![]() ![]() And Eshak and Majid are in continuing contact with Blackwell to keep him, in his own words, “in the mix, as it were, because I might have some ideas and things that can be valuable.” That seems likely to involve projects with Island’s catalog - “a lot of the stuff from 20, 30, 40 years ago that still sounds really great and really fresh, and hasn’t been heard,” he says - but the two co-CEOs are taking something just as valuable from the relationship, too. In partnership with Universal, he’s building a recording studio at GoldenEye that will be available both to Island’s artists and to the local community, so that Jamaican artists can also have a place to record music (one of several initiatives he has fostered at GoldenEye for the local community). Now, Blackwell, who hasn’t been operationally involved in Island in decades, seems eager to get back into the fold. Imran Majid, Chris Blackwell and Justin Eshak Courtesy Photo ![]() So many of the record labels don’t even exist anymore, and it’d be great if Island can continue to grow. “I was thrilled to meet them, honestly, because I’m keen that Island should continue to grow and evolve. “It was a great opportunity to meet two guys who have had a strong career already and yet were still young and vital,” Blackwell says. Now, with Eshak and Majid coming in, Blackwell is keen on seeing them continue the Island legacy. ![]() Before he left in the mid-1990s, he sold Island to PolyGram, the forerunner of the Universal Music Group, and has seen it shifted around into a series of umbrella collections, rolled up into the Island Def Jam Music Group, then unbundled into its current iteration - which has changed leadership several times in the past decade. ![]() He seemed very energized by it when we met him.”īlackwell, of course, has seen regime change at his label before. “But it was thrilling and very important to us that he did care, and that he is still very interested in the label and its future. “If I’m being honest, we didn’t know if he was going to care who we were,” Eshak says, sitting in the Island Records office in Manhattan. So when Eshak and Majid finally made it down to visit Blackwell, 85, for a few days in December, it was with a nervousness that comes with meeting a titan of industry, one who not only shaped the music business of his era, but was an inspiration to many who came after.Ĭhris Blackwell, Angélique Kidjo and Arvo Pärt Celebrated as Laureates at Sweden's Polar Music Prize An idyllic property, GoldenEye is also steeped in history - not unlike Island Records itself, the legendary label home to the likes of Bob Marley & the Wailers, Cat Stevens, U2, Roxy Music, Melissa Etheridge, Grace Jones, Steve Winwood and countless others during Blackwell’s tenure. The duo finally got the chance over the holidays, heading down to Blackwell’s Jamaican resort GoldenEye on the island’s north coast, so named because it also happened to be the place where Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond books through the 1950s. But there was one thing on the to-do list that was of paramount importance: meeting Chris Blackwell, the iconic mogul and businessman who founded Island more than 60 years ago in Jamaica and shepherded it through its glory years in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s before leaving the company. When Justin Eshak and Imran Majid accepted their new roles as Island Records’ co-CEOs last year, the duo had plenty to prepare for. ![]()
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