Profile: Michael Mauldin

Mauldin

by Moe White

Michael Mauldin is well known in the music industry for many things.

He was an R&B performer as a young man, then a renowned sound technician in the 1970s, a powerful producer for CBS Records, and the father of popular star and producer Jermaine Dupri. His odyssey from a youth in rural Murphy, NC to the top levels of the entertainment industry began almost by chance. We interviewed him one Sunday while he was visiting Asheville, staying at the Haywood Park Hotel with his wife and family.



Like
teens in small towns everywhere, Michael wanted to get out and get
away, and boys from Murphy tended to come to Asheville. He played drums
and sang with his own high school band, The Other Side – integrated
even in the 1960s, with two blacks and four whites – and Asheville
offered more opportunities to perform, a livelier night life, and, of
course, more girls. When he finished high school in 1971, he had
already made plans to attend NC A&T, where he anticipated studying
political science and being a pre-law student. But at the last minute
he changed his mind and enrolled in the DeVry Institute of Technology
in Atlanta, where he began studying to be an electronic technician.


An unexpected,
but necessary, marriage to his girlfriend sidetracked him, and when he
came home for the wedding he also took his first job, at the Magnavox
plant in Murphy, where Jermaine was born in Sept. 1972. For the next
three years, living first in his hometown and later at the new Bingham
Heights public housing development (now Woodridge Apartments) in West
Asheville, he toiled at Magnavox and Dave Steel, still playing with
bands whenever he could. And then serendipity, in the form of a
broken-down car, pulled him back into the music world.


Michael was
friends with the group Brick, which had a regional hit, “Dazz.” They
were on their way to Savannah for what promised to be a big concert
when their car, carrying all their equipment, died on the road. They
called Michael, who had a van, and offered him a chance to play – if
he’d use his van to transport them. His knowledge of sound systems and
his willingness to set up, wire, and help organize the concert, led to
his becoming a stage manager, and he soon realized that he could make a
living in production – if he stayed in a big city like Atlanta.


He worked the
Kool Jazz Festival, met engineers for the famous LTD orchestra, focused
his energy on lighting, staging, and sound control, and soon started
his own company. He became known for his fast “pit stops” – getting a
band on and off stage faster and more efficiently than anyone else in
the business.


Now, as
president of Mauldin Brand Agency, he hosts a national “Mall Search”
for new talent aged 12-22 (or so). He seeks out singers, rap artists,
duos and groups asking “R U The Next Scream Star?” The most talented
youth will join the Scream tour, focused on multicultural urban artists
who will be invited to perform at arenas such as Madison Square Garden.


UNO: How did you get into this end of the music business?

MM: I always
loved racing, and I was known for my pit stops. So I created MTM
Roadworks, and that’s what I built my reputation on. I worked with
Sister Sledge, and that led me to meet promoters, and I got to work
with Earth, Wind & Fire, and then became road manager for the
Jacksons and production manager for Luther Vandross, Anita Jackson, all
sorts of people.


UNO: Where did that lead you?
MM: Around 1985
the hip-hop sound started getting popular, and I was asked to stage a
national tour called the Fresh Festival. I got involved with the youth
then. My son Jermaine was about 13 and I let him open the show – he was
already a talented musician. Then in ’88 he was ready to do his own act
– he was 16. And we did “Silk Times Leather”, which was for Geffen
Records. And then in 1992 he got his big break with Kris Kross’s
“Jump”, which he produced. So two or three years later I helped
Jermaine set up his own production company, mixing tapes for So So Def
and producing Mariah Carey.


UNO: But at some point you got another big break of your own, right?

MM: In 1995 I
became president of Columbia Records Urban Music Group. Mariah was part
of that. There are so many people I’ve worked with, Alicia Keys,
DeBrat, Destiny’s Child, all sorts of talent.


UNO: Looking at
other young people – not just Jermaine, but kids now who want to get
into the business or even just get out of a small town – what would you
advise them?

MM: There are
opportunities everywhere. If I were into music with a band and a
manager, I might stay here [in Asheville] and develop it. A person can
now stay and reach out in a different way, producing CDs without having
to be in a major studio. But New York and Los Angeles are still the
buzz places; it’s still important to know executives, to have
relationships in the business system.


UNO: How different is that from when you were growing up?

MM: In the ’60s
and ’70s, there were club opportunities everywhere, but not recording
opportunities. You needed recording to take you somewhere, and you had
to go somewhere to record. Now you can do it without leaving home. But
networking is still important.


UNO: And how does Asheville strike you these days?

MM: I like the
way Asheville has changed. It has street life, cafés, it reminds me of
Georgetown in Washington. It’s a great cultural community. But it’s not
home to me the way Murphy is. When [my wife and I] decided to build a
house, we thought of putting up just a weekend cottage in the
mountains. But the more we visited, and came home and saw the
mountains, the more we realized we needed to build a home here. So we
ended up with a full-time home on several acres of beautiful land. But
it’s not here in Asheville, it’s in Murphy. That’s home.