Tuo Clark knows how to move a crowd – whether it’s in the boardroom, the classroom or the club. As the former SVP of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, he’s been behind some of modern hip-hop’s hottest records. Now, after wrapping his first year as a professor of pop music studies at Arizona State University, he’s expanding his influence into nightlife. He recently opened Stadium Sports Bar & Lounge and its DJ-driven sister space, Spin Room, in Downtown Phoenix. We caught up with Clark to talk creative instincts, career pivots and how he’s bridging his worlds of music, culture and community in the Valley and beyond.
Growing up in Chicago and working in L.A., it’s evident that R&B and hip-hop have been influential in your music. Do you have any influences that might surprise us?
Honestly, it’s crazy that you ask that question because R&B and hip-hop [weren’t] my first influences. My first influence was gospel music because [it’s] what my mother was playing in the house. That was the only thing that I knew. Secular music couldn’t even get played in the house, ironically. And, as I end up growing a love for gospel music – the arrangements, the chords, the changes… R&B, it has similarities of different things in gospel. From there, I just started to have an outreach for different music.
What was the first song you heard that inspired you to pursue music production?
I don’t know if it was music, exactly. I think it was the style and fashion that inspired me to be, like, “Man, they look cool!” And, since they look cool, what exactly goes with the cool? And it was a certain same genre of music. The first song was probably New Edition, “If It Isn’t Love.” That’s what did it.
How do you feel about the industry today versus when you started your career?
The industry today… I feel like there’s not any true superstars. When I started my career, you had all the superstars. As a producer, you had superstar producers, and you had superstar songwriters. It’s not that today. You don’t have any superstar producers. You don’t have any superstar songwriters. And superstar artists. When you’re talking about artists, when I was coming up in my career, you’re talking about everybody that was from Nicki Minaj, from Drake, from Rhianna, from Justin Beibs… I’m blessed to even be able to experience any of that.
In just the past year, you’ve expanded your repertoire into academia as a professor of pop music studies at ASU, and ventured into club ownership with Stadium in Phoenix and its entertainment arm, Spin Room. What inspired you to open a club?
I had an opportunity to team up with my partner Que [Quinn]… He comes from the whole nightlife spectrum and stuff like that, and he just wanted to do something different outside of just a club. It was a sports bar… Downtown in the CityScape area. As we opened that… we noticed that it wasn’t a place that provided great music and cocktails, for the people. So, we said, “Yo, let’s come up with a concept to create something that puts the DJ first and the cocktails second. And the DJ keeps the cocktails going,” and we came up with Spin Room. Spin Room is a social club that plays ’80s, ’90s and 2000s music that’s all about the DJ.
What kind of experience can guests expect when they visit Stadium and the Spin Room?
Stadium is a straight sports bar. If you’re a die-hard sports fan and you wanna see your favorite team, come into an atmosphere that feels like a sports bar, have people congregate and just be social when it comes to their team and get some nice bar food, Stadium is it. Spin Room is all about the vibes… ’80s, ’90s, 2000s nostalgia. The décor, everything in it is warm, everything is just chill. You could come to have a great cocktail, you can sit back and listen to some great music with the DJ. It provides all that. I totally can’t wait for people to actually catch on to that experience… We do Versus Thursday every Thursday. It’s a weekly segment where we put different artists and different eras up against each other. It’s always a fun and engaging way to celebrate music history, spark conversation and show love to legends from all generations.
For more information, follow @internz, @stadiumphx and @spinroomphx on Instagram.
