Chris Anokute

Chris Anokute is an A&R Executive and Founder of the entertainment start-up, Young Forever, Inc. He was born from Nigerian parents, grew up in New Jersey, and currently resides in Santa Monica, CA. While at Capitol Records, he oversaw the A&R for Katy Perry, Joss Stone and Priscilla Renea. He worked at the Universal Music Group from 2011 through 2013, and held Senior Vice-President of A&R roles at Universal Motown Records & Island Def Jam Music Group. At Young Forever, Inc., Chris manages the career of Columbia Records recording artist, LÉON. Chris is also the Senior Vice President, A&R for LA Reid's Epic Records Label Group.

Anokute's entry point into the music industry came when at the age of 17, he approached John Houston, father of Whitney, and asked to be part of his management team. Houston hired Anokute as an apprentice.

At the same time he secured an internship in A&R administration at Def Jam Records, working under A&R executive Rob Mitchell. Once promoted to A&R Administration assistant, he worked on projects including Sum 41, Ashanti, Foxy Brown and Jay-Z's The Blueprint.

Anokute discovered the songwriter Alisha Brooks, and introduced her to Vada Nobles. Nobles provided a selection of instrumentals to write to, and from one track, Brooks created "Pon de Replay". Soon afterwards the song was recorded by the then unknown Rihanna. Pon De Replay landed the 16-year-old a deal with Def Jam Universal, becoming her debut single as a major label recording artist.

Anokute was soon hired by Jason Flom as the Senior Director A&R at Virgin/Capitol, where his first A&R work project was Joss Stone's critically acclaimed, Introducing Joss Stone (2007). Shortly after, Chris and Jason signed Katy Perry through an introduction from Katy's long time publicist, Angelica Cob-Baehler. Chris went on to successfully A&R Katy's first two multi-platinum Capitol albums, One Of The Boys (2008) and Teenage Dream (2010), yielding 11 #1 singles and over 50 million albums and singles sold collectively.

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