The rain's been pounding our Hollywood HQ, which we'll take as a harbinger of our forthcoming special issue, History of the Music Biz Three: Rainmakers, which will be precipitating onto your desks momentarily.

Here's another little teaser for your delectation, from our profile of Warner Music Group's Max Lousada.

The native of London’s Tooting Bec neighborhood grew up with an activist dad, and the sounds of left-leaning British rockers like The Clash and Billy Bragg helped form the soundtrack of his childhood. The multi-cultural local community, meanwhile, helped shape his eclectic sensibility. He attended the University of Brighton for a time, but his greatest education there came outside the classroom—from new friends in the DJ world. Having fallen in love with indie soul, hip-hop, acid jazz and electronic music, he left the university after six months and quickly became a fixture—and then a player—on the local club scene.

His career began in the late ’90s, when he launched the multi-faceted collective In a Silent Way (named after a groundbreaking Miles Davis album). The venture combined import-export, management, apparel and music, hawking everything from European rap imports to Adidas shelltoes, using vans as mobile retail emporiums.

After a few brief stints at indie companies, he started his own instrumental electronic label, Ultimate Dilemma. Two years later he was in New York, having been brought aboard Rawkus Records; as Managing Director for ex-U.S. he helped expand the label’s influential roster, which included such forward-looking hip-hop acts as Mos Def (for whom he secured airplay on BBC Radio 1), Talib Kweli and Pharoahe Monch.

Max and Stormzy

Teaser rain pic by Bob Clark