#194: Capitol Music Group SVP of Brand Partnerships Brian Nolan

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal we welcome Capitol Music Group's SVP of Brand Partnerships, Brian Nolan, to the Upper West Side to discuss his time and work with J. Cole, Migos, Three6Mafia, ESPN and his own division at Capitol, seventeenfifty! A Silver Spring, MD native, Brian talks growing up a hip-hop fan in the Washington, DC suburbs, the lessons he learned caddying for the likes of Alan Greenspan and Mike Wilbon, taking cues from his older brother, chasing baseball-playing dreams to James Madison University where he majored in marketing, finding his way to NYC for an internship at Rawkus Records, and how he focused his sights on the music industry. After a promised-job never materialized, Brian returned to Washington and to the golf course, and ultimately found his way into a mailroom, where he worked his way up from sending records to working them as a field marketing rep in Philadelphia. After earning his stripes putting up posters, Brian graduated to Sony Urban where he rode the tour bus with Juicy J and DJ Paul, helped their record Stay Fly go from 15 spins to fully taking over the airwaves, and saw them win Oscars and go Hollyhood. Brian remembers Jay-Z and Jay Brown bringing J. Cole to the label as one of three priorities from Roc Nation, and reminisces on the work Cole and Ib Hamad and their team put in to go from performing for tiny crowds and in conference rooms for small-city radio programmers to putting huge numbers on the boards, selling out arenas, and becoming a voice of a generation. Brian discusses how he took advantage of a ceiling at his radio job, combined his interests in music and sports, and fostered relationships with athletes and executives alike, using his skillset to make his mark in brand partnerships, and how he leveled up in his new role at Capitol. All that, plus stories about Ruben Studdard, Rembert Browne, Jemele Hill, David Cho, Naima Cochrane, go-go music, Freeky Zekey, Tiger Woods, and much more!