People may not realize what all goes on behind the scenes to make music reach the masses. This is the spot where you’ll see who’s who in the Industry. The people behind the scenes who makes things happen. This will be the section where we feature professionals whom we think deserve the credit and recognition for their hard work that they contribute to this business we call the RAP INDUSTRY..
Each month we’ll bring to you a new professional along with their background.
THIS MONTH’S FEATURE IS: QUINCY JONES III: QD3
Possessing more that just a famous name, Quincy Jones III “QD3” also possesses his father’s knack for being a visionary within the urban culture. The entrepreneur has catapulted his platinum music career into a multi-platform tech savvy media company, QD3 Entertainment, which caters to the urban market like none other.
Since 2002, QD3 Collection has distributed over 300,000 + videos/DVDs via their Image Entertainment distribution deal. The company owns over 2,000 hours of “never before seen” programming, which is distributed through multiple platforms and strategic partnerships including television (recent top-rated BET series, VH1), online, Amp’d mobile and Comcast VOD deal.
Filmmaker/Writer/Producer/Visionary
Founder, QD3
For more than 20 years, QD3, a noted creative visionary, has been producing hits in music and film to celebrate, honor and magnify the hip-hop culture. His career turn into the world of business continues to reflect his forward-thinking ability to turn bling into gold.
QD3 has amassed one of the largest independent libraries of Hip Hop content with over 2,000 hours of programming, much of it rare, exclusive, and never before seen footage. In June 2006, he expanded his media platforms to take advantage of the technology explosion of broadband video, user generated content, video on demand and mobile platforms. As the creative and driving force, QD3 is building the first urban oriented digital media entertainment company.
In 1999, QD3 started QD3 Entertainment, a documentary production company focused on chronicling the many dimensions of Hip Hop culture. Beginning with the multi-platinum selling DVD, Thug Angel, QD3 Entertainment emerged as the industry standard for both commercial success and critical acclaim in the urban DVD market. Following the success of Thug Angel, QD3 began working on the critically acclaimed BEEF trilogy, which provides a definitive look at Hip Hops most notorious conflicts and resolutions between artists. In addition to receiving VIBE Magazine’s Best Music DVD Award in 2003, the popular BEEF series has received rave reviews from publications such as Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone. The success of the BEEF DVDs spawned the highly anticipated BEEF TV Series that premiered on the BET network in October 2006. Other titles from QD3 Entertainment include; The Freshest Kids, The MC: Why We Do It, The Art of 16 Bars, Letter To The President and Black & Blue: Legends of the Hip Hop Cop, released under the QD3 Collection, a division of QD3.
With many gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums and singles to his name, QD3 is a bonafide hitmaker in Rap, R&B and Pop. In addition to his many hits working with artists such as Tupac, Ice Cube and L.L. Cool J., QD3 has remixed singles for artists such as Prince, Ronald Isley, Queen Latifah, Coolio, Naughty By Nature, Everlast and Morcheeba, among others. QD3’s music activity in Film and Television includes scoring the powerful and influential film Menace to Society, as well as songs featured in Gang Related, Panthers and Jason’s Lyric. QD3 composed theme songs for the In The House comedy series, starring L.L. Cool J., Out All Night, featuring Patti Labelle, and most recently The PJ’s, Eddie Murphy’s weekly animated comedy series (for which QD3 received an Emmy nomination), as well as the theme for Grown Ups, starring Erkel. ASCAP honored QD3 with the 1993 ASCAP Composers Award for his work on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, starring Will Smith.
QD3 was born in London and raised in Stockholm, Sweden were he got his start in Hip Hop by touring as a break-dancer. At age 13, he got his first drum machine and started producing demo’s for local Hip Hop acts which eventually lead to producing his first gold record at 16 years old. At that point QD3 packed up and moved to New York to pursue his dream to become a rap producer in America. He spent a year and a half in New York working with old school legends such as T La Rock (1st artist signed to Def Jam) and Special K (of the group Treacherous 3 featuring Kool Moe Dee). In 1986, with Hip Hop still in its infancy, QD3 attended the noted Berklee College of Music in Boston. After one year at Berklee, QD3 grew restless and moved to Los Angeles where he immediately connected with Dr. Dre and a small record label called Ruthless. He began producing with this talented crew that would include Ice Cube, Warren G, Snoop Dogg and many others who would create West coast Hip Hop and change culture around the world.
