A Manager is responsible for the leadership, coordination and overall direction of an individual, team of individuals and/or enterprise. As President of Block Entertainment and former Manager of Superstar Rapper Yung Joc, and Gorilla Zoe,.and Manager of Sonny Digital Rico Brooks leads his team to their current and future success.

Born and raised in Albany, Georgia, Brooks moved to Atlanta to earn an Associates Degree in History from Atlanta Metro College and attended the coveted Morehouse University, housed in the Atlanta University Center, to graduate with a Bachelor of Art in History. Upon graduating, life took a turn and Brooks found himself working as a Sales Associate for Peppermint Music. His undeniable love for music turned his need for a job post-graduation into a full-fledged career of 10 years in music retail. Brooks climbed the ladder from Sales Associate to Manager to District Manager and back to Manager after the decline in record sales.

Brooks’ entrepreneurial drive and leadership skills became even more evident when he formed International Music Distribution (IMD) with fellow industry pioneers, Vince Phillips, Dan Brown and Brad McDonald. IMD opened doors for new artists Lil Scrappy, Trillville and Bonecrusher to get their records heard by a wide audience of music industry tastemakers and record breakers. Brooks determination did not go unnoticed. Russell “Block” Spencer, CEO of Block Entertainment and President of the newly formed Bad Boy South Records, hired Brooks to break records for signed acts, Big Gee (Mechanicsville USA), Boyz N Da Hood, and rising star Yung Joc. Soon after, Rico Brooks became Manager to Boyz N Da Hood (previously featuring Young Jeezy) to his current title as Manager for Yung Joc, Co-Manager for Gorilla Zoe and President of Block Entertainment.

As an Artist Manager and record label President, Brooks is responsible for making executive decisions daily, including: Calendar management, promotion, marketing, radio spins, New Media, publicity, and coordination of Travel Agents, Booking Agents and Publicists to smoothly transition acts from new artist to Superstar. Brooks believes in being an advocate for the artist when dealing with the major labels to fight for what’s needed to strategically brand an artist in the marketplace.

Brooks notes his biggest accomplishment as bringing “new blood into a dying industry” by breaking phenomenal new artists. His persistence is evident when noting the fact that he has broken a new artist every year since 2005 (Boyz N Da Hood, Yung Joc, Gorilla Zoe and new R&B artist JC). Yung Joc had over 200 paid dates in 2007 alone, more than any other rap artist-a testament to the Management team building his career. In 2010, that legacy of greatness continued with the success of music producer Sonny Digital who topped the Billboard charts with the hit single “Racks” by YC featuring Future. Under Brooks direction, Sonny Digital has scored placements with a myriad of top Hip-Hop artists such as Two Chainz (“10 Summaz” featuring Rick Ross), Ace Hood, Gorilla Zoe, Roscoe Dash and Travis Porter, to name a few.

The possibilities are endless for Rico Brooks. Not one to be comfortable in his current position, Brooks plans on developing a career in Movie Production, Branding and Strategic Marketing. As an avid reader, Brooks leaves this advice to others in pursuit of their career path: Learn about the industry, learn other jobs besides yours in the industry, don’t be dispensable and see gems in everyone from the intern to the President.

Take Note!

Great South Bay Music Group Inc was established by Travis McFetridge who's passion for great music and talent is the very reason he entered into the music business to begin with. Travis got his first gig in the music industry during his last semester in Fordham University, working as coordinator of the publicity department of Elektra Records in 2000. Having to juggle night classes four days a week and working full time at Elektra demonstrated his immense dedication to make it in the music business. Coming from a promotions background he worked with Elektra artists such as Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, Third Eye Blind, Metallica and Pantera. While his fellow students in college prepared for graduation and future job hunting he was already working in the exact field he dreamed of working in at a major label owned by Warner Music Group. He graduated from Fordham in the spring of 2000 with a Bachelor's degree in Communications and was ready to begin his long exodus in the music industry.

After two years of working at Elektra he moved into the publicity department of Capitol Records and worked with a band who's debut album "Parachutes" had just landed in the U.S. This band was unknown in the United States at the time but quickly rose to international fame. The band was Coldplay. He also worked with Capitol Records recording artists Everclear, Radiohead, The Dandy Warhols and Idlewild. Other highlights of his Capitol Records experience were working exclusively on the publicity campaigns of The Beatles "1" compilation which was a collection of the Fab Four's worldwide number one hit singles, and the Paul McCartney & Wings publicity campaign for the album "Wingspan" which was a compilation of remastered Wings greatest hits.

In 2004 Travis had the opportunity to switch departments within EMI Music and work for the Sr. Vice President of Urban A&R at Virgin Records. Some of the projects he worked on at Virgin were by artists N.E.R.D., Kelis, Janet Jackson, Gang Starr, Beenie Man and Dwele. In 2007 he made the move into artist management and worked for New York based Empire Artist Management. At Empire Artist Management he handled day-to-day management and tour management for Grammy Award winning reggae/dancehall artist Beenie Man and New York hip-hop legends Gang Starr.

While working at Empire Artist Management a budding independent music publishing company called Ultra International Music Publishing began developing due to Travis' recognition of real musical talent. Some of his and UIMP's first signings were producers of Sean Paul's hits "Give It Up To Me" featuring Keyshia Cole and "We Be Burning" from Sean's platinum Atlantic Records album "The Trinity". Over the years at UIMP Travis went on to sign artists, songwriters and producers like Ginuwine, Beenie Man, Gorilla Zoe, Dorrough, B.G., The Chopper City Boyz, Nate Walka (Jamie Foxx's "Blame It", Trey Songz "Say Ahh"), Zaytoven (Usher's "Papers", Plies "Bruh Bruh", Gucci Mane's "So Icy"), Dru Castro (India.Arie's "Chocolate High", Musiq Soulchild's "Radio"), Butter Beats (Jamie Foxx ft. Ne-Yo "She Got Her Own"), Kidd Kidd (Lil Wayne's "Mrs. Officer"), Ralph Stacy (Mario's "Music For Love") and countless others to exclusive, worldwide co-publishing deals. An important career highlight was in 2009 when UIMP won six ASCAP Rhythm & Soul awards all stemming from Travis' signings.

Needless to say Travis brings priceless knowledge and wisdom of the music business to the table. His dedication to his clients and to music and his workhorse mentality benefits all of those who decide to work with him. Having negotiated major recording deals, administration and co-publishing deals, distribution deals, side artist agreements, producer agreements and management contracts with large music corporations and independent music companies; Travis knows how to get the best deals for his clients. He also knows how to protect his clients, their music and their rights.