The consistent professionalism and visionary genius of Andre Harrell needs to be said! Do you know how YOUNG he was when he left Def Jam (worked his way all up to Vice-President Of Def Jam mind you) to start his own label Uptown Records? 26 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!! Uptown was started in 1986!!!! :)

I was an 80's kid when I first started loving ALL the albums produced out of Uptown. They had a sound of such quality I thought Uptown had already been around for at least 15 years! Notorious B.I.G. was signed on Uptown FIRST before Puff left (now a LEGEND with 28 million albums sold in the United States alone!), GUY was on Uptown (Teddy Riley is Quincy Jones, Babyface level of visionary producing/songwriting excellence), Mary J. Blige was on Uptown (one of the best soulful singers of all-time), Al B. Sure was on Uptown (do you know how talented this man is behind the scenes??), Jodeci was on Uptown (the talent of Jodeci is insane and produced a chain of fruit. There would be no Timbaland, Missy or Static Major....which means no Aaliyah, Ginuwine or Justin Timberlake solo success etc. etc. etc!. Timbaland even was in a band with Pharrell called Surrounded By Idiots in HIGH SCHOOL...yes you read that right! All that chain of success sparked the blessed way with ANDRE believing in the talent of a teenage DeVante Swing in Jodeci! That's how GOD works. :)

Andre heard a 1988 demo tape that Mary J. Blige recorded at a shopping mall kiosk of Anita Baker's Caught Up In The Rapture. He took a humble, but even she didn't understand how beautiful, young lady from the projects and started her journey to become a global household name with NINE Grammy Awards and three Golden Globe nominations. Andre did this countless times...turning raw talent into GOLD or should I say MULTI-PLATINUM! And that man Puffy?.....he went from an intern to being worth over $800 million because of a sophisticated, young professional named Andre Harrell who saw something in Puff the world didn't see first! :) Give him his wings in Heaven. Job well done Sir! :)