It’s hard to get in and harder to stay. To be and remain – relevant, cool, “investment-worthy.” Many labels today tend to invest only in exisiting numbers. There’s a widespread perversion that equates these numerals as measures of talent. There are few enterprises that herald the artist and his/her potential, instead favoring what already has gained viewership.
In 2018 Mike Jean established MLife Music Group. An assembly of world-renown professionals formed in champion of talent. A redirection of focus from what is, to what could be. In March of 2019 MLife signed its first artist, Norman Alexander. One need only hear his voice once to know they’ve heard greatness, but Alexander would not be an MLife artist if he had only one impressive dimension of artistic expression. There are 5-tool baseball players and there are all-tool artists. Norman Alexander is one of finest of the latter.
Valuing Talent
Founder and CEO Mike Jean states, “MLife Music Group was created in acknowledgment of a need. An industry that once was about the music has become about the numbers. Labels of current endeavor to develop artists to have the highest following, the most streams, the greatest amount of likes and views – and in doing so, lost sight of everything else.”
It’s true. The ability to stir hype is typically valued above and beyond musical ability. Sensationalism is gloried and the brilliant are rarely heard. Mike Jean created MLife to stand in support of the eminently talented and lesser known. Fame is hackneyed; no longer reserved for the rare and gifted. Since reality stars stripped the integrity from the moniker, “famous,” those talented few who deserve it, lost avenue to achieve it. MLife Music Group was developed to best lay such a road, and to pave it with the ethos of artistry.
Headquartered in New York, MLife is comprised of world-renown professionals in cinematography, editorial, public relations, production, styling and nightlife. With Mike Jean at its helm, MLife includes three-time Grammy award winner Randy Merrill as mastering engineer, phenom Brian Sheil as music producer, Joseph “Zeus” Theus as vice president of operations and Leonardo Desailly Buissereth as vice president of A&R. Also, Vogue and Weinstein Co.’s Jennifer Heyde as director of public relations, marketing and promotions led by Cendy Pierre, preeminent celebrity designer Henry Picado as stylist and famed photographer Marc Baptiste as art director. And Anna Atkinson as MLife coordinator.
“We cater to the panorama of an artist’s career,” says Mike Jean. “And approach it that way. We value world-class music with real instrumentation. The act of pursuing numbers for the sake of numbers is a hollow pursuit. Great music is followed by great numbers.”
In addition to its core elite, MLife Music Group has an extensive network of influential artists, musicians, producers with whom they work. To name a few among many – industry icon Humberto Gatica whose 17 Grammy awards in music production speak volumes through ages and Grammy-award winning, cool-defining, revered producer and musician, the one and only, Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis.
“I wanted to put together a group of people, varied in profession and titans of their trade, to best shape an artist in his/her career,” says Mike Jean. “At MLife Music Group our mission is to find and develop talent to the fullest degree, a comprehensive and indiscriminate molding of a career in entertainment.”