Ian The Inovator

Launch Pad Records Ian Burke, the true driving force behind TLC wants the world to understand “TLC wasn’t designed to be to be just another girl group. TLC was a movement.  They were something new and different- edgy R&B with hip hop attitude….and it worked! I am thankful that T-Boz made certain that I was mentioned in the film so my role in TLC’s development wasn’t totally diminished once my role was written out of the script. If I had the opportunity to put together another TLC, I’d do it again.” He goes on to indicate there was a great deal of “creative license” taken in Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story, but it’s the “nature of the business” and he will continue to take risks with new talent and keep his eyes open for those artists that are not the norm.

Mathai

These days, Ian is launching an Indian American born vocalist, MATHAI that he  discovered three years ago in Orlando, Florida. Shortly after the two agreed to work together, Mathai relocated to Atlanta. To further hone her craft, she auditioned for reality competition “The Voice” where she made it to the top ten on Team Adam (Levine). Her vocals are best described as a hauntingly delicious combination of Norah Jones and Nelly Furtado with soul. This talented songwriter penned all of the tunes on her debut EP “Girl Like Me.” With a full scale marketing and promotions effort scheduled to launch in a few weeks, don’t be surprised if you hear Mathai blasting through a radio speaker of some type before you can bat an eyelash.

With over twenty-five years in the game with tenures at Elektra, Def Jam and ASCAP, Ian never lost his passion for independent projects and artists.  Some of the projects he’s put his stamp on as an independent manager and A&R consultant include Arrested Development, TLC, Outkast, Kris-Kross, Xscape, Lil Jon, Goodie Mob, producers Organized Noize, and the 3 McClain Girls, a young group of singers/actors who made their theatrical debut in Tyler Perry’s “Daddy’s Little Girls.”

Burke adds, “I have to be inspired and drawn in by the artist before I will work with them. That is the same tenet I used with nearly every artist. Unless I find another TLC, I’d like to make a permanent move into music supervision and management of film and TV actors.  I have had a great run in the music business but this is my new passion.”

L-R: Dallas Austin, Left Eye, Ian Burker

To quote Jermaine Dupri in his book “Young, Rich, and Dangerous – The Making of a Music Mogul “describes Ian Burke as the one who “had a real eye for talent. In fact, he was dead balls on when it came to recognizing a star, He also knew how to network and get a meeting with the right people. But he never really got his due back then. Today he’s running his own artist development company in Atlanta, Launch pad Records.”

In the words of the late Notorious B.I.G.–”if you don’t know, now you know”….Ian Burke that is.