As a successful producer, marketer and collaborator, Paul Stewart, CEO of Next Thing, has demonstrated a keen eye for both talent and opportunity in the entertainment industry. Def Jam founder and apparel icon Russell Simmons, musician and actor Ice Cube, Academy Award nominee John Singleton, “Barbershop” director George Tillman, and other industry leaders have come to rely on Stewart’s knowledge and expertise to enhance their projects. On his own, Stewart has discovered and developed creative talent both behind the mic and behind the camera.
Stewart’s finely tuned ear for music and story was integral in the creation of the 2005 Sundance Audience Award-winning film “Hustle & Flow.” Producer John Singleton relied on Stewart to craft a collection of original music by up-and-coming and established hip-hop artists. Singleton leaned on Stewart for the critically-lauded Motown-driven sound of the box-office champ “Four Brothers.” Their collaboration extends back to the music direction for the Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson vehicle “Poetic Justice” and the hit “2 Fast 2 Furious.” Stewart has also partnered extensively with director/producer George Tillman, supervising the music for the “Babershop” franchise as well as the period piece “Men of Honor.”
Stewart’s penchant for matching the right song with the right moment is indicative of his ability to pair promising creative talent with the right projects. Prior to the formation of Next Thing, Stewart founded and ran PMP, a promotions company and record label associated with Island/Def Jam and, later, Loud Records. Stewart also ran the marketing and promotion divisions of Ice Cube’s record label Street Knowledge, distributed then by Time/Warner. Stewart's tenure with Ice Cube coincided with the development of the smash hit "Friday."
Through PMP, Stewart discovered and developed numerous multi-platinum musical artists as diverse as Coolio, The Pharcyde, Montell Jordan and House of Pain. Stewart also gave future feature-film directors Dave Meyers, F. Gary Gray, Paul Hunter and Christopher Erskin their first shots behind the camera as music video directors.
Paul Stewart has proven that he is an indispensable ambassador for hip-hop and urban culture and continues pushing boundaries in the medium. Stewart is currently expanding Next Thing’s business to include a Music Library and Brand marketing. Most recently international brand PUMA has brought Paul on to do entertainment marketing and strengthen their ties in the music world.
Next Thing has actively started placing music in major TV/Film/Commercial campaigns. We have recent placements in CSI, Lottery Ticket and a Honda Coup Campaign just to name a few. We currently have a couple of great opportunities for some amazing but not necessarily known indi rock songs. So if your from Silverlake, Brooklyn, Tulsa or Liverpool we will check it out if its good! We also currently have opportunities for Electronica, Hip Hip, Bluesy stuff, etc as well so if your a talented band/artist/producer/composer please send us a sample at placement@next-thing.com
Hi I am submitting songs for an action film currently they have these 2
songs temped in I’m Not Afraid by Eminem and OK ya Alright by 50 Cent (they
can’t afford these songs). So I’m Looking for MC’s to record songs that have
a similar vibe to submit for film. I put links to some of our beats below if
u can record your own vocals and want to try and make a record that has a
similar vibe to the temp track LMK.
Gotta love the new Machete Cinco De Mayo/ Arizona trailer. talk about sending those rednecks a message! Starring all star cast Robert Dinero, Jessica Alba, Lindsay lohan, etc..
Many may have already heard the Mosdub project by Max Tannone because it has made the rounds at many prestigious and cool blogs. We decided to do a short Q&A with Max the creator who is following up on the huge success of his Jaydiohead project (a Jay-Z & Radiohead remix album). I highly recommend going to his www.mosdub.com website and downloading yourself a free copy!
Next Thing: You got a huge internet buzz from the Jaydiohead (Jay-Z & Radiohead) remix album did u expect the reaction to be so strong?
Max Tannone: Not at all. Jaydiohead was a personal project made for fun. The fact that others enjoyed it so much definitely came as a surprise.
Next Thing: How long have you been doing music, are you also doing original productions?
Max Tannone: For the past 8 years or so. For most of that time I worked on making beats, whether sampled or original compositions. I spent a lot of time trying to get beats on major label projects, for rappers, but it was really frustrating. The remixing is a fun outlet - I still get to work on creating tracks, while already having vocals to experiment with. I posted up some random original tracks I did here –> http://soundcloud.com/maxtannone/sets/hors-doeuvres
Also, track 7 (”Too Many Rappers [Max Tannone remix]“) on my Beastie Boys project “Doublecheck Your Head” is a non-sampled track I made.
Next Thing: The Mosdub record is great what inspired it?
Max Tannone: Thanks, glad you are enjoying it. I got heavily into dub reggae music - mostly older stuff. Listening to these great tunes was my inspiration. Sometimes I hear stuff and I want to re-interpret it into a hip-hop context. I chose to use Mos Def because I’m a big fan of his, and because his lyrics are often very political and socially conscious, which is a good fit over dub and reggae tunes.
Next Thing: Whats next?
Max Tannone: I don’t know yet. I’m working on some stuff but its still in the early stages. I had a lot of fun with Mos Dub, so I don’t know if I’m finished with dub yet! I’m always listening for ideas, so we’ll see..
This XX/Biggie Mash up is dope link to download below! My girl DJ Smiles Davis
had put this on her last mix like 6 months ago I guess the whole project was recently finished burning up the interwebs. Also A video from the track “Islands” off the mashup project and the XX video of “Islands”.
Amazing story on Talibs twitter about tracking down his stolen laptop from a Melbourne Australia dressing room, below a screen grab to some of the best tweets when he gets his computer back beats dealing with the cops!! Catch it all here http://twitter.com/realtalibkweli
The douche to the left is the guy who will forever be the clown who tried to steal Talibs Labtop.
Through twitchfilm.net I learned about the trailer for the Serbian shocker “Life and Death of a Porno Gang”. Very ill stuff here super duper NSFW! Not for the easily offended
here is a quote from Fantasia’s head of International Programming Mitch Davis:
Simply put, this is the gutsiest, most shocking film of 2009. It is to Serbian culture what CLOCKWORK ORANGE was to Great Britain. With this film, about a traveling “porno cabaret” who travel from village to village performing unusual live sex acts as a means of sexual confrontation, before taking their disciplines into darker, deadlier places, writer/ director Mladen Djordjevic joins ranks with Gaspar Noé, Lars Von Trier, Takashi Miike and Michael Haneke as one of the most daring and provocative filmmakers working today.
Phil Frost makes paintings and sculptures that usually are a result of collaging and layering of images, along with the formation of hand-made, often symmetrical black and white patterns. These patterns, which are created with painstaking detail and using correction fluid as a medium, offer an appearance that oscillates between modernist designs and primitivism, abstraction and representation.
PHIL FROST | Pale Writer solo art show at:
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
310-860-6263
