Presenting another installment from Lenny Beer's overview of the Promotion Family Tree: the tale of Def Jam promo topper Nicki Farag.

Talk about finally getting the nod as the promo #1 under difficult circumstances. Nicki’s number was called during a madly tumultuous phase in Def Jam history. She had to trim her staff and fire her best friend. But let’s not go there now; let’s start where she did. She was hired into the business by Ken Lane and Erik Olesen at IDJ, both of them tied to the Daniel Glass school of promotion. (She shares this alma mater with Monte Lipman, Greg Thompson, Hilary Shaev, Miles Simon and the recently departed Neil Lasher, to name but a few.) And if that isn’t pedigree enough, she also worked at Z100 in New York, then rose to glory in Rhythm and Pop promotion under Steve Bartels and Rick Sackheim. Though she was always close with many of the HITS weasels, I only became friendly with her in the last year or so. My loss. Nicki is fantastic, with that magical ability the great ones have to light up a room. I have no doubt that the next iteration of Def Jam will give her a Promotion leader’s real best friends—songs with hit potential. Until then, she owes me a meal that was cancelled earlier in the year; she is being spared an enormous bill.

Cozying up with Alessia Cara and team.