By Kevin Jackson—
Former music executive Karen Mason hopes the advice she gave to finalists in the Digicel Rising Stars competition last weekend, will help them develop careers.
Mason, who helped propel reggae and dancehall music to international heights in the 1990s, was in Kingston as a guest judge for the popular talent series.
“Any opportunity to come to Jamaica and to participate in particularly the art world and culture, moving things from point A to point B, I will be there. I was honored when I was contacted to be a part of the judging panel because a lot of the work that I do is about teaching and showing artists how to really understand and navigate this music industry,” Mason said. “In the US, we are working on a digital landscape. I would tell the talent here in Jamaica to not focus on the US, but focus on positioning our art and talent in a global kind of way.”
Born in Reading, St James, Mason worked with the likes of Tracey Chapman, Kris Kross, Cypress Hill, Sade, Super Cat, Busta Rhymes, En Vogue, Gerald Levert, The Fugees, Terror Fabulous and Mary J Blige, while at EastWest/Elektra and Columbia Records.
After studying at Syracuse University in New York, she relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. She returned to New York to work in the promotions department at Epic Records.
“When I started at Epic Records, the Michael Jackson record Man In The Mirror was the project that the promotions department had begun to work,” she recalled.
Her stints at Columbia was as marketing coordinator, then product manager and director of marketing; at East West/Elektra, she was vice-president of marketing.
The first artist Mason worked with at Columbia Records was Super Cat.
“Super Cat had a team headed by Robert Livingston. We weren’t going to change Super Cat and we weren’t trying to turn him into a hip hop artiste. When we did a hip hop mix, it wasn’t a mix that changed the music. It was one that was complementary to what he was. We positioned him side by side to the hip hop artistes. Dancehall had a spot next to hip hop in terms of its impact, originality and authenticity,” she said.
At East West/Elektra, Mason steered reggae/dancehall music in the American mainstream. She worked with Snow, Beres Hammond, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Nadine Sutherland and Terror Fabulous.
She spoke about the current state of Jamaican music.
“There’s a lot of reggae-influenced music going on right now. We just haven’t had the breakout act like we had with Shabba and Super Cat. There needs to be more infrastructure there so that the labels and independents understand how to market it and position it without diluting it. When we did Terror and Super Cat, I understood what to do. But labels don’t always, and when it doesn’t quite happen, they give up,” she explained.
Today, Mason works as a consultant and music supervisor for film and television out of Atlanta.
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