Artist Discovery Quotes

You can look at someone and get to know their music and say, 'This is someone who I want to work with.'

I'm not an Internet artist, I didn't get discovered on the Internet - I got discovered pushing my mix tapes on the street, walking on foot, going to parties, passing them out.

I'm always going to talent scout and try to find new artists to work with.

When I worked with M.I.A., who was, like, the coolest person back then, she was just a girl I met on the Internet. Or even when I met Azealia Banks on Myspace, I never thought, 'Oh, she's cool.' I just loved what she was doing. So I've always been like that. And I think, as a producer, that's what you've gotta do.

I signed with Kanye back in 2003, and at that time, 'The College Dropout' hadn't even come out, so he was still relatively unknown compared to where he is now. He wasn't a household name; people were still calling him 'Kane.'

I signed Jay-Z because he was on fire. I wasn't a genius. The record was great. I put it on The Nutty Professor soundtrack and we signed him.

I don't want to be an artist; I don't really want to sing - though I do sing on a few songs. But I want to be the guy that presents new music from both new artists and established artists at the same time.

After I found April Barrows, I felt I had found a soul mate. Her stuff is exactly what I was looking for.

Communion was born out of shared frustration in 2006. We felt that although the likes of MySpace and YouTube opened up the playing field for songwriters online, people's discovery of these new artists was only skin deep.

And obviously, when I started out, I had a little bit more curiosity than some, and went seeking out the original artists, or in some cases searching up country music.

Obviously, for Geffen, if it wasn't for us, it's quite possible that bands like Nirvana or Beck would not be on the label.

While working for Diplomat Records, I helped several artists with their online branding and social media. Once I left the label, I worked directly with artists and noticed many artists were overlooked and underrated if they weren't in 'XXL' or 'The Source.'

With *NSYNC, we shopped our deal for a year in America, sang a capella in everybody's office, then moved to Germany for almost two years and became popular there. A guy representing a rock band came to our show in Budapest, saw 60,000 people get excited for a band from America that nobody in America knew, and told someone at RCA.

One of my groupies gave me a film that they made, and it ended up being amazing, so I got it shown at South by Southwest. If I can help get their stuff out there, then great.

My pops put me on to Jay-Z and Kanye, and my discoveries would be like Future and Kendrick Lamar. I turned my pops on to Kendrick, Young Thug. I feel my mom made me play the Isley Brothers and real, real old music.

'Somebody That I Used to Know,' like a lot of the record, was a bit of a struggle to finish. It was written fairly quickly - I wrote it in November 2010 - but it took six months to find Kimbra and really realize she was the right vocalist to make the female part come to life. There were constant hurdles.

They would come down in Mississippi, they hired me as a talent scout. And I would go all over Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and find out different artists for them.

There was a time when radio stations wouldn't play Gaga's music because it was considered dance. Outside of live performances, the Internet became our primary tool to help people discover her music.

It's about finding great artists and being part of their careers.

I'm looking for a deal from one of you TV networks to give Snoop Dogg his own hood TV show where I can find America's hottest hood artists.

I'm always asking friends what new music they're into, and I love showing people new talented artists.

And I took a long time to appreciate Lynch.

After two years in the songwriting world, I wrote 'All About That Bass.' L.A. Reid heard it and signed me as an artist.

It's just a blessing. Artists search and search for songs that will connect for a new artist because the familiarity is so low. People don't know what you look like. It's just so unbelievable to find a song that people are relating to. To have a song that people will actually pick up the phone and call the station to ask. It's a blessing.

Alex [Da Kid] does have diversity, not just in what he produces, but what he hears. He has this knack for finding talented people.