When Issa Rae and Benoni Tagoe launched Raedio in 2019, they knew they didnt want their company to be just another record label. They wanted to launch a company that could create and place audio via podcasts, in film and on television shows, on airplanes, in cars everywhere, really. The limit doesnt exist for them.

We call it Raedio, an audio everywhere company, because we want to exist wherever audio exists, Tagoe said.

Tagoe, the companys president, said that, as he noticed more companies pivoting to focusing on video, putting an emphasis on audio in a similar fashion was a no-brainer. I feel audio in a lot of cases sometimes may travel faster and further.

Thus came into being a home for a record label, publishing company, music supervision, music library and events (like Hooraes recent Kennedy Center takeover ). It currently has several artists signed, including TeaMarr, NCognita and Josh Levi. It also brought on The Read as its first podcast and has done music supervision for TV and film productions, including P-Valley, Woke and Power.

But the road to Raedio started at least a decade ago. Tagoe had just left his role on the Jonas Brothers management team when he started working with Rae on her critically acclaimed web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. Initially his role was to help get as many eyes on the show as possible. As the show became more established and drew more attention, Tagoe and Rae began thinking about ways they could expand. Talks about merch and even cookies and candy came into the picture, but music was the idea that really stuck. Original earworms ( la Booty Shawts by the Doublemint Twins ) and music from up-and-coming artists at the time became a part of the shows DNA.

The soul of that transcended the web series when Rae struck a deal with HBO for her debut network show, Insecure. Out of the gate, music was an integral part of the show. It notably became a main character of the show, featuring familiar favorites and putting fans onto new artists and tunes. They even began getting approached for music opportunities, thus creating an open lane for Raedio to form.