Despite suffering from dyslexia and nearly getting expelled for fighting with the principal, Rifkind graduated from high school, but after only three days at Hofstra University he dropped out to work for his dad at Spring. Still a teenager in 1979, he helped promote the FatBack Band’s “King Tim III (Personality Jock)”—one of the first hip-hop records ever, predating “Rapper’s Delight.” Rifkind eventually became the vice president of promotion at Spring. (DJ Scott La Rock, of Boogie Down Productions fame, was his intern.) When he was 24, Rifkind moved to L.A. to manage New Edition for a year before he started doing promotions for indie label Delicious Vinyl. In 1987, he went into business for himself and started the Steve Rifkind Company, promoting records for acts like Boogie Down Productions and Leaders of the New School.

By the early ’90s, the Steve Rifkind Company was billing hundreds of thousands of dollars doing retail, radio, and video promotions for indies like Delicious as well as major labels like RCA. Along the way, Rifkind discovered “street promotion,” which bypassed all three forms and focused on things like word of mouth, getting music in the hands of urban “tastemakers,” and plastering stickers and posters for upcoming albums anywhere rap fans might gather. Thanks to his upbringing, he understood both hip-hop and the music industry. Rifkind began growing a national network of street teams but eventually realized he was better off starting his own label rather than solely promoting acts for others. He founded Loud in 1992 with his childhood friend Rich Isaacson but kept SRC’s lucrative street promotions teams open for business. “Any rap record from 1989 to 1999, besides [ones on] Death Row, we did promotions for it,” says Rifkind. “We had our hand in everything.”

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