Neil Levine

Neil Levine
Genres	Hip hop music
Occupation(s)	Record executive
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Penalty, TVT, Imperial, Sony, Battery, Capitol
Associated acts	Capone-N-Noreaga, Lord Finesse, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, N.W.A, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg

Neil Levine is an American music industry executive. He is best known as the founder of the hip-hop label Penalty Recordings, and is currently the CEO of its successor company, Penalty Entertainment. Levine helped to launch the careers of artists such as Capone-N-Noreaga,Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, and Tha Eastsidaz.

Levine graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a degree in music composition and saxophone. He began his work in the music industry as a session player, and later moved into being an independent marketing professional.Levine founded the marketing company Round the Globe Music in the late 1980s in order to promote and market hip-hop music. The organization, which offered street teaming and retail/video/radio promotions, was influential in the success of the records of artists such as A Tribe Called Quest and Mariah Carey, among others.

In 1995, Levine launched Penalty Recordings, which operated as a joint venture between himself and Tommy Boy Records, founded by Tom Silverman. Tommy Boy, at the time, was fully owned by Warner Bros. Records, and Silverman reacquired half of Tommy Boy in 1996 not long after the Penalty deal.

Penalty's initial releases included singles and albums by artists such as Lord Finesse and Capone-N-Noreaga. Other artists on the label during the mid-to-late 1990s included Skull Duggery, Crooked Lettaz (David Banner and Kamikaze), and Half a Mill.

...
Wikipedia