Indianapolis-based Tyscot Music + Entertainment has been a staple in the gospel community for over 35 years. Over the years, it has evolved into a platform offering positive music, film and entertainment for the entire family.
Boasting to be the “home to some of the world’s greatest talent,” the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper spoke with Tyscot founder Bishop Leonard Scott, who is a dentist in his day job, to catch up on what’s new and happening at this African-American owned and operated company.
Tyscot Music was founded in 1976. What in your opinion has sustained the company this long?
Scott: It’s the grace of God. Bottom line. Truthfully, we should have been gone a long time ago, but God sustained us. The recording industry is one of the most volatile businesses in existence. It’s the grace of God and the great artists we’ve represented over the years.
Delve deeper into your motto, “Life changing music and entertainment.”
That’s what we want to be about. We want to do more than just entertain. Entertainment is important – everyone needs a bit of rest and relaxation. But we feel if the element of positivity can be built into that time of rest, a lot more can be accomplished. There’s so much out there that’s negative. We want to do something to combat that and change people’s lives.
What does it take to be a Tyscot artist?
We’re looking for artists that are, of course, talented. We’re also looking for people who are about kingdom building.
You’ve got artists that range from The Rance Allen Group to Danetra Moore. Explain the diversity.
Yes we have a lot of different types of artists. Artists like The Rance Allen Group is more traditional, then our most contemporary artist is probably Deitrick Haddon. Now we have a whole label of gospel hip-hop artists. It’s called Tyscot Loud. That’s a little out of my era (laughs), but I don’t believe this is a passing fad. Music is about communicating – it’s a language. If you’re not communicating with the people you’re trying to reach, you’re not accomplishing what you should be accomplishing. If you’re trying to communicate with the youth, you better know what vehicle you should be using.
Anything new happening at Tyscot?
The Rance Allen Group is coming out with a new release called “Celebration.” He’s got a song on there called “A Lil’ Louder (Clap Your Hands)” we think will be inspirational. We have a new movie coming out called “Switching Lanes.” You can see the trailer for that on YouTube. We just started a community choir that we’re really excited about and plan on doing some serious things like recording in the future. We’re also looking to do a second project with Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. We’re really happy about his first album. His song “Testimony,” I think, went all the way to No. 2 on the charts.
Some of your new projects aren’t music. Why has Tyscot branched out beyond music?
You have to keep up and in many ways stay ahead. Change is inevitable. When we first started, music was on 78 and 45 records. Today you don’t even have to purchase music, you can find stuff on YouTube. This is not going to be the final change.
How can the public, especially Indianapolis, support Tyscot?
One way is purchasing our products – our CDs, DVDs. Another is requesting airplay of our artists on the radio. You can also go to and like our artists’ social media pages.
For more information, visit Tyscot.com.
