And that began my lifelong friendship with Chuck D.Īfter that first meeting, every time Chuck would come to Denver, we would hang out.
Then Public Enemy finds out that the promoter doesn’t have the correct DJ equipment, so to help – I offer them use of my DJ equipment. So, I hang out with Dave and Chuck D, and Flav, and Terminator X, and we go to the venue together. “the next day, I could not get that conversation out of my head. Then one day, Dave calls me and says: ‘Hey, I’m coming to Denver with the guys they’re playing a show. So is released and becomes a hit, and then the album is released and becomes a classic. In fact, every time I play it, it gets a bigger and bigger response. The following week, I play it again, and it gets more response. I play it at home when I’m practicing, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a different sound that I’ve never heard, I don’t know if it’s going to work in the club.’ But I play the song anyway, and it gets a response. One day I got a call from Dave, and he says: ‘Hey, can you do me a favor? If I send you this record, can you play it at your parties?’ I was like, yeah, sure. Dave is sending me records from time to time, telling Def Jam, ‘My friend in Denver is the guy! He plays all the rap records out there!’ Dave somehow gets a summer internship with Def Jam, and then ends up getting hired full-time. There’s a guy from Denver named Dave ‘Funken’ Klein, who would come to my parties. 2) Public Enemy No.1 (1987)īy this point, I’m an established DJ in Denver, and I’m playing at this club called Norman’s Place, to teens and college students. However, at the beginning of the show, this young kid comes out and starts dancing and getting the crowd going, just killing it.įast forward many years later, that young kid is one of my closest friends – Jermaine Dupri. And that’s how I began to meet people like Lyor Cohen, Bill Stephney, Bill Adler, these Def Jam / Rush Management legends.Īs I’ll explain to you later, when I was DJ’ing in Denver, Def Jam started sending me records that’s how it all kind of started coming together.Ī funny story about the show was that the line-up was The Fat Boys, followed by Whodini, and then Run-D.M.C. I met in Dallas I went out of my way to find what hotel they were staying in and booked myself into the same one. So my friends and I drove to Dallas to see Run-D.M.C five of us in my Ford Granada.
They weren’t playing in Denver, but they were playing the Fresh Fest in Dallas, Texas, at the Six Flags amusement park. “my friends and I drove to Dallas to see Run-D.M.C five of us in my Ford Granada.”įollowing the release of the Raising Hell album, Run-D.M.C went on tour. And then after a 12-inch called Together Forever – which was recorded in a park or something – everything Run-D.M.C did, I was in. When the album came out, I could not stop playing it. But Run DMC was the first group that I loved. There were other hip-hop songs that I liked, whether it was Sugarhill Gang or Kurtis Blow, and I was a big fan of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. These were the days when artists would do an A and a B side: Sucker M.Cs grabbed me first, then I discovered It’s Like That was just as good. When this record came out, I was an aspiring DJ, I might have been 18 years old, living in Colorado. Run-D.M.C – the image of Run-D.M.C, what they meant for someone my age at that time – was life-changing for me. Here, in Jon’s words – and in the order he picked them – are his personal Key Songs, and the stories they inspire… 1) It’s like that, Run DMC (1983) (Platt’s running that major music company rather well: According to MBW’s read of Sony’s fiscal results, Sony’s global music publishing operation, of which Sony Music Publishing makes up the vast majority of operations, generated USD $1.72 billion in 2021, up 19.7% YoY.) They also told us much about how seriously he takes his responsibility (a) in supporting songwriters, and (b) as the sole African American executive running a multinational major music company. Jon’s answers, and the autobiographical stories behind each one, told us more than we bargained for about his upbringing, his entry into the music business, and what makes a true musical genius in his eyes. We set him an impossible challenge: Whittle down all of the amazing songs he’s heard in his time on earth so far, and highlight just a handful that have had the biggest impact on his life, and who he is as a person. While MBW was in California recently, we visited Platt in his office at Sony‘s L.A HQ. 1 music publisher in the global league table. And, sure, all of them have sold ‘quite a few’ records over the years.īut they’ve also each soundtracked the existence of Jon Platt – from fourth grade, all the way to Chairman & CEO of the No. What links Run DMC, Queen, Eminem, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jay-Z?