Shawn Barron (US) // VP of A&R Empire// EZMNY
Biography
Shawn Barron was born and raised in Buffalo, NY. From a young age Shawn was always interested and listening to the newest music that would be released. By the time high school rolled around he was burning his own mix CDs and handing them out at school.
In the summer of 2002 Shawn left Buffalo for South Orange, NJ to attend Seton Hall University. Shawn had dreams of playing professional basketball and made the team as a walk on at Seton Hall but later decided not to focus on basketball anymore.
The shift from basketball to music came thru his friend A-Butta who was an aspiring artist on campus. A-Butta asked Shawn to manage him. Shawn said yes then started reading every book he could find on the music industry. This led him to applying for many internships and landed one at Republic Records in New York City in 2007.
After Graduation in May of 2007 Shawn applied for many music industry jobs and ultimately landed a mailroom clerk position at a company called Koch Entertainment. While at Koch delivering mail, Shawn became cool with the President of the label, Allan Grunblatt. Alan allowed Shawn to showcase talent for him. The first artist Shawn brought up for a meeting to Koch was Drake. The meeting went well but after the label didn’t sign him. Shawn also brought Wale, Curren$y, and many others to the table at that time.
After Koch, Shawn went to work with a boutique label named Cinematic Music Group. While he was there, he assisted the CEO Jonny Shipes and worked on some Nipsey and Smoke DZA projects. This job was short lived because while doing these duties at Cinematic, Shawn partnered up with Success Davis and Danny Montes to form their own company. The 3 of them went on to discover an artist by the name of Phreshy Duzit (Amir Obe) and created a nice buzz for him. Many labels wanted to sign Phreshy but ultimately it came down to Mike Caren at Atlantic Records. Mike signed Phreshy and gave Shawn a director of a&r position and moved him to LA from NYC.
Shawn worked at Atlantic Records for a little over 10 years. In that time, he worked with Flo Rida and helped deliver his smash Club Can’t Handle Me, Lupe Fiasco and helped deliver his smash The Show Goes On, Trey Songz and delivered many records across a few of his projects including Unusual featuring Drake. Shawn signed Ty Dolla Sign, Kap G and Diggy Simmons to the label in his years there. Ty Dolla $ign has sold over 50 million records since they’ve joined forces. Shawn helped Kap G deliver 2 platinum singles and a XXL Freshman Cover. Diggy Simmons also had a platinum record with Mindless Behavior and a XXL Freshman Cover.
After Atlantic Records, Shawn Barron went on to work at Motown Records as VP of A&R. While at Motown he signed Leon Thomas and EZMNY Records. Leon Thomas just recently won a Grammy. Shawn also oversaw a&r for Puff Daddy’s Love Records and delivered the Love Album. Shawn also over saw a&r for Offset and delivered his solo album Set It Off. Shawn was also a&r for the last Migos album Culture 3 which spawned his single Straightenin.
Currently Shawn is partners with Ty Dolla $ign in EZMNY Records where Leon Thomas is signed. He has a breakout year with his critically acclaimed album Electric Dusk. Shawn also works at Empire as VP of a&r where he oversees Gabzy, LAX, Chinese Kitty and Rexx Life Raj amongst others. Shawn also does managing and has a roster which consists of 4Fargo (Republic Records) and Elhae.
