Late last year, Epic ruler L.A. Reid upped Benny Pough to EVP of the label; the exec had previously served as head of Urban for the label. The two worked together at Def Jam, and Pough moved to Epic in 2011. His resume also includes stints at Motown, MCA and Arista; he has marshaled campaigns for Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Mary J. Blige, among many other stars, and most recently played a key role in the return of Ciara. Benny’s a naturally upbeat guy, but talking to us has got to be his least-epic experience in some time.

Tell me about how you’ve expanded your responsibilities.
The opportunity that L.A. has given me is far vaster than where I started. When I first came to the label, I was EVP of Urban music—specifically to the core of Urban. Now I’m part of the day-to-day of Epic as a whole. I’m involved in all genres, focused on helping the company develop and managing our great staff.

What’s been the steepest part of the learning curve?
We’re a small label, building new acts; since we’re so small and so tight, I’ve been involved in a lot of what’s been going on at the company anyway. I was the biggest promotion dude, serving as quarterback. I’m learning a lot more about the different formats, but once a promotion guy, always a promotion guy. The formats can be different, but the nuances are the same. We hold a weekly meeting with all format heads and discuss the success and viability of our records, and how we’re going to break them-- I’ve chaired that meeting since I’ve been at the label.

Which artists have you focused on recently?
What’s been exciting for me, and for our company as a whole, is A Great Big World. When they first came into the building, just seeing where they came from to where they are now is just amazing—number one singles, amazing increases at radio. It’s a phenomenal project.

The Future project is really exciting. And we helped give Yo Gotti, who was an amazing street artist, a very strong, solid first week. Coming to the label, he entrusted his career with us, and everybody showed up. I’m excited about pretty much everything that we have here. This is already an amazing year for us.

What other new acts are you excited about?
We have some exciting new projects such as Kongos who are already #3 at Alternative and are showing no signs of slowing down. Kat Dahlia, who is signed to Sylvia Rhone’s Vested in Culture; she’s amazing. We’ve spent all last year doing all the right things to set her up, and we feel that it’s going to be very impactful.

L.A. and Babyface are back together again with an artist out of Compton, Kesington Kross. He has a record that can go all the way from Urban AC to international. Every format will be playing this guy. It’s one of those universal records that you rarely get that can be touched across the board. It’s called "Give Me Your Love."

You go back more than 10 years with L.A. Can you say a little bit about how you work together and his qualities as a leader?
I’m always impressed at his ability to identify not only artist talent, but also executive talent. He picks and empowers great people, is very supportive and rewards success. He’s an amazing leader in that respect. I think what has really pulled us together is that he has the confidence that when he brings his baby, we’ll deliver it.

Do you want to say a bit about the rest of your team?
Absolutely. We have an amazing head of marketing, Scott Seviour, who has been at the company for some time now. Our SVP of Promotion, Todd Glassman, has been an incredible addition for us. Dixie Tipton, who was National Rhythm is now the VP of Pop. Sujit Kundu recently joined the Epic team and is turning up the Rhythm format as well. Traci Adams, who is the VP of Urban, has probably delivered like six #1 records since we’ve been here. She’s an amazing killer for us at the label.

Liberty Lucken is one of the best sales people that I have ever worked with. When we’re talking about staff, there was a person that came here with us who is not only a dear friend, but probably one of the best business affairs people that I’ve ever met, and that’s Heath Kudler. And there’s Lynn Hazan, our head of finance.

How did you find your way into the music biz?
I kind of fell into it, amazingly enough, and I’ve learned to love it. My background prior to this was sales: I did door-to-door, selling commercial products; I sold bank products. I just had an opportunity as a kid to intern in music, and I just got the bug. Music is different because there’s passion, but breaking artists is no different than breaking the new line for GM, or Apple putting out a new device. It’s all about how you roll the product out. It’s different because you have an opportunity to see someone who was relatively unknown four months ago and now is a superstar, and that you were a part of that. I get high off of that all the time.