Ever since his childhood in Queens, New York, where he became immersed in hip-hop culture just as it was starting to form, entrepreneur and advertising executive Steve Stoute has been well aware of the genre’s potential to transcend not only racial boundaries, but also socioeconomic lines. After establishing himself in the music industry as a manager, producer and executive, Stoute coined the term “tanning” to describe the spread of hip-hop culture into everyday, mainstream life.
All of which led in 2011 to Stoute’s first book, the best-selling The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. Following the book’s success, Stoute teamed up with Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman, producers of the acclaimed documentary “Cocaine Cowboys,” to adapt The Tanning into a four-part VH1 docu-series called “The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip Hop.” The miniseries will examine how, as a VH1 press release puts it, “hip-hop became a dominant force in American culture.”
This week, the former Sony Music Entertainment and Interscope Geffen A&M Records executive chatted with The Huffington Post and shared details on his latest endeavor.
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