Kerry Douglas was an outsider who became the ultimate gospel music insider and star maker as the founder and CEO of Black Smoke Music Worldwide. Over the last 25 years, the Houston, Texas native has taken unknown artists and turned them into Billboard #1 acts. The list is potent: Grammy® nominee, James Fortune; stratospheric crooner Earnest Pugh; Quartet Queen Evelyn Turrentine-Agee; breakout artist Pastor Mike, Jr. & the prodigious Zacardi Cortez. Billboard Magazine recently announced that 2 songs Douglas has promoted – James Fortune’s “I Believe” and Earnest Pugh’s “I Need Your Glory” – are on the prestigious publication’s Hot Gospel Songs of the 2010s decade-end chart. Furthermore, one of the most viewed YouTube videos from a Gospel artist is from Black Smoke Music– Greg O’Quinn’s “I Told The Storm” has been viewed more than 50 million times. Douglas has a drive for success that is rooted in his childhood. Raised by a single mother, he had to work hard for everything that he had. After a little time in college, Douglas began working as a car salesman. In order to attract more customers, he staged R&B and rap concerts in the parking lot. His sales doubled. Soon Douglas quit the dealership and began promoting R&B concerts full time. After a near death situation, he became a born-again Christian and decided to use his sales and marketing skills to build the careers of some of the Houston-based gospel artists he had met – and Black Smoke Music Worldwide was born.