I sincerely hope everyone had a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday. We’ve finally hit the home stretch! This is a fun week, as many Programmers, MDs and mixers are converging on NYC for meetings, showcases and an award show. Labels have lunches and dinners set up, so everyone will be scrambling around. Special congrats go out to Mr. Lee L’Heureux of Warner Bros. strong, who was recently promoted to SVP Rhythm, Urban & Hip-Hop Promotion and Strategy (a title he CLEARLY made up!). It’s certainly well deserved. Lee’s come a long way since his MD days at WRED under the tutelage of the legendary Buzz Bradley. EVP Peter Gray had this to say: “Lee's reputation, relationships and fluency in these areas of music are equally modern & undeniable - and this influential & expanded role will truly allow him to guide our efforts at these distinctly cultural radio formats.” Few people work and travel as much as Lee, and even fewer are as passionate… And speaking of success, Republic set a new record for most spins by a label in one year with 6m+ spins. A big round of applause goes out to Gary Spangler and Davey Dee for Republic being the #1 Mediabase Rhythm label of 2014. And with records like Ariana Grande & The Weeknd’s “Love Me Harder” at #4, up 230 spins, DJ Khaled fChris Brown, August Alsina, Future & Jeremih’s “Hold You Down” at #10 with an increase of 130 spins, Tove Lo’s “Habits (Stay High)” at #11 and up triple-digits, Nicki Minaj fDrake & Lil Wayne’s “Only” jumping to #26 and gaining 180 spins, Nick Jonas’ “Jealous” moving to #27, up 200 spins, The Weeknd’s “Often” climbing to #29 and adding 200 spins, Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” moving #38-32, up 350 spins, and Nicki Minaj fSkylar Grey’s “Bed Of Lies” up nearly 250 spins, you can see why! So much for ending the year on a quiet note… John Strazza, Inca and Lori G at RCA take Kid Ink fUsher & Tinashe’s “Body Language” inside the Top 10 and up 190 spins. Usher fJuicy J’s “I Don’t Mind” moves to #18, increasing 410 spins. They also have Mr. Probz’s “Waves” at #20, gaining 300 spins, as well as Tinashe fA$AP Rocky’s “Pretend” at #31. Mark Ronson fBruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” is a week away from debuting and gained 165 spins this week. Pitbull fNe-Yo “Time of Our Lives” increases 165 spins and grabs a handful of new commitments. And be on the lookout for Prince Royce fSnoop Dogg’s “Stuck on a Feeling,” which they’ll impact next week, as well as P Reign’s “DnF,” which is coming shortly as well… Def Jam Promo Commander in Chief Rick Sackhiem and Lieutenants Noah Sheer and Scott Maness have a plan to take Big Sean to #1 this week. “I Don’t F*** With You” is #2 on the chart, up 600 spins and printing at #1 on the building chart.