Lily Rose taking over the country music scene with unprecedented finesse has made her become one of the memorable breakout stars of our time.
The talented singer, songwriter who has been involved in the music scene for the past 13 years while doing part-time jobs to stay afloat finally got signed by the best in the business.
Big Loud Records, Back Blocks Music, and Republic Records announced exclusively with Variety the signing of Lily Rose to a joint-venture record deal.
The great news came after Lily Rose’s debut song ‘Villain’ showed promised across all social media portals, streaming, and sales platforms.
“To say I’m excited and humbled to be a part of the Big Loud/Republic family is an understatement. You move to Nashville to sign deals like this, make music videos like these, and write the best songs possible. Hell, we’re just getting started.” Rose said.
Music publishing executive Rakiyah Marshall who recently launched her company Back Blocks Music, an independent music publishing and artist development company late last year is grateful to Lily Rose for taking a chance in her by answering a random email that she sent her.
“I’m so thankful this girl answered my random email in Nov after just starting my company and helped my worlds collide into the best team! The fun is just beginning,” Rakiyah Marshall shared on social media.
Lily Rose is more than happy to have found a place she can call home in Big Loud and Republican after signing with them.
“Never in a million years did I think I’d find a label family like this one. The second I met the Big Loud and Republic teams, I felt right at home.
I’m so excited and humbled to share that I’ve signed a RECORD DEAL with Big Loud/Republic Records in partnership with Back Blocks Music.
It’s been 13 years in the making, 10+ part-time jobs, and I couldn’t be happier with the timing.
With this new opportunity, I can’t wait to keep bringing people together with my music and allowing fans to deeply relate to my songs. There is sooooooo much we’re about to throw at you guys. Y’all sure you’re ready for it? LFG!!!!!!!!!” Lily Rose shared on social media.
“The Country music business is on fire right now, and artists are breaking independently faster than ever before.
Big Loud couldn’t be more excited to work with Lily Rose, who’s emerging from this pack of newcomers.
Her voice becomes familiar after just one listen, and to pair that with her catalog of amazing unreleased songs, we believe she’s an artist who will be around for years to come.
Lily is a voice that Country music has needed for some time, and ‘Villain’ is just the reactive hit to get her started. Welcome to the Big Loud family, Lily.” – Big Loud Partners (Seth England, Joey Moi, and Craig Wiseman)
“I couldn’t be more thankful to be a part of the partnership between Big Loud & Republic Records and continue to work alongside Lily Rose.
Lily is an artist with a unique voice and bright career that will shift the country genre.
She is building an amazing team around her to start the journey and tell her story.” – Rakiyah Marshall, Back Blocks Music
“We’ve had the good fortune of working with Seth England and the Big Loud team for many years.
This alliance continues to grow with the extraordinary new signing of Lily Rose and represents the latest evolution of our partnership, all on the heels of the historic Morgan Wallen release.
Furthermore, as we prepare to launch the global campaign for Lily in the forthcoming months, we’re thrilled to work with Republic alumnus Rakiyah Marshall and her dynamic new company Back Blocks Music.” – Monte Lipman, Founder and CEO Republic Records.
The ‘Villain’ hit song has most certainly opened a lot of doors for Lily Rose which she’s eternally grateful for. Even her family are excited and happy for her, especially her dad who listened to her on the radio for the very first time together with her inside her car when she went to meet up with him to catch up on things.
Lily Rose’s dad ecstatic after listening to her on the radio for the very first time
The ‘Villain’ song that Lily Rose co-wrote with Mackenzie Carpenter, and Kyle Clark and produced by Matt Morrissey talks about a breakup that she believed ended cordially from both parties only for the other party in the situation to paint her to be the bad guy on social media.
The song that Rose shared a clip of the same on December 1, 2020 connected and resonated quite well with fans and when she independently released the ‘Villain’ song officially on December 15, 2020, the single immediately went to the top of the iTunes all-genre chart, took the No.1 position and held steady above Taylor Swift’s latest offerings for impressive numbers of days.
The song has maintained to be in the iTunes Top 30 for six weeks.
Since the song’s release, ‘Villain’ has amassed over 7 million on-demand streams, 78K in consumption, and more than 300K monthly listeners on Spotify.
‘Villain’ landed a spot on Billboard’s Hot Country songs(No. 43), Emerging Artists(No.5), Country Digital Sales(No. 2), Digital Sales (No.8) charts.
ABOUT BIG LOUD RECORDS:
Big Loud Records’ head-turning success story continues to unfold since first launching in 2015, as an expansion of innovative music company Big Loud. With multiple GOLD and PLATINUM certifications, plus 10 #1 U.S. airplay and 15 #1 Canadian airplay hits, the Big Loud Records artist family includes Morgan Wallen, Jake Owen, Chris Lane, HARDY, Mason Ramsey, MacKenzie Porter, ERNEST, Ben Burgess, Ashland Craft, Larry Fleet, Sean Stemaly, and Blame My Youth. Further establishing its cutting-edge reputation, Big Loud Records partnered with ACM Award-winning songwriter Nicolle Galyon to create female-driven label Songs & Daughters – launching the career of flagship artist Madison Kozak and teaming up with critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Hailey Whitters, the label also expanded in signing newcomer Tiera to its Publishing arm [in partnership with Big Loud Publishing / Warner Chappell Music]. Big Loud’s growing roster has accounted for more than 6 BILLION global streams to date. Stacking 2020 accolades, Seth England (Partner/CEO) and Patch Culbertson (VP of A&R) were named among Billboard‘s Indie Power Players, with England, Craig Wiseman (Partner), Austen Adams (COO), and Candice Watkins (VP of Marketing) listed as Billboard‘s Country Power Players. Further garnering industry recognition, Stacy Blythe (VP of Promotion) was awarded the top honor for SVP/VP at the 2019 CRS/Country Aircheck Awards.
ABOUT BACK BLOCKS MUSIC:
Back Blocks Music is a Nashville-based artist development and publishing company founded in 2020 by Billboard Power Player Rakiyah Marshall. Following her tenure at Republic Records and BMG Publishing, Marshall launched Back Blocks Music to bring a new approach to artist development. Just two months after its inception, the company is already seeing notable success with on-the-rise artist Lily Rose’s debut release “Villain,” which earned Rose a label joint venture with Back Blocks Music, Republic Records and Big Loud Records. Back Blocks Music is also home to singer/songwriter and entrepreneur Ashley Cooke. Founder of the TikTok creator studio, 615 House, Cooke will be releasing new music throughout 2021 produced by Jimmy Robbins. The roster is rounded out with writer Blake Pendergrass, who earned his first major cut with Morgan Wallen’s “865.” An early fan-favorite from Wallen’s recent double album Dangerous: The Double Album, “865” marks Pendergrass as the only unsigned writer on the 30 song project. Pendergrass looks forward to upcoming cuts from Chris Lane and Ashley Cooke in the coming months. For more information on Back Blocks Music, follow @BackBlocksMusic.
ABOUT REPUBLIC RECORDS:
A division of Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company, Republic Records is home to an all-star roster of multi-platinum, award-winning legends and superstar artists such as Ariana Grande, Black Thought, Drake, Florence + the Machine, Greta Van Fleet, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack Johnson, James Blake, James Bay, Jessie J, John Mellencamp, Jonas Brothers, Julia Michaels, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Lorde, Metro Boomin, Morgan Wallen, NAV, Nicki Minaj, Of Monsters and Men, Pearl Jam, Post Malone, Seth MacFarlane, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and more. Founded by brothers and chief executives Monte and Avery Lipman, it is also comprised of innovative business ventures, including American Recordings, Boominati Worldwide, Brushfire, Casablanca Records, Cash Money, Lava Records, XO, Young Money, among others. Republic also maintains a long-standing strategic alliance with Universal Music Latin Entertainment (J Balvin and Karol G). In addition, Republic has expanded to release high-profile soundtracks for Universal Pictures (Fifty Shades of Grey), Sony Pictures (Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse) and NBC TV (The Voice), as well as other notable film and television franchises. Extending further into the worlds of film, television, and content, Republic launched Federal Films in order to produce movies and series powered by the label’s catalog and artists. Its first production was the Jonas Brothers documentary Chasing Happiness for Amazon Prime Video.