Can a Live Nation-backed Atlanta label be a musician’s ‘reset?’ This exec thinks so.
The flashy decor at Kei Henderson’s office near Atlanta’s Poncey-Highland neighborhood is filled with the name, image and song titles of one artist: 21 Savage.
A certificate for the Atlanta rapper’s Grammy-winning song “A Lot” hangs in the center, and a plaque for his contributions to Post Malone’s Diamond-selling single “Rockstar” lies on the right.
It’s a perplexing sight, considering Henderson was fired as the artist’s manager in 2019 (for reasons she declined to disclose). But the Atlanta executive remains reverent for her time with 21 Savage, affording her opportunities that helped underscore her true purpose.
“I kind of wanted to continue to help your underdogs, underground artists that may be the trendsetters for a sound or a genre, but maybe never have a song on the radio,” she said. “But they can have careers.”
Since its inception five years ago, Henderson’s label and management company Third & Hayden has signed nearly 10 artists, formed partnerships with music streaming service Soundcloud, music distribution business the Orchard and, most recently, entertainment company Live Nation. Now, Third & Hayden aims to become a creative agency for industry vets and rookies alike, rooted in the artist centered-mission ingrained in its origin.
“Third & Hayden for me is like this new beginning of sorts, not only for myself but for the music industry and for artists that find themselves not wanting to do what everybody else is doing,” Henderson said. “When everybody’s going left, you know we’re going right.”
A personal ‘reset’
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in metro Atlanta, Henderson’s affinity for music traces back to moments spent at her grandparents’ house in the East Cleveland neighborhood. Her granddad would make jazz and gospel mixtapes from what he heard on the radio. At church, Henderson would try her hand at the drums: “I was in band class, the whole nine.”
As a teen she became interested in music journalism, after reading magazines like Vibe and Right On! After graduating from Collins High School in Suwanee, she studied communications at Elon University, hoping to write about music’s biggest stars. In the late 2000s, Henderson started blogging on her own website and began promoting parties in the city—eventually meeting the first artist she’d manage, the late rapper Grip Plyaz.
“That was the artist that got me into the music business,” Henderson, 42, said. “And he was somewhat of a Atlanta superstar, like he was very much the local guy who everybody knew and loved. But he was very underground, very niche, very left-of-center. Like it wasn’t what you think somebody from (Old Fourth) ward of Atlanta would sound like.”
From there, Henderson quickly realized her skillset: creating partnerships and being the “dot connector” for artists. That knack took her to New York and Los Angeles in the 2010s, where she curated the first New York City shows for Migos and Trinidad James while working for Complex. In Los Angeles, she met 21 Savage in the very early stages of his career and started managing him in 2015.
In 2018, she co-founded Atlanta management company Sincethe80s, along with Barry “Hefner” Johnson and Zekiel Nicholson. Henderson worked for 21 Savage until he fired her in August 2019. That same month, her fiancee took her own life.
“It was like this terrible storm of events that was my rock bottom,” Henderson said.
Today, she shares there’s no bad blood between her and the Atlanta rapper. But the firing, and the personal burnout she faced during that time, exacerbated a sense of disconnection she felt with the music industry, and, to some extent, herself.
“I felt like a fish out the water,” Henderson recalls of her time managing 21 Savage. “It just felt like I never made sense there, and that really wore on my mental health. I think, in hindsight, now that I’m through that, it left me kind of not knowing who I was because I was spending so much time just trying to protect myself and be what I thought people around me needed me to be.”
She had similar feelings of “misalignment” with Sincethe80s, officially leaving the company in 2021. She looked for jobs at others labels but was unsuccessful. In retrospect, she views the time as an era of personal reckoning, knowing she wanted to work for and amplify underground artists but didn’t have the drive to do it.
That was until Henderson briefly returned to live with her grandparents in East Cleveland, searching for stability and solace. In 2021, she formed Third & Hayden, named after the intersection where her grandparents resided.
“That was kind of like my reset, and it always kind of has been my reset place and always reminded me of this beautiful childhood that I had and all the support that I had. I created Third and Hayden to kind of be that for artists. Like this can be your reset.”
Same goals, bigger ambitions
Today, Third & Hayden has nine artists (including Atlanta rapper Ben Reilly and Los Angeles folk singer Annahstasia) and eight employees on its roster.
The goal? Becoming a quasi-anti-industry haven for artists who prioritize quality music and longevity over mainstream appeal. No shortcuts necessary. To further that mission, every artist signed to the label receives a $5,000 fund for personal development, which can include mental health resources.
“It’s like you come here when you know I want a long-term career, and I’m finally taking my time getting there. Because it’s like grandma’s meals. Those are not 30-minute meals. That’s two hours, maybe even days, depending on what she cooks.”
Reilly, who dropped his debut studio album, “Save!” last year, has partnered with Third & Hayden since its inception. Henderson was his first manager.
He recalls Henderson being one of the few people who consistently checked on him before she became his manager.
“She was like the only person in the industry lending that (support) before it was cool to,” said Reilly, 30, who used his personal development fund on a life coach. “I knew then that I wanted to expand our relationship to a business relationship.”
Reilly said working with Third & Hayden is liberating and refreshing, helping him to develop a creative vision for his artistry — even when they decline his ideas.
“Being told no,” Reilly says bluntly when reflecting on his artist development at the label. “Being told you can be better. A lot of times as artists, we’re so in our own heads. With Third & Hayden, they’re very honest, and I feel like a lot of artists don’t have very honest team members. A lot of people have yes-men.”
As for Third & Hayden’s future, the company aims to provide that same level of artist development to emerging acts, with a boost from Live Nation. In 2024, Third & Hayden partnered with the concert giant to offer infrastructure to the label’s budding artists across management, label and publishing.
Third & Hayden is the first label to have such a collaboration with Live Nation, a relationship Henderson formed while working with 21 Savage.
“(Kei) has built Third and Hayden around a clear vision for developing artists and building long-term careers,” Matthew Hansen, Live Nation’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement sent to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Our role is to support her vision with additional resources that give her team more capacity to invest in emerging artists and help them grow.”
In April, a federal jury found Live Nation and Ticketmaster liable for operating an illegal monopoly and violating antitrust laws, which Live Nation has denied and plans to appeal the jury’s verdict. Henderson said the recent antitrust trial doesn’t adversely impact Third & Hayden’s partnership with Live Nation, seeing it as “separate and non-effective to our business.”
“What’s going on with the DOJ doesn’t necessarily affect our business in a negative way. It does, I’m sure, make artists trepidatious in working with a company like Third & Hayden. But I can attest for the fact that I didn’t go to Live Nation like, hey, I’m just gonna turn and churn and burn a bunch of artists. I was very clear and very vocal in my plans to them. I am wanting to bring back artist development.”
Bigger goals for Third & Hayden include offering a robust marketing, sales and promotional strategy to artists at every level, while prioritizing budding musicians. This summer, the company launched an artist showcase to platform untapped talent. Henderson said the business might also venture into film, visual arts and maybe even sports.
“Artists don’t really need traditional labels anymore. All right, they really just need resources. They need help. They need finances, and they need strategy. Let’s provide the things that the artists actually need, rather than just trying to take from them.”