: “That’s that shit,” then walks out.

Steve still doesn’t know if it was a setup or a real custodian. Either way, the message was clear: the room had a pulse.

That’s street validation. A human being reacting honestly in real time.

Lesson:
If your strategy is built around “not scaring anyone,” you won’t build anything that moves culture.

Wu-Tang wasn’t supposed to fit the corporate mold. Steve didn’t try to sand down the edges. He leaned into the thing that made them undeniable.

That’s a big management lesson too:

• Your job isn’t to make the artist easier to understand.

• Your job is to make the world pay attention long enough to understand them.

New Edition taught him Corporate America… and what to steal from it.

Steve says he was only with New Edition for a year, but it was “the best school” he ever went to because he learned what Corporate America looked like up close.

And he talks about Jheryl Busby (VP of Black Music at MCA Records at the time) like Jheryl was the star.

He was relentless but with quiet demeanour.

Jheryl had a rock behind his desk that read: “Would you still love me if I was cold?”

That rock is crazy. And also… not crazy at all.

Because when the numbers dip, the room gets quiet.

Lesson:
Street-level innovation gets you attention.
Corporate-level systems keep you alive when you’re “cold.”

So yes, you do need systems. But not the fake kind where you build 40 SOPs and still don’t know what your fans actually want.

The real kind:

• Who owns what on the team?

• What happens every week no matter what?

• What gets measured that actually matters?

The building laughed when he brought in Akon. Steve went outside and built him up anyway.

This is one of the clearest examples of street vs. corporate.

Steve tells Universal: “This is going to be the biggest artist of my career.” Everybody laughs in his face. His response was basically: “Fuck you… I’ll see you in a year.”

Then he and his right-hand Gabriel “Gaby” Acevedo split the country, one takes the Northeast with Akon, Steve takes the Southwest with his brother Bu Thiam, because there’s no video and nobody really knows what Akon looked like yet.

And the kicker?

“Locked Up,” Akon’s lead single, breaks in Albuquerque and Utah, which is hilarious on paper and extremely instructive in real life.

Lesson:
Data doesn’t create belief. Belief creates data.

If you’re stuck staring at low streaming numbers, here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You may not have a music problem. You might have a distribution of belief problem.

Meaning: not enough real humans are carrying the record into rooms, cars, group chats, and communities.

If you feel behind on content, behind on strategy, behind on team…

Don’t copy what the majors are doing today.

Copy what Steve did before the majors understood what was happening.

1. Pick 3 cities that act like your “Utah.”
   Not the obvious ones. The ones where the record unexpectedly resonates.

1. Build a micro-street team (5-15 people).
   Not employees but believers. Give them tools and a mission, not “post this link.”

1. Create one repeatable “moment.”
   A listening party, a pop-up, a consistent live series, a community collab. Make it physical or socially sticky.

1. Make your content strategy a documentary, not a performance.
   Street-level always wins because it’s real.

1. Then systemize the wins.
   What worked? Where? With who? Repeat it. That’s your playbook.

Steve’s entire career is basically a reminder that culture doesn’t move because someone approved a budget.

Culture moves because somebody went outside, listened, and built something people could feel.

And if you’re building independently right now (no team, no system, no “machine”) that should be the best news you’ve heard all week.

Because Steve didn’t start with a machine either.

He started with the street.

And then the world had to catch up.

Watch Episode 51 with Steve Rifkind LIVE NOW

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Bio

I’m Mauricio Ruiz, the host and creator of The Manager’s Playbook podcast, dedicated to demystifying the world of music management, and Founder/CEO of 8 Til Faint, an Artist Management company with over 5 billion audio streams worldwide. Our past and current clients include Grammy nominated, Juno Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jessie Reyez, Skratch Bastid and more.

I am also the Co-Founder of Mad Ruk Entertainment, a content agency with over 3 billion long form video streams worldwide. Our client list includes The Weeknd, Eminem, and Celine Dion, along with renowned brands like Nike, Pernod Ricard and the NBA.

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