GREATEST: Steven Victor
Cruising the streets of New York City, unveiling his love of fast cars and demystifying his road to success.
Steven Victor is one of the music industry’s bonafide power players. Over two decades, his all-seeing eyes have set themselves upon a multitude of roles: chief operating officer of G.O.O.D Music; the head A&R position at Def Jam; and more recently, guiding his mammoth label, Victor Victor Worldwide. Had he not been exposed to life’s unabridged realities early on, none of it would have come about. Victor tells GOAT how his undergraduate years at Morehouse, an Atlanta HBCU, introduced him to everyday chaos. “You have to use your gut, your instincts and you got to persevere through things no matter how big or small,” he says. “Because no matter how perfect you think something’s supposed to be, there’s always going to be imperfections.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Victor was the kind of student who refused to participate in class—not because he meant to disrespect anyone or lacked the answers, but because he had utmost confidence in his own ability and had already mapped out his future career in the music industry. He lacked the patience to watch someone dictate it to him. “I would sit through class and be like ‘Man, I don’t have to do this,'” he recalls. “I already know what you’re trying to teach me. You know what I mean?” As is likely relatable for any child of immigrant parents, choosing hip-hop as a career path was anathema to Mom and Dad, until it made some sort of tangible capital. It was a decision Victor made on his own: pursuing his indisputable love for music. “I didn’t sell them on [a hip-hop career],” he said. “I just did it.”
Victor’s journey to the top began with internships. First with the label-owning father of a roommate, then at Interscope Records, which happened to operate in the same building. A summer internship at Interscope turned into a three-year gig, eventually resulting in his appointment as a long-term assistant. The assistant role taught him how, going forward, he was allowed to have a definitive say in what he did, why he did it and how things got done. “I just wanted to work with music I was a fan of,” he says. “Whether that was rap, pop, Black artists or Spanish music. I just wanted to work with music and people that I Iiked.”
No matter how perfect you think something’s supposed to be, there’s always going to be imperfections.
Steven Victor
Looking over his career, Victor has worked with countless artists that fit this criteria. His CV is a generation-traversing grab-bag spanning everyone from Clipse and Pop Smoke to Tyga and Desiigner. Victor Victor Worldwide remains his most notable achievement, founded seven years ago in collaboration with Universal Music Group. He's particular about the things that represent him, which is why he enlisted fashion industry mogul Nigo for the label’s logo, working through sketches until they arrived at something they both deemed illustrative of its purpose. His passion for music is only rivaled by another one of his long-running, high-octane obsessions: sports cars. On Zoom, he tilts his camera towards the prototypes in his New York office with pride. “Man, in another life, I would have been a race car driver,” he beams.
Man, in another life, I would have been a race car driver.
Steven Victor
Recently, the car-obsessed kid in Victor played a crucial role in a scene that, though not exactly music-related, encapsulates his creative outlook. This past summer, Victor took a call regarding the iconic New York skater Tyshawn Jones. Victor had been a fan of Jones for some time, enamored by his no-holds-barred approach to Manhattan’s unforgiving streets. It was Jones, though, who had Victor on his mind. More specifically his Ferrari Monza FP2. “[Jones] was like, ‘Yo, I got this idea about ollie-ing over the Monza,” he recalls. “I didn’t even know what an ollie was, but he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to jump over it with my skateboard.’ I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I was like, ‘Oh, that shit sounds fire. Yeah, let’s do it.’”
The resulting stunt—a gravity-defying hop over Victor’s mega-expensive car, in the middle of the street, and before hundreds of onlookers—speaks as loudly to his persona as his position in the music industry. Being in any creative business, especially music, comes with its fair share of risk: even if that risk is worth five million dollars. But his willingness to prioritize the cool, compelling and fire over what may be at stake for him is what makes Victor a standalone record executive and someone who remains as vital as ever.
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