Venus Brown

Venus Brown (real name Darren Floyd, born in San Diego, California) is the executive producer, owner and CEO of Buddah Brown Entertainment, an artist management music label.[1]

Beginnings

Brown began working in the music industry in the late 1980s hosting his own radio show on WKYS in Washington D.C. Brown's radio show later led to an internship at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) D.C. headquarters working in the fields of television production and talent coordination. The internship allowed Brown to write for the BET program Video Soul, where he met R&B artist Patti LaBelle. Brown went on to write and co-produce the Big Daddy Kane and Patti LaBelle's Grammy winning hit, "Feels Like Another One".[1]

In 1998 Brown was signed to D'Angelo's music label, Cheeba Music/Virgin. After the release of Nikka Costa's Everybody Got Their Something and D'Angelo's Voodoo, Cheeba Music was eventually dropped from its parent label, Virgin Records. Tar Baby, Brown's debut album, was eventually released on Boulevard Connection Records out of Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2001.

In 2000 Brown became the musical director for Nikka Costa and toured with Nikka for three years. He also served as the first musical director for Mark Ronson.

In 2002 Brown became the president and general manager of will.i.am music group. In that capacity, he oversaw the production and executive produced multi-platinum albums for The Black Eyed Peas, Fergie and Macy Gray. During this time he and will.i.am executive produced the critically acclaimed "Timeless" album for Brazilian piano virtuoso, Sergio Mendes. "Timeless" featured a wide range of superstar guest performers including Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, India.Arie, Q-Tip, Jill Scott, Mr. Vegas and John Legend to name a few. Timeless spawned the hit singles "That Heat" featuring Erykah Badu and the second single, "Mas Que Nada" featuring The Black Eyed Peas. That song went on to be the theme song for the Brazilian national soccer team during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

In 2006 Brown was tapped by Justin Timberlake to Co-EP/A&R his multi-platinum Grammy award-winning "FutureSexLoveSounds". During this time he also served as manager for multi-platinum Grammy award-winning producer Timbaland.

Brown launched Buddah Brown Entertainment to serve as a record label to release new product, and the first artists that were slated to be released in 2009 were hip hop-R&B duo Ty & Kory, Lyssii (from MTV's Daddy's Girls"). In 2009 Brown signed a multi-year deal to be the international music producer of the High Fashion meets Rock & Roll live television special Fashion Rocks in Rio de Janeiro. The first Brazilian installment of the series included P.Diddy performing for Donatella Versace, Grace Jones performing with Marc Jacobs, Ciara performing with Givenchy and Mariah Carey performing with Calvin Klein, to name a few.

In 2010 Venus entered a partnership with BMG as part of their senior executive roster, hiring A&R executives and signing and representing some of the world’s most successful writers and producers, including Quincy Jones, Bruno Mars, will.i.am, John Legend, Rodney Jerkins, André 3000 of Outkast, and more. Through this union Venus initiated an innovative Producer Management division, 3B, providing a new service catering to managing careers of music producers and the administration of their producer income. He also collaborated with Jason Herbert to create a Brazilian boyband P9 who released their debut album in July 2013 by Sony Music.

In 2012 Venus entered into a joint venture with Sony Brasil by signing, executive producing and managing Brazil’s only and biggest boy-band and the new driving force in Brazil’s youth popular culture, P9. With their debut album released in 2013 P9 has broken the VEVO Brazil record for most views within 24 hours, had two songs on major Brazilian soap operas, accumulated millions of followers across social media, and received countless recognitions including winning a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Best New Artist and MTV EMA nominations. The original soundtrack for the motion picture Spider-Man 2: The Rise of Electro featured one of P9’s songs and took the boy-band on tour across Brazil performing at all national movie premieres. P9 has opened up for superstars Justin Bieber and One Direction in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to hundreds of thousands of Brazilian teenagers.

2013 Venus’s creative and strategic influence extends even further into the world of technology. In 2013 Venus entered into a partnership with 3NOD Electronics in Shenzhen, China. Since its founding in 1996, 3NOD has been valued as a Shenzhen Top 50 Private Enterprise and an innovative industry leader manufacturing for brands such as Pioneer, Logitech, Lenovo, Acer, Puma, Jaybird, HMDX, and many more of the world’s leading consumer electronics brands. This partnership became Buddah Brown Electronics, which is positioning itself to become the leading global consumer electronics brand in its category. Buddah Brown Electronics’ core objective is to provide high quality products with innovative functionality, fulfilling the needs of users worldwide.

2015 Buddah Brown Electronics was recruited by the UN Ambassador Kintu Nyago, Republic of Uganda to create and manufacture 6 million tablets to be used in educational programs in the republic starting in 2016. The global all-business class boutique airline La Compagnie also recruited Buddah Brown Electronics to produce their exclusively branded, top-of-the-line headphones for in-cabin use. This exciting electronics venture has paved the way for further opportunities alongside the partnership with 3NOD, including the manufacturing of electronic products for will.i.am’s technology company, i.am Plus. Brown has also secured funding for i.am Plus from Bertelsmann, an international media company and parent company to BMG Chrysalis, RTL Group, Penguin Random House, and other core divisions in some 50 countries. This funding will pave the way for unprecedented possibilities within technology and music.

References

1. The Source Magazine. The Long Haul by Robert Smith III, Page 30. October 2007.