BILLY GRANT
Managing Director
2Point9 Records
Billy Grant started at Telstar Records in 1994 as a compilations A&R/promotions manager and was responsible for the compilation and marketing of a number of successful niche compilations including 100% Acid Jazz, Junglemania, 100% Pure Groove, Best Swing (all of which sold well in excess of 100,000 units) and the No 1 selling Agia Napa (fantasy island) album, as well as more mainstream compilations such as the No 1 selling albums 'Dance Mania' and 'Dance Boom'.
As the company moved into artist development, Billy progressed from compilation A&R to Artist A&R/promotions and was able to use his knowledge of marketing street music to artists signed to Telstar and Wildstar (an affiliated Telstar label).
In 1999 Wildstar Records signed Craig David. Billy and Rob orchestrated the Urban A&R and promotion for Craig on the multi-million selling album "Born to do it" including the two No 1 singles "Fill me in" and "Seven days". They were responsible for introducing Craig in the studio with a number of up-and-coming British Urban producers including Sunship, Full Crew, Blacksmith and Ignorants as well as setting up a phenomenal promotional campaign, which firmly established Craig as the leading Urban artist in the UK.
In December 2000, Billy signed Mis Teeq and A&R'd the platinum selling album
"Lickin' on Both Sides" which boasted five UK Top 10 singles. This album
included productions from a number of up-and-coming UK producers including
Synth (So Solid - 21 Seconds), Mustaq (Gorillaz) as well as Sunship, Full
Crew, Ignorants and Blacksmith. Once again, the experience and contacts
developed over the years enabled Grant and Stuart to establish a strategy
which firmly established Mis Teeq as one of the leading female British Urban
acts to date. He was also responsible for setting up early recordings on the
follow-up album "Eye Candy", including A&Ring the UK No 2 single
"Scandalous" which was also used in the catwoman movie as well as the recent
armani campaign
Billy and Rob left Telstar Records in late 2002 to set up 2Point9 an entertainment company covering artist management, record label and music publishing. The first producer to sign up with 2Point9 was Rishi Rich. Over the next few years Jay Sean and Juggy D were bought into the fold, Jay Sean was signed to Virgin Records and was a top 5 selling artist in the UK as well as a multi platinum selling artist in India, Rishi Rich went to have a track on Britney Spears latest album as well as mix and produce for artists such as Mary J Blige, Craig David and Ricky Martin, Juggy D recorded a classic bhangra album which has taken him performing all over the world, tracks have appeared in three Bollywood movies including Rishi Rich, Veronica and Juggy D's "Hum Tum" which one of the biggest tunes of 2004 on the soundtrack of one of the biggest movies of the year. Have had tracks in other movies also including the recent "Mischief Nights". Have had tracks placed in TV adverts for Mc Donalds and Sharwoods as well as on various TV shows. The whole crew (jay sean, rishi rich, juggy d, veronica, mentor) tour the world extensively from australia and new zealand to kenya to dubai to canada to the canary islands in spain to hong kong.