Hollywood Management Group Plans To Take Over The Industry
The goals of Joshua “Hollywood Pompeii” Bermudez and Sebastian “Stacctonio” Guerrero, two up-and-coming musicians from New York, go far beyond music. They want to control the entire media landscape.
Joshua “Hollywood Pompeii” Bermudez and Sebastian “Stacctonio” Guerrero’s work can be found on YouTube and social media. Stacctonio’s influence on up and coming NY artists like Sheff G & Fivio Foreign shows Hollywood’s hustle in Lil Baby’s “Vulture Island” video.
Self-taught, these modern media moguls worked their way up the food chain, becoming one of the most prestigious management firms in the music business. HMG is being referred to as the “New QC,” or the New Quality Control, because of its reputation for professionalism while maintaining a family-friendly work environment. Hollywood says, “Our job is to make every artist we work with a brand.” As far as clout goes, “we don’t think of ourselves as chasing it; rather, we like to think that we help our artists achieve their full potential with the right push.”
Founded in early 2019, HMG is now a full-service management company for artists, directors, athletes, and actors and actresses. But beneath all that success, Guerrero & Bermudez put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
Bermudez is a Brooklyn native who grew up in the Coney Island projects. It was never Hollywood’s goal to make it big in music, but getting his mother out of Brooklyn was a constant goal. “I’m really the first success story in my family.” Stacctonio, his little cousin, was quickly becoming one of the most well-known Crips in New York City’s music scene. A young Brooklyn MC named Bobby Shmurda joined Guerrero and Bermudez in the legendary Quad Studio in the middle of 2014 for a recording session. Their careers would be defined by these moments, says Stacctonio. As Stacctonio explains, “Hollywood saw how much money these guys were making & used to tell me to leave the streets alone. We should be doing this full time.”
Ignoring the advice of his cousins One year after being shot, Stacctonio was jailed for possessing a firearm, which he was sentenced to at the end of 2017. The move to New Orleans at this time was made by Bermudez, who worked with QC mentor Carlos Brown. During his time in the South, Bermudez embodied the Hollywood name by working with rap legends Lil Boosie, Yella Beezy, Fetty Wap, and Lil Baby, among others. Once released, Guerrero and Bermudez met with an unknown Roddy Richh at S.O.Bs to discuss the early stages of the HMG empire and exchange ideas and contacts. As a result of the death of Chinx , “I had time to reflect on how I had lost my best friend and idol, and I didn’t want my daughter to go through that.”
However, despite the two’s industry connections, they were forced to learn the hard way. In order to be successful, there is no book that can teach you how to do so. There were those who questioned us and said we should just get a regular job because we were chasing a dream, but I persisted, and now it feels good to give back to a community that doesn’t provide opportunities for young people who look like us. Hollywood said.
The two met again on the set of Lil Baby’s “Vulture Island” less than three months ago, this time with all-star director Gerard Victor. I remember telling Staccs about the video shoot, and he went into Stephen Curry mode, assisting me the entire time. That’s when I realized I couldn’t do this without him. He is like the Yin to my Yang and I feed off of his energy. Can I do the videos without him? Maybe, but I don’t think I’d like to. “ Gerard Victor and Hollywood Pompeii’s partnership grew stronger as they collaborated again on a Rob49 and Kevin Gates music video. It was a phone call Guerrero remembers clearly: “I was in Los Angeles learning about the music industry with Dr. Matthew Knowles when Hollywood called me, telling me he was shooting for Kevin Gates alongside Gerard.” To be a star, you have to go to Hollywood, which is why we call ourselves the “Hollywood Management Group.”
