Date Signed: May 2023
Label: MoonRise LLC
Publisher: Stellar Songs, Warner Chappell Music Publishing
Type of Music: Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B
Management: 1144 MGMT
Legal: Sonia Diwan
Publicity: On Record PR
Web: instagram.com/tahj3r
A&R: Danny D
American teens get hella perks when they turn 18 years old. Immediately, they can vote, buy fireworks, get a tattoo without their parents’ approval and buy lottery tickets. But those fringe benefits pale in comparison to the bonus that hip-hop artist Tahjer Dunn received when he blew out 18 candles on his birthday cake: a global deal with one of the three biggest music publishers.
Warner Chappell Music Publishing—along with Tim and Danny Music division Stellar Songs—wasted no time giving the Minneapolis rapper, singer and songwriter a vigorous handshake. When Music Connection touched base the prodigy, we half-expected he’d be bouncing off the walls and hard to wrangle for an interview. But the outcome was quite the opposite; Tahjer was so relaxed, he’d give Snoop Dogg a run for his money.
“I’ve been chill about it,” Tahjer said. “Now I just have to put in the work.”
The possibility of a publishing deal materialized when industry heavyweights Tim Blacksmith and Danny D heard some of the hundreds of songs that the ridiculously prolific artist already had under his belt.
Hearing Tahjer’s tracks probably would have been enough to win over Blacksmith and D. But they were no doubt also excited to discover that the rapper is a low-maintenance guy—a breath of fresh air in an industry that is still obsessed with glitz and glamor even though the times of industry excess supposedly died in the ‘80s.
“I just needed a [recording] setup, since I work best at home, and traveling expenses,” he divulged. “D was, like, ‘I got you. Just make sure you put in the work.’”
Given Tahjer’s superhuman work ethic and how many tracks he’s already laid down, D may have laced his remark with irony. Tahjer noted that being under the tutelage of D in particular, along with the other members of his camp, was the impetus for him to put his John Hancock on the paperwork.
“Everything here is family and does a great job,” he said of the publishing firm. “I just feel like if I put in my work and make sure my team's on the right page, nothing much can go wrong.”
