Noun: taste-maker [tast-mak(r)] 1. Someone who popularizes a new fashion. 2. Someone worthy of imitation. 3. A person who rules or guides or inspires others.
Ladies and Gentlemen meet Mr. "Impeccable tastemaker" himself Kenny Burns THE MUSIC MAN "I'm always going to do music. It's in my blood." A Washington DC native, Kenny Burns started promoting parties while still in high school. When he moved to Atlanta to attend Morris Brown University, he started his own company, 2620 Music, and monopolized Atlanta's party scene in the mid 90's. Based on his track record of breaking unknown talent in the Atlanta market, like Notorious Big and Black Moon to name a few, Claude Austin, then president of Rowdy Records hired him to promote Monica's debut album. With Kenny's help, Monica went on to sell two million copies of her debut album "Miss Thang". For his next feat, Kenny helped promote Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt" album to its initial certified gold success.
Soon after, Kenny found himself moving to NYC and learning the music business from Andre Harrell at Motown Records. "Dre taught me how to take my creative vision and make it tangible." In 1999, Kenny moved to LA and was the brainchild behind the girl group Dream. There debut album, "It Was All A DREAM", went on to debut at #2 on the billboard charts and sold over 2million copies to date.
Eventually Kenny rose to the ranks of executive, serving as a Vice President at Mariah Carey's Monarc Music (Maroon Entertainment) and later at Roc-A-Fella records, where he mentored Kanye West, Young Gunz, Allen Anthony, Samantha Ronson and Nicole Wray. "Damon Dash and I were friends from way back in the Reasonable Doubt days. I gave him the script Paid In Full as well. It was a no brainer when he asked me to join the team."
In 2005, Burns founded his own boutique label: Studio 43, and landed Wale as his first signing, which has brought national attention to the Washington DC Metropolitan Area in the Hip Hop arena. "I've always wanted to give my city an identity in music." Now he is gearing up for what he calls the future, 18yr old multi-talented artist MARKY!
