Destined for a musical career from the onset, Julius watched as his mother harmonized with her music group, the “Prodigals”, a popular local gospel quartet that toured with the Winans in the 80s. He started writing and singing in elementary and formed a local singing group. Julius’ first project as an artist found success on UK’s Breaking Artist Charts, topping at number 5. Julius and a friend later launched a local record label called Madness Entertainment, now known as Audio Dream Records. He then went on to start The Darrington Group. The company specializes in full-service management, A&R consulting & artist development. After The Darrington Group launch, Julius decided to take his talents to Los Angeles. While networking, he met the then Senior Vice President/A&R of RCA Records, Wayne Williams, where he studied under him as a personal A&R assistant. This placed him in a position to land his first major assignment of working with the legendary R. Kelly. Julius is still churning out hits and helping major artists achieve the next level. He has had the pleasure of working with great talent such as RCA Recording Artist King Los, two-time Grammy Winner Timothy Bloom, NBA Champion Iman Shumpert, The Lion King’s- Shahaddi Wright Joseph, Cocaine Papii, Eric Bellinger & Jeremih.

I Ascend: What was your first experience in the music Industry?

Julius Darrington:  I would say, the first big moment for me was getting an opportunity to actually sign with a major record label. It didn’t finalize but just the opportunity, just the interest that the record company had with me, I was about 22 years old. That experience really inspired me.  To have executives come to my city, and meet my mom at the time all the way from Los Angeles, and I was living in Ohio at the time, was exhilarating. These executives worked with major R&B artists. That was my start, this is where I received confirmation and realized this was possible to actually break into this industry. That was my first big moment.

I Ascend: What has been your biggest career highlight so far? 

Julius Darrington: My career highlight? I still have to say my career highlight was meeting R. Kelly and working with R. Kelly as an A&R Representative. To actually be in the driver’s seat with his music with him. Friends and people in my life know that was my major dream because I thought I was an R&B artist myself. I am a true lover of music who is definitely obsessed with R&B. (Rhythm and Blues) R. Kelly was one of my favorite artists. When I got the chance to be in the driver’s seat with him in regard to his records, his ideas, and us working together on ideas, was truly amazing. For that to have actually been my job is still the highlight because that catapulted everything that is happening with me now. I was able to build relationships, and I was able to get the necessary credibility. I was able to learn on a different level about the music industry. There is a different level of production and a different level of the process overall. This opportunity opened up from me being the assistant A&R for DJ Wayne Williams, who was the Senior Vice President of A&R at RCA Records. He actually gave me my first shot, I worked hard, and he felt I had done a good job over time. One day Wayne said, “You know what? The biggest artist I have is R. Kelly, and I think it would be perfect if I just put you with him.” That is still a highlight in my life. It’s a lot of things that have happened, but nothing really tops that for me. Great things on that level have been happening continually. But from the standpoint of knowing what my dream was, I don’t think anything would ever top that because that’s what started everything. That gave me confidence on this level. I don’t care if I become a billionaire. That’s still the moment, you know what I mean? Because at that moment, my childhood dream began to manifest reality.

I Ascend: Can you share some positive takeaways from your working relationship with R. Kelley?

Julius Darrington: Work ethics, which has been one thing that I have added strongly into my life from my experience working with him. He had a true work ethic. R. Kelly had a consistent and outright obsessive work ethic. It is unbelievable the level of energy he had in regard to the music every day. Every day was very energetic for him. He was always passionate, it was like being around a big kid, trying to express his creativity. I had trouble keeping up with him a lot of times in the studio. I am not going to lie, he threw me in the fire in New York. I went to New York with him to finish the album. He had me up for four days in the studio. We were in the studio, then we went to the mall, and we played basketball. Then go back to the studio. Then repeat, we went to the mall, then we went back to the studio for like ten hours and recorded, we hardly ever went to the hotel. That was a shock for me. Like, I never knew when we would be going back to the hotel. He did that all the time. He would do two or three days straight in the studio recording obsessively. He was saying, “I got this feeling, I got this jittery feeling,” when it comes down to the music. R. Kelly’s work ethic was crazy, that is what I learned from him and making sure the audio is always good.

I Ascend: Share what you are working on currently and how readers can follow and stay abreast of all that you are doing.

Julius Darrington: I started my own Record Company called Audio Dream Records. I have an incredible staff, an incredible team, and incredible partners at Audio Dream. We have recently signed “Aahvay” she is a nineteen-year-old R&B artist from Chicago working on her first project. We landed a partnership and will be rolling out our Publishing Division called Mantra Music Publishing. Under Mantra, we will also provide Artist Management and Consulting. We have partnered with producer, “Slick,” who is a two-time Grammy winner. He is currently working with artists like Joe, and he’s working with London on the track. He has two number-one projects out, one being with Gospel artist Kiki Sheard. One of my business partners King Los, brought me into the fold with P Diddy. I have been helping with the business aspect of the P. Diddy project called “Off The Grid,” coming out soon. I am also doing some things in film, while launching my production company, we’re working on some Docuseries. Shout out to my partner, Cosmo Baron, from Chicago. Shout out to my whole squad over there Haidi and Yasmina. We have a very good team. We are looking to build our roster of production clients, songwriters, and artists, who are receiving publishing deals. We are also brokering publishing deals, and signing on different creators in the publishing space with our publishing division. That is something I am very proud of.  The sky’s the limit. It is all God’s blessing. Be sure to visit my website at www.audiodreamrecords.com or our Website at www.mantamusicpartners.com You can follow me on Instagram @JuliusDarrington,