He also co-founded the record label ByStorm Entertainment with Wayne Barrow in 1998, through which he has signed artists including J. Cole, Miguel, Ro James, Andrea Martin, B. Smyth, Mali Music and Luke Christopher, among others.
[1] He began his career as a staffer for Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Records, where he co-managed the Notorious B.I.G and Faith Evans; he executive produced the former's first two albums: Ready to Die (1994) and Life After Death (1997) Pitts executive produced the Netflix film, Biggie: I Got A Story To Tell, co-produced Notorious (2009), and Blue (2009).
He was first introduced to music by his grandmother, a classically trained piano teacher who began giving Pitts lessons at the age of four.
His professional music career started in the early 1990s, prior to entering Howard University, when he formed a rap group called Three Left.
"[11] In 1995, Pitts moved over to an executive position at Universal Records (née Rising Tide) where he signed Philly-based rapper Tracey Lee,[12] and five years later became Senior Vice President of A&R for Arista Records, where he worked with Usher on several albums including his album Confessions[13] that was certified diamond (for sales of 10 million),[14] as well as TLC, Anthony Hamilton, and CeeLo Green.
In his joint venture between his ByStorm Entertainment and RCA, his roster includes Kardinal Offishall, J. Cole, Jawan Harris, Miguel, Ro James & Angel.
[28] Other achievements in Pitts’ urban division during the 2017-18 period include platinum-selling artists SZA and Khalid, G-Eazy, among many others, and marked the 20th anniversary of ByStorm Entertainment.
1 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for 27 weeks, an accolade that bested Pitts’ and ByStorm's own artist Miguel and his song, "Adorn".
[31] As the decade began, Pitts was instrumental in signing Atlanta rapper Young Nudy to RCA, as well as Brooklyn drill founders Winner's Circle and Grammy-nominated Deante Hitchcock.
In 2020, Usher made history with two No.1 singles on the Billboard Hot AC chart, "Bad Habits" in November preceded by "Don’t Waste My Time", featuring Ella Mai the previous June.
[33] In March 2021, Chris Brown reached an historic milestone when his single, "Go Crazy" with Young Thug logged the 24th consecutive week at No.
[34] Based on worldwide chart data in 2005, he was named "World's No.8 A&R of 2005" by the music industry A&R site HitQuarters for that year after success in breaking new artists Ciara and Chris Brown.