In 1983, Harrell met
Russell Simmons, a co-founder of
Def Jam Recordings. He went to work for Def Jam and within two years became vice president and general manager. In 1986, when MCA Records offered Harrell his own record company, he entered into a joint venture, and formed his own label,
Uptown Records. Her mother's boyfriend at the time played the cassette for
Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records. Redd sent it to Harrell, who met with Blige. In 1989, she signed with the label and became its youngest and first female solo artist. In 1988, Harrell was offered a label deal from
MCA Music Entertainment Group. After he had multiple successful releases, in 1992, MCA offered Harrell a
multimedia deal, which involved film and television productions. They developed the feature film
Strictly Business and
FOX's hit police drama series,
New York Undercover, which aired from 1994 until 1998. In 1994, Harrell had a son, Gianni Credle-Harrell, with Wendy Credle, a music attorney. In 1995, Harrell was appointed CEO of
Motown Records. He remained there until 1997. Harrell was CEO of Harrell Records, which is distributed through
Atlantic Records. He partnered with the Atlanta-based production company L7 Entertainment for the release of their artists Hamilton Park and Netta Brielle. Harrell was the Vice Chairman of Revolt,
Diddy's multi-platform music network. On October 17, 2014, he was instrumental in launching the Revolt Music Conference in
Miami, Florida, at the
Fontainebleau Hotel. The event was attended by such entertainment figures as
Guy Oseary,
Russell Simmons, and
L.A. Reid. ==Death==