Ill Will: Off top, what the is a National Field Director?
Kevin Black: Okay, off the top, a National Field Director is a person who goes out and gets radio. What is radio, radio stations. What city are you from?

Ill Will: The Bay Area, home of the most fucked up radio stations in the world.
KB: (laughing) Naw, I ain’t gon’ say that. KMEL (106.1 KMEL, San Francisco) and Wild (Wild 94.9, San Francisco Ca) would be the stations. I service the radio stations, I design promotions for the radio stations. Myself, my boss Step Johnson, Howard Geiger, (and) Tommy Marshall, design a plan and we attack radio for every different artist.

IW: What are your daily operations?
Audio Clip: THE FORMULA [Listen Here]
KB: My daily operations are to get in the office no later than 8 o’clock (AM), because you know the East Coast is three hours ahead of us (Kevin’s Interscope office is in LA). I work my way from the east back to the west. What happens is, I make sure all the regionals and all the staff is geared up with whatever they need. I’m kinda like the nerve system. What I do is make sure everything is in place at one time so I can give my boss, Step Johnson, a consecutive answer with what’s going on with the market. I look over the streets, as far as making sure that the streets are being hit the right way. Mixshows are being hit the right way. Colleges, retail,
everything is being the right way.

IW: You started off being a DJ, right?
KB: Yes, I’m from New York City, the Bronx and what happened was, you know, DJ’ing back in my day was the outlet and you wanted be the guy that rocked the club and I loved the music. I started going to the club and seeing what was going on and then I got picked up by the radio station. The station was KJLH and they started asking me to do mixes for them. I started doing mixes real good and I was a mixer on-air, and then The Beat (a radio station) came into the picture and I became a popular item in LA. Everybody started seeing I was mixing on The Beat and KJLH and then what happened was I got a job at a record company as a promotion man. That’s what started me on my way.

IW: Alright, You’ve been quite the “video hoe” as of late. You’ve been in hella videos. Are you acting out some wish to be a star?
Audio Clip: BEING A VIDEO HOE [Listen Here]
KB: No, no, no. First of all, I love being a “video hoe” as you would call it. If the “video hoe” makes my phone ring and people call me, “hey, I love the way you acted in that video.” Then you know what I do, “hey, let me tell you about my next record.” I’m always constantly promoting. And what happens is, I’m trying to show people that there is a new age executive. What I mean by new age executive, a person who knows the suites as well as the streets and a person who’s not scared to get out there and get grimy with it and go out and do what he got to do to get the records heard on a nationwide campaign.
KB: I’m the type of person, whatever it takes to promote the record, whatever it takes to get a better look at the record, a good promotion man gon’ do what he gotta do. And it won’t be the last time you see me. I believe in the Four F’s theory. Continued on page 2 »