Kevin Hart Launches Global Multi-Platform Company HARTBEAT With $100 Million Investment

HARTBEAT’s Chief Content Officer Bryan Smiley, Chairman Kevin Hart, CEO Thai Randolph and Chief Distribution Officer Jeff Clanagan.

Kevin Hart is laughing all the way to the bank.

The stand-up comedian turned movie star has proven he has what it takes to shine in the business world as well.

Tuesday, he announced, thanks to a $100 million investment from private equity firm Abry Partners, the expansion of his already formidable media empire.

The new venture, born of a merger of his two current production companies, Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions, will simply be called HARTBEAT.

'"The creation of HARTBEAT and our capital raise with Abry represent a new era in comedy," said Hart in a statement released by the company about the deal. 

"This all started out with a mission to keep the world laughing together, and I'm so proud our teams have delivered on that, putting in the hard work to build the most innovative and inclusive comedic storytelling company."

The new company is reportedly valued at over $650 million. Abry's minority stake in it equates to about 15%. Hart will act as chairman. The existing leadership team from both entities will continue to oversee day-to-day operations. Thai Randolph, who had been the chief operating officer of both Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Productions, was named chief executive.

HARTBEAT will use the investment to grow existing brands, produce new content and grow its team.

"At HARTBEAT, we're building an end-to-end entertainment enterprise that creates, markets and distributes the most culturally relevant IP and experiences in comedy and beyond. The merger and capital raise help us further scale and invest in the future of comedic entertainment, creating more high demand content and experiences at the intersection of comedy and culture," Randolph stated.

Abry Partners partner Nicolas Massard will be joining the HARTBEAT board as part of the deal. NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock, which took an equity stake in Laugh Out Loud in 2020, will remain a shareholder.

The company has 60 projects in various stages of development across various platforms, and in addition to a first-look deal with Peacock, boasts several other strategic multi-year partnerships. HARTBEAT has a film deal with Netflix, a partnership with SiriusXM, and a deal with Audible in partnership with multimedia star Charlamagne Tha God.

Upcoming projects for the company include "Me Time," a Netflix movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Regina Hall, "Storytown" on HBOMax and an Apple TV+ documentary, "#1 on the Call Sheet."

'Stix' Hooper, Co-Founder of Seminal Jazz and R&B Quintet Crusaders, Latest Album Drops Thursday

The Crusaders may be gone, but the man behind the band's beat soldiers on.

Nesbert "Stix" Hooper, co-founder and the only surviving member of the original lineup of the seminal jazz and R&B band, is dropping his latest album “Orchestrally Speaking” on Thursday.

“This new recording features a group of international musicians, reflecting the universal appeal and global influence of music,” said Hooper of the release in a statement which also noted that it features seven tracks bridging a variety of genres from jazz to classical and Latin rhythms.

The artist, who received numerous Grammy nominations for his work with the Crusaders, gathered an all-star group of international musicians to join him, including American flautist Hubert Laws, Russian pianist Eugene Maslov, Swedish guitarist Andreas Oberg and late Brazilian guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves.

Revisiting many of his own original compositions in the process of exploring the orchestral genre results in a record that reflects both the evolution and culmination of the full musical spectrum of Hooper’s career.

“Free of cultural, ethnic, and racial boundaries, it celebrates the artistic camaraderie and integrity that results when kindred artistic spirits share a common bond of personal expression. I’m very excited about it,” said Hooper of the resulting album.

Ueli Frey, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hooper began his career in 1950's Texas when he along with fellow Houston natives Joe Sample (piano) and Wilton Felder (tenor saxophone) founded the jazz and R&B group the Swingsters in 1954.

After a few lineup changes and moving to a jazzier sound, the trio moved to Los Angeles and formed the Jazz Crusaders, along with trombonist Wayne Henderson who had also played with them in their original group. Working with a succession of different bass players to form a quintet, the group went on to have critical and billboard success in the ’60s and ’70s

The peak of their popularity came in the late 70s when the band, now simply known as the Crusaders, released 1979's “Street Life.” The album was the No. 1 jazz album on Billboard’s charts and reached No. 3 and No. 18 on the R&B and pop charts, respectively.

While the title track, which featured Randy Crawford as the featured singer, was a Top 40 single (No. 36). It was also an international hit taking the No. 5 spot on the UK Singles Chart.

A faster-paced cover of the arrangement (see the original video below) done by Doc Severinsen in collaboration with Crawford was used in multiple films, including Quentin Tarantino's “Jackie Brown,” released in 1997.

Art Rupe, who Helped Make R&B Mainstream, Dead at 104

The man behind the man who claimed to have invented rock 'n' roll is dead.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Art Rupe, who helped launch the career of Little Richard, the self-declared inventor of the art form, has died.

According to the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation, Rupe, 104, died this past Friday (April 15) at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. No cause of death was released.

Rupe signed Richard who told Rolling Stone in 1990 that he was the undisputed creator of the hard-driving music style and released one of the genres defining songs and greatest hits with “Tutti Frutti” in 1955.

With one of the most famous openings in rock 'n' roll history, "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop, A-lop-bam-boom," “Tutti Frutti” is one of the most influential songs in rock history. In fact, in 2010, the U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry added it to its archives for preservation, stating that the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music.”

Most music historians cite Chuck Berry, the man the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, itself, declares the “Father of Rock & Roll” on its website, as its progenitor, but that didn’t stop Richard from making audacious claims of its descent until his death in 2020.

"I really feel from the bottom of my heart that I am the inventor [of rock & roll]” Richard told Rolling Stone in 1990. "If there was somebody else, I didn't know them, didn't hear them, haven’t heard them. Not even to this day. So, I say I'm the architect."

It is with great sadness I report the passing at 6:30 this morning of my friend and one of the great men I've known, Art Rupe, founder of Specialty Records and who discovered Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Lloyd Price and other great artists. RIP my friend. pic.twitter.com/fVDPHx06It

— Billy Vera (@billybeater) April 15, 2022

In addition to introducing the world to Richard’s flamboyant, loud and very successful act, as the founder of Specialty Records, an innovative, independent label based in Los Angeles, he helped bring R&B music into the mainstream.

Founded in 1946 in Los Angeles, Specialty gave big breaks to a stable of R&B's finest —Sam Cooke and his gospel group the Soul Stirrers, Lloyd Price and John Lee Hooker among others.

“Specialty Records’ growth paralleled, and perhaps defined, the evolution of Black popular music, from the ‘race’ music of the 1940s to the rock n’ roll of the 1950s,” music historian Billy Vera wrote in the liner notes to “The Specialty Story,” a five-CD set that came out in 1994.

According to the foundation, Rupe was born Arthur N. Goldberg on September 5, 1917, to a Jewish working-class family in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He set off for Los Angeles in 1939 to make his way in the world, later changing his surname to "Rupe" when he learned from his paternal grandfather that this was, in fact, the family name, "Goldberg" having been adopted at Ellis Island.

In 1944 Rupe, who had developed an interest in R&B while growing up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood, founded Juke Box Records to produce what he called “race records.” It was music made by and for Blacks.

The label scored its first hit record with “Boogie #1,” selling 70,000 copies, and by 1946, Rupe had set out on his own. His new label, Specialty Records, helped popularize R&B as well as set the foundation for the emergence of rock 'n' roll.

Specialty Records Celebrates 75 Years of Rock Historyhttps://t.co/Q1PISZYNMv#LittleRichard #LloydPrice pic.twitter.com/u5S5khXTvL

— Archaeological News, Paranormal, Space and UFO (@nevadaknight67) July 25, 2021