Peter Rafelson's music career spans four decades of being a songwriter, producer, studio owner and more. Penning Madonna's "Open Your Heart" served as the entrypoint to mainstream success, and he's since gone on to host recording sessions for the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

I had a chat with Peter about his career, how his biggest hit was made, and the challenges he faced in the aftermath of that.

Though hiphop went mainstream in the 90s, it wasn't until the early 2000s that gangsta rap dominated all other sub-genres and effectively monopolized the landscape. This was in no small part due to support from radio stations like Power 106 in LA and Hot97 in New York. Damion "Damizza" Young had influence over both and was the Senior Director of Programming at the former. By keeping artists like Jay Z, Eminem, Ja Rule, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre in constant rotation, he helped establish their careers and mainstream appeal. But this came with pushback from not just his employers, but even major labels who were uncomfortable with the power he wielded.

Damizza and I talked about some of the challenges he faced from 1997 - 2004 whilst employed at Power 106, from issues with the station's parent company to threats from executives at Sony Music to stop helping certain artists.

As the son of a famed music executive who signed KISS and Donna Summer in the 70s, Evan Bogart was set on his own music path in his teens. He got an internship at Interscope and helped bring Eminem to the label after seeing him at the Rap Olympics in 1997. Until now, it's unclear why credit for Em's signing went to Evan's former colleague Dean Geistlinger, so I sat down for a chat to learn about what really happened and who really did what. We also talked about his career as a songwriter that worked with Rihanna, Beyonce, Lizzo and others.