Steve Stoute was born in Queens, New York in 1971. He briefly attended Syracuse University before leaving for a position as a band manager in 1990. He became involved with the production team TrackMasters and worked on songs for such artists as Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, L.L. Cool J. and Will Smith.
Stoute became an Artists & Repertoire (A & R) executive with Sony Records and then for the Interscope label. In 1998, he became President of Black Music at Interscope. He is probably best known as rapper Nas' manager. After having mild success
with his first album, Nas hired Stoute and his second album went double-platinum.
Music was not the only field in which Stoute excelled in. He founded his first marketing company, PASS, with Peter Arnell in 2001 and a year later the two sold it to Cultura. Stoute then teamed up with hip-hop mogul Jay-Z to form Translation Advertising, an agency that aims to help mainstream companies reach multicultural consumers. Some of their successful pairings include Hewlett-Packard with Gwen Stefani and Beyonce Knowles with Tommy Hilfiger.
with his first album, Nas hired Stoute and his second album went double-platinum.
Music was not the only field in which Stoute excelled in. He founded his first marketing company, PASS, with Peter Arnell in 2001 and a year later the two sold it to Cultura. Stoute then teamed up with hip-hop mogul Jay-Z to form Translation Advertising, an agency that aims to help mainstream companies reach multicultural consumers. Some of their successful pairings include Hewlett-Packard with Gwen Stefani and Beyonce Knowles with Tommy Hilfiger.
