Tunji Balogun

Tunji Balogun
Alma materPomona College
Occupation(s)CEO, Def Jam Recordings
Websitedefjam.com

Tunji Balogun is a Nigerian American record label executive. He is the CEO of Def Jam Recordings.

Education

Balogun attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts and graduated from Pomona College in 2004.[1]

Career

Balogun began his career as a marketing intern at Warner Brothers Records and was hired as an assistant at the label after he graduated from college. He later held a position in A&R at Interscope, where he worked with artists signed through Bad Boy Entertainment and Shady Records, in addition to Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy Q, Keyshia Cole, OneRepublic, and others. He joined RCA in 2015 as senior vice president of A&R, and was promoted to executive vice president in 2018. At the time of his promotion, RCA announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Balogun, Courtney Stewart, Jon Tanners, and Jared Sherman to establish Keep Cool.[2] The first artist signed to Keep Cool was Normani.[3]

A co-founder of Keep Cool, he was the executive vice president of A&R for RCA Records.[4] Balogun signed or participated in the signing of artists including Brockhampton, Childish Gambino, Goldlink, H.E.R., Khalid, SZA, Bryson Tiller, and Cozz.[5][6]

He was named CEO of Def Jam in August 2021, and assumed the position in January 2022.[7][8]

References

  1. ^ Moore, Camille (August 13, 2021). "10 Things You Didn't Know about Tunji Balogun". Chaospin. Retrieved November 29, 2023.
  2. ^ Payne, Ogden (April 9, 2018). "RCA Announces Joint Venture With Keep Cool And CoFounder Tunji Balogun". Forbes. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  3. ^ Diep, Eric (May 10, 2018). "25 Music Insiders To Follow On Twitter". Complex. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  4. ^ Jones, Rhian (April 9, 2018). "Tunji Balogun launches label JV with RCA Records, as he's promoted to EVP of A&R". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  5. ^ Leight, Elias (November 9, 2018). "Lucky Daye Doesn't Want to Fit In". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  6. ^ Lyle, Ashley (September 13, 2017). "A&R Spotlight: RCA's Tunji Balogun on Working With Bryson Tiller, SZA & Khalid". Billboard. Retrieved June 11, 2019.
  7. ^ Halperin, Shirley (August 10, 2021). "RCA's Tunji Balogun Headed to Def Jam Recordings as Chairman-CEO (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
  8. ^ Eggertsen, Chris (August 10, 2021). "Tunji Balogun Named Def Jam CEO". Billboard. Archived from the original on August 23, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2021.