Mark Pitts Named President Of RCA + A Look At His Impact On Music and Culture

Mark Pitts is a music industry treasure and has played an instrumental role in the careers of some of the biggest artists of all time.

When Billboard broke the news about the change in leadership at RCA Records, which named Mark Pitts president of the entire label, one of the first people to publicly congratulate Pitts was none other than entertainment mogul Sean Combs. Combs and Mark Pitts go way back, back before there was a Diddy or a Puff … before there was a Bad Boy and all of the things that came after.

“Mark went to Howard University with me, he was my first executive, he lived with me, he managed Biggie, he held me down and he helped lift me up! AND HE NEVER STOPPED GRINDING!” Diddy wrote in a congratulatory Instagram post, accompanied with throwback pictures of he and Pitts over the years.

He got his start in the industry at Bad Boy Records, having managed the career of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer the Notorious B.I.G and Grammy Award winning R&B singer Faith Evans. Throughout his storied career, Pitts has held many executive positions including Senior Vice President of A&R at Arista Records and A&R President at Zomba Label Group. As an A&R he is credited for helping sign Chris Brown (who would go on to be one of the best-selling male artists of all time) as well as Miguel.

After holding down RCA’s Urban music department for over a decade, his promotion comes from undeniable growth over the years that made him a frontrunner candidate for the job. According to Peter Edge, RCA’s chairman and CEO, Pitts has shown “tremendous growth as an energetic, unstoppable leader,” he continued “With his deep relationships and decades of success working with legendary, pioneering artists, he is the ideal partner to help move our creative direction in a renewed, expanded way for the future.”

Pitts has left a footprint on our culture that can’t go unsung. Pitts is credited for having ended the rivalry between Jay-Z and Nas. He spoke about what led him to bringing two of Hip-Hop’s most iconic figures together in a 2009 interview with Essence Magazine. He explained that at the time, he was managing Nas and felt that it was the right time to end the longstanding beef.

“At the time, when me and Nas first started working together, I said, “We have to do something different. You're supposed to be a movement, so you need to do a song with Jay and get past all the bulls—. So I had a conversation with Jay and he was open. I couldn’t believe it was going down, and because they both felt comfortable and knew my energy, and when we all got together that day, I couldn’t believe it was happening and we sat down and worked things out like men. That was definitely B.I.G. guiding me, all of us.” - Pitts told Essence in 2009

Pitts remains CEO of his ByStorm Entertainment record label where his roster includes J. Cole, Miguel, and Ro James.