Platinum Sound Studios set to celebrate 25 years

ALBANY — At any given time, there are dozens of would-be musical artists in a city the size of Albany setting up home studios and playing around with a sound that they’re sure will bring them fame and fortune.

Given the number of musicians who actually emerge from that group and stick around for more than a few months or even a couple of years, the term “fly-by-night” comes to mind.

But Mario Meadows, the owner of Platinum Sound Recording Studio in Albany who once had his own home recording studio, is anything but fly-by-night. In fact, Meadows, who’s worked with such rap luminaries as Field Mob, Li’l Scrappy, Yung Joc, Ghetto Mafia and others, is getting ready to celebrate a milestone most of his peers would never dream of. In May, Meadows will celebrate Platinum Sound’s 25th anniversary.

“I love mixing, and I love working with the young cats who are coming up,” said Meadows, whose laid-back demeanor belies the passion for music that has burned inside him since he was an 8-year-old engaging in rap battles on the school bus with his pal Eric Shemwell. “What I really want to do is help other people who love music like I do achieve their dreams.

“A lot of people have asked me over the years why I didn’t take my skills to Atlanta and work with that rich bed of talent there. But if I leave, what would be left in our community? It’s not like there aren’t other places to record in Atlanta. There, I’d have just another studio. I stay to provide a service to the people of southwest Georgia.”

Meadows tried college after graduating Westover High School, but he knew he was only delaying his passion by continuing his quest for a business management degree.

“I always knew I was going to do hip-hop, so I felt I was wasting my family’s money by staying in college,” he said. “I graduated from Westover in ‘95, went to Albany State for a little while, worked at my family’s funeral home from ‘96-’98, then my sister, who was a DJ at an Atlanta radio station, helped me get an internship at Noon Time Records. I figured I’d have a chance to soak up a lot of knowledge from the producers up there, who were among the tops in the game.”

But Meadows was little more than a glorified gofer at Noon Time, being sent out to deliver new records to radio stations in the area.

“The girl I was dating in Atlanta at the time, she had a death in the family and she said she was ready to move home,” Meadows said. “I called my friends in Albany who’d worked with me when I had my home studio — Outhouse Productions. I called Dextric Green and Reginald Baldwin, and we came to an agreement: ‘Let’s open a studio.’”

Using $4,000 they managed to scrape together, the trio opened Platinum Sound. Meadows’ Uncle Victor Knighton provided cheap carpenter skills, and the group of young entrepreneurs opened up the studio on North Slappey Boulevard in Albany.

“We had some of the equipment we needed from the home studio, so we used the $4,000 we scrounged up to get the rest of the equipment, pay our rent and pay my uncle a little something for his work,” Meadows said. “It’s hard to imagine today putting something together like that with that little amount of money.”

The going was slow, initially. But by making the studio a true DIY project — and by cultivating a list of loyal customers — Platinum Sound stayed afloat. Then, the studio braintrust put together and released, “Emancipation,” a compilation album of rappers from Albany, Dawson, Americus, Sylvester and other parts of southwest Georgia. It was a regional blockbuster.

“I’d read more books about the business, got better equipment and we really worked to improve our sound,” Meadows said. “That recording got us a lot of attention and the opportunity to work with Big Nod on his ‘The Come Up Man: Volume II’ album.

“Things kind of took off then. Ozone magazine reviewed the album and gave it 4 1/2 microphones out of 5. Our album was being reviewed — and was scoring better — than music by Akon and T-Paine. And, yeah, I have to admit I got a little bit of the big head. But that work led to us recording Li’l Scrappy and some of the other big-name artists in the South.”

Meadows and Platinum Sound received a Gold record for their work with Li’l Scrappy on his self-titled debut. And now, almost two decades later, Yo Atlanta Raps is set to honor Meadows with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Which is, perhaps, fitting, now that Meadows, never one to sit and stagnate, has branched out his business model to include a film division. He recently started “229 TV,” which will focus on video production, documentaries and podcasts.

“We already have one project — ‘Check Da Mic’ — that we’re putting out on our ‘229 TV’ Facebook page,” Meadows said. “This is a new medium for me, but just like recording music, I fell in love with it. I’ve recorded more than 50,000 songs over the years, and now I’ve renewed my creative urge with this new venture.”

When Meadows and his school buddies decided to start Platinum Sound a quarter-century ago, none of them ever truly believed that their dream would still be alive and they’d be working with their third generation of local artists.

“I never thought this day would happen,” Meadows said. “In fact, looking back, if I’d known we’d be here today, I would have spent a lot less time partying and more time focused on getting better at this.

“But now that I’ve achieved this level of influence, I plan to use it to help the young people in our community. I want Platinum Sound to play a bigger role in violence prevention, in being a positive force for Albany and southwest Georgia.”

There’s nothing fly-by-night about that.

Staff Photo: Carlton FletcherFile Photo: Carlton Fletcher

Staff Photo: Carlton Fletcher