It’s a sweaty summer day in 2003. Tallahassee is vibrant with a fresh import of anxious Florida A&M University (FAMU) students. A bus shuttles the new ‘Rattlers’ on a mall trip, when a few students in the bus interrupt the still, nervous air. Amir Windom (“AW”) and Maurice Slade (“Moe”) were doing what they naturally did– cracking jokes. Comedy was probably the first thing they realized they had in common. The second was music. It was this comical introduction to a friendship that would push them to achieve more than most under the age of 30. A decade later, the two college friends sit in a hotel room in Washington, D.C. clowning and catching up. AW traveled to D.C. to speak at an event during the AT&T Nations Football Classic. Moe is in town to DJ the hottest traveling party on the east and west coast, “Grits & Biscuits”. AW and Moe are the cool, creative guys behind some of the hottest artists and brands in the music and entertainment industry. If you don’t know them, here’s your shot.
Thanks to his dad working at Delta Airlines, AW saw a much bigger world outside of Decatur, Georgia. A born and raised “ATLien,” AW grew up around music, art and culture. His first taste of business and music was naturally from his parents. Whether hearing his mom jam to Gil Scott Heron, Hiroshima or Smokey Robinson while cleaning the house, or watching his dad submit a proposal to the Department of Cultural Affairs in Atlanta that later turned into the Atlanta Jazz Festival; the entrepreneurial spirit and the love of music was always around him. AW was a gifted athlete that had the cliché dreams of playing in the NFL. Can we thank the music gawds he didn’t? Fast forward a few decades, he’s a record executive, TV and film music supervisor, marketing executive and consistent philanthropist and humanitarian. He has worked at record labels such as Atlantic Records, Def Jam Records and Bad Boy Records, and he has assisted in creating music and developing brands for artists such as Fun, T.I., Bruno Mars, Lupe Fiasco, B.o.B, Madonna, Trey Songz and Kanye West. read more…
