Named after the Motown legend, SMOKEY D. FONTAINE works for Apple, Inc. as the Global Editorial Director of the App Store. In addition to his App Store leadership, as the company’s first-ever Editor-In-Chief, Fontaine’s charge covered the customer-facing experiences of Apple Music, Apple TV, Books, iTunes and Podcasts.
A trailblazer of urban entertainment, over a two decade career, Fontaine created some of the most memorable moments in pop culture with icons including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna, DMX, Penelope Cruz & Prince.
As Co-Founder & Chief Content Officer of Interactive One, Fontaine developed the largest multi-platform online network in the world dedicated to serving African-American, Latino, and other millennial audiences. With national websites including HelloBeautiful and NewsOne, 56 local radio station websites across 13 markets, and strategic partners that included GlobalGrind and TheGrio, Fontaine's programming team of > 150 writers, editors, designers, programmers and videographers, had unparalleled reach (82% of the US AA pop.).
Fontaine’s Interludes Live! show, a digital, broadcast & radio music experience he hosted and executive-produced, featured Alicia Keys, John Legend, Trey Songz, Jennifer Hudson, and director Ava DuVernay, and was honored with multiple Telly Awards.
In 2010, Fast Company named Fontaine one of Teach For America’s “Most Influential Alumni,” and he is a repeat guest on CNN, The Today Show, VH-1 & MSNBC.
Formerly, Fontaine was the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of GIANT, the magazine of celebrity, style and culture that re-launched with the fabled "Beyoncé in rollers" cover shot by Ellen Von Unwerth. Prior to that, he was the Senior Producer of Entertainment for Volume.com, the innovative online portal sponsored by HBO; the US Editor of Trace magazine where he secured the fashion and music magazine’s US distribution and advertising deals and wrote nine cover stories; and the Music Editor of The Source where he oversaw the growth of the world’s largest music magazine on the newsstand and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
america, and the subsequent a+ creative studio, was an “urban luxury” platform he dreamed up while visiting his childhood home in London, England. The original brand enabled Fontaine to expand his high-end cross-platform work with clients including Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs and Lexus. His 42-page portfolio with Sean “Diddy” Combs and Penelope Cruz by photographer Peter Lindbergh for Esteé Lauder is considered an advertorial benchmark.
In 2002, Mr. Fontaine released his first two books. The first, What’s Your HI-FI Q? (Simon & Schuster/Fireside) with partner Scott Poulson-Bryant, is an entertaining trivia book wrapped around three decades of Black popular music.
Later that year, Mr. Fontaine released his second book, EARL: The Autobiography of DMX (Harper Collins Entertainment), a 350+ page life history of hip-hop’s most tortured superstar hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as an “unsparing, painfully honest account…[akin to] Manchild In The Promised Land.” The high point of his hip-hop writing career, EARL was based on a multi-year friendship Fontaine developed with the iconic artist through the penning of his multiple cover stories for The Source magazine.
Mr. Fontaine’s first published piece was a retrospective essay about his relationship with James Baldwin for the Diary of the Civil Rights Movement, and he has twice received the prestigious “Spotlight Article of the Month” award from the London Guardian newspaper. In 2012 he was honored with a Telly Award for "Most Inspiring" for his writing and hosting of AT&T's "Rethink Possible" online series.
Gotta love that black and blue and black leather...!
Riding with Kool DJ Herc, South Bronx, 1981