GoodThyme Click/MaxaMusic Group is quietly proving that it's possible to be independent and make major moves at the same time.
With the music industry experiencing incomparable change and constantly morphing into new moulds, the trend-makers have never had a quicker path to success and stardom, and they are taking advantage of these opportunities. In 2008, manager/producer/songwriter and music consultant Sean 'Due' Lashley teamed up with longtime friend and associate EJ Albowicz to create GoodThyme Click/MaxaMusic Group record label.
Albowicz, according to a release from the company, started his career as an Ivy League law school-educated entertainment attorney at a major US North-East region firm, focusing on management and contract negotiation within the entertainment and sports industries. In 2007, Albowicz established NorthStar Management NYC which broke into the industry by signing hip-hop acts Wonder Mike and Master Gee of the original Sugarhill Gang and HenDogg as well as Miami-based underground urban phenom GhostWridah.
With record labels transitioning and focusing on "quantity over quality", Albowicz realised that his clientele had become pigeonholed. He decided to form the MaxaMusic Group.
Sean 'Due' Lashley started his music career as an artiste and in 1993 he was signed through hip hop superstar Heavy D to Tuff Break/A&M Records as The Babalu Bad Boy. Shortly thereafter, Lashley's interest shifted from artiste to full-time producer. Introduced to the drum machine at a very young age, he began producing records for artistes as E-40, Dirty South, Kokane, Bar-bee, Baby Cham, Jadakiss, Lukie D, Half Pint, Amil, Jay-Z, Beenie Man, Cl Smoove, TOK, Mr Vegas, Truck Turner, Total, Melyssa Ford soundtrack Treach (Of Naughty By Nature) and Alicia Keys (reggae/dancehall remixes) as well as a number of motion picture soundtracks.
His friend Jeff Robinson recruited Sean to join MBK Entertainment, the management/production team for Alicia Keys, Lyfe Jennings, Jermain Paul, Latoya Luckett, Black Buddafly and others. For the next 10 years, Jeff Robinson mentored Lashley through the mountains and pitfalls of the music business. Utilising his cutting-edge production philosophy and management skills, in 2008, Lashley founded GoodThyme Click as a production company for the elite and most talented. Later that year, Lashley and Albowicz agreed to enter into a joint venture record label arrangement, GoodThyme Click/MaxaMusic Group. Its impact is being felt with the release of the single Woman (Weapon Riddim) by Beenie Man, which is making its way up the Caribbean dancehall charts and beginning to receive domestic radio play in the US.
The producers have since released two more singles on the riddim, Wine for me by Vybz Kartel and The Holding Power by Tifa. The Weapon Riddim singles are scheduled to be released as a compilation just in time for the December holidays. In addition to the artistes previously mentioned, the compilation will include Busta Rhymes, Black Buddafly, Jimmy Cozier and others.