On the eve of Alamo Records’ 10th anniversary, CEO Todd Moscowitz has every reason to smile. Since rebranding his indie-label venture from Cold Records to Alamo in 2016, he and his sharp-witted brain trust — COO Juliette Jones and president Lee L’Heureux — have built a hip-hop powerhouse. And Santa Anna Label Group, the company Moscowitz founded with Alamo parent Sony Music in 2023, turned heads this year when it announced a game-changing deal: a partnership with Drake’s OVO Sound.
The alliance, which offers Drake’s label distribution, marketing and artist development services, quickly yielded its first triumph: Released in February, Drake and PartyNextDoor’s joint album, $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, topped the Billboard 200 and featured the infectious Hot 100 No. 2 hit “NOKIA.” The project’s success catapulted Alamo’s pop-rap crossover cred to new heights.
Santa Anna is the second in Moscowitz’s three-tiered ecosystem that feeds talent from the ground up. His distribution company, Foundation, serves as the rookie league, signing young artists on lean, low-commitment deals to test their market potential; those who build momentum graduate to Santa Anna, where they’re backed with additional resources and industry muscle; and at the top sits Alamo, home to a handpicked roster that gets the full-scale label treatment.
Alamo is anchored by two of today’s most bankable hip-hop stars: Rod Wave and Lil Durk. Rod’s 2024 album, Last Lap, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, extending a hot streak for the melancholic rapper that already included three consecutive No. 1 projects — 2021’s SoulFly, 2022’s Beautiful Mind and 2023’s Nostalgia. “Rod is on an unprecedented run,” Moscowitz says. “He’s had six platinum albums without going outside his core audience. He’s a true artist, he does things his way — and that’s taken him into arenas around the country.”
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If Rod’s ascent exemplifies steady momentum, Durk’s past year has been a test of resilience. Facing a murder-for-hire charge tied to a 2022 Los Angeles shooting, the Grammy Award winner was behind bars when his Deep Thoughts arrived in March. Even so, the project bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and became Durk’s 10th top 10 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. “Mainly, we all wanted to do a good job for Durk,” Moscowitz says. “His team had to step up in his absence, and of course, Durk thankfully had made a great album.” (Currently, Durk is in jail awaiting trial.)
Beyond its marquee stars, Alamo has bet big on BossMan Dlow, the Florida upstart who debuted on the Hot 100 with last year’s “Get In With Me.” His first album, Dlow Curry — which featured Ice Spice, Lil Baby, GloRilla and more — cracked the top five on Top Rap Albums last December.
Now, as Alamo enters its second decade, its ethos remains the same: Conviction over convention always wins.
Looking back at the past year, what were Alamo and Santa Anna’s biggest wins both creatively and commercially?
Creatively and commercially, watching Rod Wave’s continued growth as an artist has been amazing. Bringing OVO into the fold was a huge achievement for us, but seeing the whole label consistently ranked in the top 10 for current market share alongside the major labels has been incredibly gratifying for the whole staff.
Over the last 18 months, what have Santa Anna’s defining breakthrough moments been?
Seeing the label have so many great early successes, with Bayker Blankenship, Chuckky, Lazer Dim, Raq Baby, Tyler Nance, Pradabag Shawty and Fatt Mack all going from unknown to pushing their way into pop culture in under two years, has really validated what we are building — a company that’s focused on and excels at early-stage artist development, which I think is harder than it’s ever been.
How has Alamo’s three-tiered system with Foundation and Santa Anna strengthened your ability to sign and develop artists? What’s the long-term vision for that model?
The system provides us with the means to get into business with artists in whatever way suits them. [Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer and COO Kevin Kelleher] really empowered us and gave us the backing to try something unusual. The system is entirely A&R-driven, but there are different deals and levels of touch for people in different stages of their career, so it’s incredibly flexible. Santa Anna has let us get involved with artists that we love very early in the creative process while they are still figuring things out. And it allows us to support them without any of the pressure of the major-label system. It’s essentially an incubator, and I think that’s more necessary in this quarter-to-quarter environment than ever.
What philosophy guides which artists you sign and how you develop them?
You just kind of know it when you see it. But if there’s a thread, I would say that we prize cultural relevance and authenticity above all else. And tastewise, I think it’s a preference for different rather than similar. Whether it’s Rod, [03] Greedo, Durk, Dlow or, before Alamo, [my work] with Young Thug, Fetty Wap, Juice WRLD or Gucci [Mane], all of [those] artists had their own lane and didn’t sound at all like anyone who came before them. People are always scared if there isn’t a blueprint for how you break a certain type of artist [who sounds different]. But I have always thought that being different actually makes it much easier.
Many labels struggle to balance breaking new talent with maintaining legacy acts. How do you ensure Alamo thrives on both fronts?
I don’t like to call them legacy acts, but having successful [artists] actually makes development of new acts a lot easier. It eases the financial pressure and allows you to take more chances, to be riskier and lean into the creative more, and to be able to give those things a lot more time to develop. That is the luxury that successful acts provide you. If you use it to reinvest in your staff and new young artists, you will develop more successful artists. It’s all about not acting out of desperation or pressure, because those things always kill creativity.
What’s the biggest bet you’re making on where the music business is headed? How is Alamo positioning itself to lead it?
People hate when I say it, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. We have obviously made a huge investment building Santa Anna, putting the staff together, spending heavily on A&R. And yes, you have to be more nimble and open to constant disruption than ever before. But philosophically, it’s the same as it’s always been when it comes to artists and artist development. Be early, be right and have the conviction to stay with them, because they deserve it.
This story appears in the Aug. 30, 2025, issue of Billboard.
