The Rise of Quality Control Music

The American record label Quality Control Music was founded by “Coach K and “P” on March 2013. The label is known for pushing out the hip-hop stars of this generation and taking their artist to unbelievable stardom. The label includes unique icons such as Lil Baby, Lil Yachty, Migos, and City Girls. Quality Control Music also conducts a management agency under the name Solid Foundation Management, which also has some notable clients, including Trippie Redd and Cardi B.

Functioning as managers, studio owners, digital strategists, and label executives, Coach K and Pee became a part of history as one of the notable individuals that contributed hip hop becoming a popular genre in the industry. 

 “Everything we do is in-house,” says Pee during an interview with Motown. “We even got our own producers, our own engineers.”

The Duo Made it possible to control the quality of everything they put out.

Coach K Before QC

Coach K was born on September 1970 as Kevin Lee. Music has always been a part of the COO’s Life. His mother worked at a record-pressing plant that gave him access to new music fresh out of the factory. The day his mother purchased him a copy of “Rapers Delight” by Sugar Gang would start his ongoing relationship with hip hop. After Graduating From Augustine University in North Carolina coach went to Indianapolis, where he would begin to grow his knowledge in music. With his friends, he began a record brand named Universal Stars. Through the brand, he began to learn the elements of the A&R and management world. In 1997 He would later Be Head of the A&R Department for his Friend’s label who played for the Atlanta Hawks.With great success in managing Paster Troy, he would discover his power as a tastemaker taking local performers to heightened stars.

Pee Before QC

Pierre Pee Thomas was born on June 1981. According to sources, Pee was raised in a growing average middle-class family. Thomas always had a big dream of building his empire as he was serious about his career. Thomas explained to sources he will never forget his life before music and the day he decided to take control of his future and became an entrepreneur.

“I knew working for somebody else wasn’t an option for me when I was on parole looking for work,” 

 “I’d fill out different applications and there was this form I had to get sign to verify my job search. I knew the odds of me getting those jobs were stacked against me.”

Due to his trials and tribulations, He began to take notes and educate himself about the music business. His brother Buck was managing Gorilla Zoe, sufficiently known for being a member of the rap group Boyz N Da Hood. With the knowledge learned and confidence gained, he teamed up with business partner “Coach K” to start the record label that would soon change the music game forever.

How It Started

Coach met Pee around the time he managed Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane. Gucci and Pee are close friends, allowing Coach and Pee to cross paths pretty often. Pee owned a record label at the time but would later pause business to focus on running his studio. After gradually building a relationship with Lee, Pierre would later approach K with a request to bring more artists through to his state-of-the-art studio. Thomas invested money in a quality studio and knew that Coach had the appropriate contacts and knowledge to bring the right components to the studio. At the time coach had visions of starting a label of his own and admired Pee’s work ethic. Coach approached Pee with the idea of running a label. Pee was very hesitant due to his experience with his early label “Dirty Dollar”. He Remembers spending excessive money and investing in the wrong things, which would later contribute to his success today. He informed k about his past hardships dealing with the record label. Despite past trials in running a label, Pee decided to trust K and started working together. Going into business, Coach K and Pee made it a point not to follow the changing industry with the numbers game and decided to develop talent organically. Due to social media platforms and the digital age. With the advancing times, Individuals could download any song they wanted for free, which caused revenue in the music industry to plummet. Therefore lakes these days only measure your value by numbers and shares and take less time developing an artist from the ground up. 

The first artist signed to the label was Migos. The hip-hop trio hails from Lawrenceville, Georgia. The group consists of three rappers known as Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff. Migos reached quick stardom in 2013 for their debut single “Versace” from their mixtape Y.R.N.They have released more Hits since then, influencing hip-hop culture. Every year they have made an impact on the charts with singles like “Fight Night” in 2014, “Look at My Dab” in 2015, “Bad and Boujee” featuring Lil Uzi Vert in 2016, “MotorSport” with Nicki Minaj and Cardi B in 2017, “Stir Fry” in 2018, “Walk It Talk It” featuring Drake in 2018 and many more until the present day.

Coach K began working with the Migos after Quavo invited him to his mom’s house to play records to get some input on it. After seeing what the trio hip hop group did in their basement home studio, Coach K called Pee to rave about the body of work he had heard.

The label would later sign bubble gum trap rapper Little Yachty. Yatchy was noticed after his SoundCloud song titled one night was used in a viral comedy video.

 

In Its earlier days, the label did a deal with 300 Entertainment. 300 Entertainment is a record label based in America. The infamous brand was founded by Lyor Cohen, Roger Gold, Kevin Liles, and Todd Moscowitz. The label pushed iconic acts across numerous genres such as hip-hop, rock, pop, electronic, alternative, and country. Artists such as Young Thug, Megan Thee Stallion, Shy Glizzy, and Bailey Bryan are just some of the acts that filled the roster. 300 Entertainment and Q.C. were good until they were not. Then, the relationship halted, and the contract ended due to records being held and work not being processed. Pee explained in an interview with Complex that for 18 months, they were unable to sell products due to the label not releasing them. 

The label would have relations with Motown and Caroline, which are subsidiaries of the capital music group. Capitol Music Group is an umbrella label owned by Universal Music Group. U.M.G. oversees the handling of the signed record labels assigned to the Capitol Records division. 

Pee explained in an interview he had a friend name Q that died. They both got shot at, and Pee was the one that survived. His friend at the time sent him the definition of quality and control, and he loved it. To this day, Q.C. is still killing the industry, pumping out artists of the generation.