t 19, Bryant Scott took the reins of Tyscot Records, the oldest African American owned international record company in the nation, and so many years later, he has never let go. Using his savvy business and creative skills, Scott catapulted the label’s sales to over $3 million when sales had previously been less than $100,000. Tyscot has had great success in the music industry with artists like John P. Kee, Rance Allen, Deitrick Haddon, GMWA Women of Worship and so many others. Coming off the critical acclaim of Deitrick Haddon’s “Blessed & Cursed”, Tyscot is moving more toward film and is looking to several future projects. In an interview with AIRPLAY 360, Scott discussed all kinds of transitions, from traditional to contemporary, from music to film. LM: How have you seen the transition in gospel? BS: I’ve seen a new fresh movement of the Holy Spirit. You know I’ve been around for so long. I’ve seen when it used to be all traditional and we had John Kee and that was contemporary back then. We’ve seen a young lady Jai perform and people like Deitrick Haddon. It’s a new fresh move of God. It’s worship but it still has an edge to it and I love it. LM: Now, I know that you have some artists on your label like Deitrick and Damita Haddon and they’re kind of have their own thing going on. How do you manage having those traditional artists and then the edgy ones. BS: We try to do what God leads us to do. But inevitably, we’ve been blessed to have a full array of artists from jazz artists to the very contemporary to those you can’t even categorize yet but they’re (still) singing about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, then, I can never break away from my roots. We even do hymnal albums with my dad (Dr. Leonard Scott). And then we have Rance Allen and Shirley Murdock. But I don’t know if you can call Rance or Shirley traditional. You know they’re contemporary from way back, they’re just the heritage contemporary artists. LM: With Tyscot being an independent label, how have you seen a transition with so many different media outlets opening up and so many artists being able to do so much. How do you guys stay on top?
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BS: Well we’ve actually entered into the new medium of film. We’re trying to do films and soundtracks and God has blessed us with our first movie and it’s on Showtime the Movie Channel and TV One picked it up and it’s just great. I think God is moving us in an area of scoring film and seeing the acting abilities of our gospel talent. LM: So is Tyscot going to become kind of like Sony/Columbia where you have the artist music side and then the film and TV side? BS: Prophesy. Prophesy. LM: So this movie venture is not a one time thing? BS: Honestly we did it as a one time thing. Deitrick asked for money to do a film instead of a music video and we did it. People don’t know the success we’ve had with this movie (“Blessed & Cursed”). It’s been so great that we’ve launched a new CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
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