Ezekiel “Zeke” Lewis doesn’t have the typical origin story of a major label CEO. He got his start as a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer in Atlanta, co-penning songs like “One Less Lonely Girl” by Justin Bieber and “The Way I Are” by Timbaland, often with his collective The Clutch, before he made his jump to the boardroom. Today, however, Lewis sees the creative journey as critical to his understanding of the music business and what artists need from their industry partners.
“When I got inside the building, I realized that my songwriting career and the fact that I had achieved some success was a miracle,” he explains. He was fascinated by “the way music moves through buildings,” and he found a new calling to “get inside to help creators” navigate the industry with greater success.
First, he built up his own publishing house, Bar Music Group. Then he landed an A&R gig at Motown Records, where he worked his way up the ladder to become senior vp of A&R by the time he left in 2018. That job was also where he first worked with legendary label executive Sylvia Rhone, who he says taught him to “be diligent, never give up and never take no for an answer,” as he puts it. But when Rhone left the job and took a role at Sony Music’s Epic Records, where she eventually rose to become its CEO/chairman, she courted Lewis to follow her and scout the next generation of talent there.
As Lewis has advanced in his career at Epic, he’s played a pivotal role in shaping the careers of 21 Savage, Madison Beer, BIA, Black Eyed Peas, DDG, Future, GIVĒON, Zara Larsson, Mariah the Scientist, Travis Scott, Southside, Meghan Trainor and Tyla. When Rhone stepped away in 2025, rumors swirled that Lewis was being eyed as her successor. In March, the confirmation finally came that Lewis had been appointed CEO/chairman of Epic.
Lewis joins the latest episode of Billboard On the Record in his first-ever interview as CEO and chairman to discuss what it takes to run a successful label in 2026, how he approaches A&R, and how his songwriting career shaped his leadership in the boardroom.
To watch this episode of Billboard On the Record, sponsored by ASCAP, check out the YouTube video below or click here for more viewing and listening options. An edited and condensed excerpt of the conversation can also be found below.
You have built up your whole business career in music in A&R. This historically has been a role held often by creative people. I think of George Martin, producer and A&R for The Beatles, as a prime example. Now, however, A&R is more data-driven and typically not held by creatives. Why have we moved away from A&R having creative experience?
I don’t accept that. I hear people say a lot of the job of A&R has changed, and I’m thinking to myself, “Actually no, it hasn’t.” I think the job of A&R has and always will be to creatively direct and help to collaborate with the artist, in terms of the direction of the music and the touch and the taste and the feel of a project. I don’t think that’s changed. I think obviously people put research into the A&R bucket, but research is its own thing. A&R is a different thing.
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Now that you’re helming Epic, how do you structure the A&R department, given that is your philosophy?
There is a research aspect of A&R, and then there is what I call record-making A&Rs. There’s two different aspects, and we plug in with the artists where needed. And every artist needs a different thing, you know? People like Future, who are well established, might just want your opinion on a thing, and maybe you help him curate the tracklist, or maybe you give him an opinion if he asks you for it. Travis Scott — another example where he’s a force of his own — but, for example, for the Jack Boys project, he actually had me help get Tyla one of those records. So it’s a light touch. It just depends on what the artists need, and some artists need a lot more.
How do you navigate that? You don’t want to offend an artist by stepping in and commandeering their project.
You have to be invited, and upon invitation you need to add value.
What is a project that you really feel like you worked on side-by-side with the artist, helping them mold their music?
That would certainly be Tyla. Obviously, [it started with] signing her from Johannesburg and then cultivating every aspect of the process of making her first record and even her second record.
In the case of Tyla, you signed her over Zoom during the pandemic. When you were courting her to sign to Epic, could you still tell that she had the X factor through the screen?
Absolutely. And this is the thing that’s hardest to articulate in the A&R process, which is the beginning of the process. That’s the intangible nature of that X factor that you’re describing in words, but absolutely, you could see it immediately that she was going to be someone.
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It can’t be underestimated how much TikTok and short-form video changed the game for promoting records. Before TikTok, there were still gatekeepers who a label could call that would significantly help break a song — Spotify playlisters, disc jockeys, press. Then TikTok comes around and it’s all discovery driven by algorithms. As much as labels can study the algorithm, it’s ultimately unknowable. How do you think that shift impacted what a record label can provide for an artist?
I always say our job, both in A&R and as a team in general, is to create opportunities where magic can happen. And so you want to put the artist in a space where the best parts of them can be highlighted. Then, at that point, if the right people see that, then you can trigger the algorithm…because you created the environment where that magic could happen.
In the case of Tyla, it was when she did the show in Rwanda. We were supporting her with tour support and other things at the time, and so she’s able to be there and come up with this brilliant idea to pour the water on her back as she’s performing the song “Water” as part of the choreography, and that just caught fire and made people pay attention to the song, which ultimately became a big hit.
A conversation that started to take place during the pandemic is, you can’t skip steps, and yet a lot of artists were at that time. They’d have a viral hit out of nowhere, immediately start a label bidding war and meanwhile these artists have never played a show —
I regret that that happened. I mean, look, people were able to benefit from having these moments of virality or whatnot, but I do think it affected the long tail and the elongation of the careers of so many would-be great artists because those deals were inflated, and so the companies were behind eight ball financially because they wanted to work with those artists and they wanted to make them great.
You know, when you are behind the eight ball on a deal for a developing artist, and then you don’t have success immediately following, it could put you in a position where [a label] won’t be able to invest in the artist where [they normally] would. If you were able to do [a deal that was] reasonable — and I tell some of my attorney friends all the time — I don’t know if we’re serving the artist correctly when we’re front-loading the deals.
Like super high advances?
Yeah, I’m primarily interested in the artist proposition outside of the song. I want to see the artists have a long and fruitful career. But you also don’t want to come off as though you don’t support the artist making money because you absolutely do. You should want to do it in a way that’s sustainable.
You took over the CEO/chairman post from the legendary music executive Sylvia Rhone, who was a longtime mentor of yours. What are some things you’ve learned from watching her operate?
Sylvia is an amazing executive who basically prepared me for anything that would come next. I have the utmost respect for her. There was no part of the business that she didn’t understand intimately, and so she passed those skills on to me, and she prepared me for what was next.
Is there any sage advice that she gave you over the years?
Be diligent, never give up, and never take no for an answer. She was a fighter.
We have now entered the Ezekiel Lewis-era of this longtime major label. When you got the job as CEO/chairman of Epic Records, what were some of the changes you knew you wanted to make?
Well, first of all, it’s not about me. It’s about chemistry and teamwork and collaboration, and that starts in the office, but also, it has to extend into the studio and elsewhere. What’s important to me is chemistry amongst people, imagination, dreaming big and passing that on and imparting that into the partnership we have with the artist. That’s what the most important thing is: collaboration. I’ve made my career through collaboration with the songwriter, and so it extends into the executive.
Epic has a really strong rap roster with Travis Scott, Future and 21 Savage. Luminate data suggests that hip-hop is not as dominant as it was five to 10 years ago. I’m wondering if this shift away from rap is changing your approach to what you’re signing in this next era of Epic?
It’s not about genres. It’s about artists. You know, you can never count hip-hop out as a genre, right? But it’s not so much about genre as it is about the vehicle for the genre. And so I’m interested in the best artists, the artists that are most passionate about their craft. And if they come from hip-hop, then that artist will be great regardless of the genre. They come from pop, they’ll be great regardless of the genre. If they come from South Africa — wherever they come from. They just need to be best-in-class.
Why do you think that rap is experiencing this downturn right now?
I’m not sure. I think it’s a product of it may have something to do with the pandemic era and the one-offs, the TikToks, the over-investment upfront, and sort of cutting off the long tail of the career of certain artists…But I think it’s a cyclical business, and I think that you know things have ebbs and flows, and hip-hop will never die.
Just a few months after you took the helm at Epic, longtime signee Zara Larsson’s deal was up and she moved over to RCA Records. Can you provide any more clarity as to why Zara is no longer with Epic?
I’m so incredibly proud of all the amazing work we did with Zara over the course of many years — basically from the beginning of her career all the way till now. [It culminated] with Midnight Sun. She remains a part of the Sony family, and I remain good friends with her and just hope for the best for her, and I know she’ll continue to do amazing things in the future. That’s pretty much it. I think it was the right move for her at this time.
I give Epic props for seeing the vision for Zara for a long time. Slow and steady has won the race for her.
I think in an era of so much volume, it’s more important than ever to stay diligent and work with artists and see the vision all the way through.
The old saying goes that you kind of have to sign 10 artists and then maybe one of them works, and that might subsidize other deals that didn’t work out. I’ve been thinking recently like if that’s even accurate anymore with how many songs are released every day. What do you think — do you have to sign more in order to have those wins now?
I would never approach it from that perspective. Every partnership and every deal we do with artists, we intend to see that deal to success. Sometimes we fail, but sometimes we’re successful, but we always go into it with the intent of success. It’s never, “We’ll sign as much as you can sign, and whatever sticks, sticks.” That just can’t be the approach. I don’t think that’s a responsible approach to handling someone’s career and being a good steward of their career.
I definitely think I’m seeing some other labels that are going in that direction where their strategy is taking a bunch of shots through distribution deals or whatever the artists wants to get them in the door, and then they wait and see what happens.
We’re not going to do that. We’re going to curate. We’re going to be specific. We’re going to partner with people we think we can add value and do the best job for because I think that’s fair to the artist.
