Hip-Hop Industry Vets Form New Booking Agency, Idolmakerz Entertainment

Veteran Hip-Hop managers Mickey Bentson and Felix Cabrera have joined forces to form Idolmakerz Entertainment, a full service booking agency based in Bellville, New Jersey.Launched in January, the business includes a radio promotions department, a graphic design department, and a division that focuses on Latin artists.Bentson and Cabrera, who serve as co-CEO’s of the new […]

Veteran Hip-Hop

managers Mickey Bentson and Felix Cabrera have joined forces to form Idolmakerz

Entertainment, a full service booking agency based in Bellville, New Jersey.Launched

in January, the business includes a radio promotions department, a graphic design

department, and a division that focuses on Latin artists.Bentson

and Cabrera, who serve as co-CEO’s of the new venture, have managed some of the

most well-known rappers, including Grandmaster Melle Mel, Fat Joe and the Terror

Squad, Big Pun, Lord Finesse, King T, Everlast, and Monie Love."We

aim to evolve into a William Morris or a Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The

difference is we don’t wait ’til you’re hot to start booking you," Bentson

told AllHipHop.com. "We start soliciting to promoters and vendors immediately.

We can accomplish a lot of things major agencies can’t do. We are going to work

hand and hand with artists to help them get national exposure outside of what

the record label is doing for them."Al

"Al-B." Beutel is President of the new company after a decade of working

with nightclubs in Manhattan like the Palladium, Deko Lounge, the Tunnel, Club

Abyss. After

a move to promoting in clubs in New Jersey, Beutel took a job with a larger agency

based on his success booking artists independently. He

brought Bronx, New York rapper Fat Joe to the agency he was working for and later

decided to go independent with Idolmakerz Entertainment. "I

make sure the artists are taken care of and I make sure my staff is taken care

of as well," Beutel said. "We want our business to grow beyond being

a boutique agency, but we still want to have the boutique feel, so that the artists

get the attention they need and deserve."The

Latin department is run by Jordy Nivar, one of the first promoters to bring Daddy

Yankee to the state of New Jersey to perform. Nivar handles all of Idolmakerz

Spanish-speaking bookings for Hip-Hop, Reggaeton and other forms of Latin music.

"I

grew up listening to Merengue and Reggaeton. I’ve been listening for years, since

1990, 1991," Nivar said. He started promoting shows to feature his rap group,

The Knock Out Crew and subsequently booked artists like Daddy

Yankee, Tego Calderon, Wisin Y Yandel and others. Bentson,

who also ran Ice-T’s Final Level Entertainment, said the company plans to expand

the business by opening offices in Miami, Las Vegas, and Detroit in 2007.For

more information visit http://www.idolmakerz.com