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| by kenn on 8/30/2005 09:40:00 PM |
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Jay-Z's education as a young executive
Source:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005
NEW YORK Jay-Z, the veteran rapper turned president of Def Jam Recordings, sat in his sparsely decorated office in New York City one sweltering August afternoon. He was staring intently at Tru Life, an up-and-coming rapper from the Lower East Side. Desperately seeking a record deal, Tru Life, his patter at turns poignant and comical, was doing his best to convince Jay-Z and others that he was worthy of being signed.
"Yo, Jay," he said, "this has got to work! I got a bad back! I can't be packing boxes at Home Depot!"
"The dude who gives me the right lane," he continued, "ain't going to lose."
"I've been shot too," he said, "been pronounced dead at Bellevue and all of that, but I don't like to talk about it cause that's 50's thing," referring to the rapper 50 Cent. "Everybody can get a record deal, but you can't buy a star, you can't buy charisma, and I got that." And so it went, Tru Life delivering his sermon for more than 10 minutes. Spent, he finally slumped back in his chair.
Jay-Z leaned forward in his. "Somebody," he declared in delighted exasperation, "get this kid in front of a camera!" The room erupted in laughter. Tru Life was signed to a six-figure deal later that evening.
"It's weird," Jay-Z said the next day over a steak dinner at the 40/40 club, the sports bar he owns. "Because I've been there. I was in his shoes before, and now I'm the one making the dreams come true."
It has been more than seven months since Jay-Z, 35, born Shawn Carter, accepted an offer from Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest record corporation, to assume the presidency of Def Jam, its seminal rap label. He'd be the first to acknowledge that going from international superstar to swivel-chair-riding executive has been no easy leap.
Though he successfully ran the boutique label Roc-A-Fella Records with his former partners Damon Dash and Kareem (Biggs) Burke, managing a company like Def Jam is an entirely different proposition. He has quickly had to learn that his success in this new venture will depend more on his abilities as a talent scout, marketer and office politician than on his past successes.
Initially, he said, he was reluctant to take the job. "I knew Def Jam was in a transition period," he explained. "The artists that had set the brand on fire had been there for a while. It was time to get new blood in the building, and I know that takes a minute, but I also knew that people would expect me to be successful tomorrow. 'You're here. Let's get a hit.' People wouldn't be realistic." In fact, he raps about the problem on the remix of "Diamonds Are Forever" by Kanye West, one of the company's biggest stars: "I'm not a businessman/ I'm a business, man/ So let me handle my business, damn!"
At this time last year, Jay-Z was in the throes of a major bidding war. Lyor Cohen, the chief executive of Island/Def Jam, had left for Warner Music. Def Jam's president, Kevin Liles, clashed with Antonio Reid, who replaced Cohen as his boss, and quit. That left an opening at the top of Def Jam - and it also left Cohen and Reid, two big corporate rivals, pursuing the same man. Warner offered Jay-Z an equity stake in the company, but Universal prevailed, with a deal that is said to include a three-year contract and ownership of his master recordings starting in approximately 10 years.
In the end, he says, he took the job for the challenge. Starting with the classic "Reasonable Doubt," Jay-Z, in less than a decade, had released 10 albums, which sold more than 33 million copies, rising from a housing project in Brooklyn, where he once dealt drugs, to become one of music's most respected and prolific artists.
"I'd been in my comfort zone for a while" is how he describes it.
"I was bored. I didn't want to be doing rap just to do it: Oh, it's November again. Time to put out another record." He said he was eager to prove that there can be life after rap, that artists can do more than star in "Where are they now?" specials. The dearth of African-American executives in the music industry was also a concern, he said.
It may be too early to determine whether Jay-Z will sink or soar as a big label executive, but many are eager to see him succeed. "If he pulls this off, he's the modern-day bootlegger turned president," said the veteran music executive Andre Harrell, a founder of the Nu America marketing company. "He is the American dream."
Reid, chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, says betting on Jay-Z has already paid off. "He understands the music, he understands the culture, he understands artists," Reid gushed. "When I look at Jay-Z, I see a genius."
And yet when Jay-Z looks at himself, he sees someone who is doing O.K. When asked what grade he would give himself, in a rare moment of humility, he settled on a C.
True, he has had modest success with acts like the R&B singer Bobby Valentino and the ingénue Rhianna, whose single "Pon de Replay" was one of the summer's hits. He is also proud of the gangster rapper Young Jeezy, whose debut album, "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101," entered the American Billboard chart at No.2 earlier this month, selling 176,000 copies in its first week.
But Jay-Z largely blames himself for the lackluster sales of new albums by Memphis Bleek and the Young Gunz, both signed to Roc-A-Fella, which Universal purchased when it hired Jay-Z last December.
"Logically, I shouldn't have put them out because the numbers - the video spins and radio spins - didn't indicate that they were ready to go," he said.
And then there's the problem of his celebrity overshadowing the very artists he has been hired to guide. "He's made a habit of rapping on his artists' records in the hopes that this will jump-start their careers - and it does draw immediate attention - but that's just a shortcut," said Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine. "He'll need to do real artist development to ensure these guys have actual long-lasting careers."
Jay-Z did not dress the part of the anxious young executive one day this month when he strolled into work - at just before 1 in the afternoon - wearing denim shorts, a striped polo shirt and gleaming white sneakers from his own Reebok shoe line, S. Carter. On his arm was Beyoncé Knowles, the pop diva who has been his girlfriend for nearly two years.
His day begins at 8 a.m. with breakfast and a workout. He is usually in the office by 11, he said, and "I'll stay until I'm done or tired."
"I know people think that this is a vanity job or that I'm the guy that just brings in talent and I'm out of the office three months a year and I only come in once in while," he said, "but yes, I'm really there."
With each day, the job seems to get easier. Already Jay-Z has his sights set on the future, which includes settling down with Knowles and starting a family. After that? "Maybe I'll open a casino." A fitting job for a man who doesn't mind a gamble.
NEW YORK Jay-Z, the veteran rapper turned president of Def Jam Recordings, sat in his sparsely decorated office in New York City one sweltering August afternoon. He was staring intently at Tru Life, an up-and-coming rapper from the Lower East Side. Desperately seeking a record deal, Tru Life, his patter at turns poignant and comical, was doing his best to convince Jay-Z and others that he was worthy of being signed.
"Yo, Jay," he said, "this has got to work! I got a bad back! I can't be packing boxes at Home Depot!"
"The dude who gives me the right lane," he continued, "ain't going to lose."
"I've been shot too," he said, "been pronounced dead at Bellevue and all of that, but I don't like to talk about it cause that's 50's thing," referring to the rapper 50 Cent. "Everybody can get a record deal, but you can't buy a star, you can't buy charisma, and I got that." And so it went, Tru Life delivering his sermon for more than 10 minutes. Spent, he finally slumped back in his chair.
Jay-Z leaned forward in his. "Somebody," he declared in delighted exasperation, "get this kid in front of a camera!" The room erupted in laughter. Tru Life was signed to a six-figure deal later that evening.
"It's weird," Jay-Z said the next day over a steak dinner at the 40/40 club, the sports bar he owns. "Because I've been there. I was in his shoes before, and now I'm the one making the dreams come true."
It has been more than seven months since Jay-Z, 35, born Shawn Carter, accepted an offer from Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest record corporation, to assume the presidency of Def Jam, its seminal rap label. He'd be the first to acknowledge that going from international superstar to swivel-chair-riding executive has been no easy leap.
Though he successfully ran the boutique label Roc-A-Fella Records with his former partners Damon Dash and Kareem (Biggs) Burke, managing a company like Def Jam is an entirely different proposition. He has quickly had to learn that his success in this new venture will depend more on his abilities as a talent scout, marketer and office politician than on his past successes.
Initially, he said, he was reluctant to take the job. "I knew Def Jam was in a transition period," he explained. "The artists that had set the brand on fire had been there for a while. It was time to get new blood in the building, and I know that takes a minute, but I also knew that people would expect me to be successful tomorrow. 'You're here. Let's get a hit.' People wouldn't be realistic." In fact, he raps about the problem on the remix of "Diamonds Are Forever" by Kanye West, one of the company's biggest stars: "I'm not a businessman/ I'm a business, man/ So let me handle my business, damn!"
At this time last year, Jay-Z was in the throes of a major bidding war. Lyor Cohen, the chief executive of Island/Def Jam, had left for Warner Music. Def Jam's president, Kevin Liles, clashed with Antonio Reid, who replaced Cohen as his boss, and quit. That left an opening at the top of Def Jam - and it also left Cohen and Reid, two big corporate rivals, pursuing the same man. Warner offered Jay-Z an equity stake in the company, but Universal prevailed, with a deal that is said to include a three-year contract and ownership of his master recordings starting in approximately 10 years.
In the end, he says, he took the job for the challenge. Starting with the classic "Reasonable Doubt," Jay-Z, in less than a decade, had released 10 albums, which sold more than 33 million copies, rising from a housing project in Brooklyn, where he once dealt drugs, to become one of music's most respected and prolific artists.
"I'd been in my comfort zone for a while" is how he describes it.
"I was bored. I didn't want to be doing rap just to do it: Oh, it's November again. Time to put out another record." He said he was eager to prove that there can be life after rap, that artists can do more than star in "Where are they now?" specials. The dearth of African-American executives in the music industry was also a concern, he said.
It may be too early to determine whether Jay-Z will sink or soar as a big label executive, but many are eager to see him succeed. "If he pulls this off, he's the modern-day bootlegger turned president," said the veteran music executive Andre Harrell, a founder of the Nu America marketing company. "He is the American dream."
Reid, chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, says betting on Jay-Z has already paid off. "He understands the music, he understands the culture, he understands artists," Reid gushed. "When I look at Jay-Z, I see a genius."
And yet when Jay-Z looks at himself, he sees someone who is doing O.K. When asked what grade he would give himself, in a rare moment of humility, he settled on a C.
True, he has had modest success with acts like the R&B singer Bobby Valentino and the ingénue Rhianna, whose single "Pon de Replay" was one of the summer's hits. He is also proud of the gangster rapper Young Jeezy, whose debut album, "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101," entered the American Billboard chart at No.2 earlier this month, selling 176,000 copies in its first week.
But Jay-Z largely blames himself for the lackluster sales of new albums by Memphis Bleek and the Young Gunz, both signed to Roc-A-Fella, which Universal purchased when it hired Jay-Z last December.
"Logically, I shouldn't have put them out because the numbers - the video spins and radio spins - didn't indicate that they were ready to go," he said.
And then there's the problem of his celebrity overshadowing the very artists he has been hired to guide. "He's made a habit of rapping on his artists' records in the hopes that this will jump-start their careers - and it does draw immediate attention - but that's just a shortcut," said Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine. "He'll need to do real artist development to ensure these guys have actual long-lasting careers."
Jay-Z did not dress the part of the anxious young executive one day this month when he strolled into work - at just before 1 in the afternoon - wearing denim shorts, a striped polo shirt and gleaming white sneakers from his own Reebok shoe line, S. Carter. On his arm was Beyoncé Knowles, the pop diva who has been his girlfriend for nearly two years.
His day begins at 8 a.m. with breakfast and a workout. He is usually in the office by 11, he said, and "I'll stay until I'm done or tired."
"I know people think that this is a vanity job or that I'm the guy that just brings in talent and I'm out of the office three months a year and I only come in once in while," he said, "but yes, I'm really there."
With each day, the job seems to get easier. Already Jay-Z has his sights set on the future, which includes settling down with Knowles and starting a family. After that? "Maybe I'll open a casino." A fitting job for a man who doesn't mind a gamble.
NEW YORK Jay-Z, the veteran rapper turned president of Def Jam Recordings, sat in his sparsely decorated office in New York City one sweltering August afternoon. He was staring intently at Tru Life, an up-and-coming rapper from the Lower East Side. Desperately seeking a record deal, Tru Life, his patter at turns poignant and comical, was doing his best to convince Jay-Z and others that he was worthy of being signed.
"Yo, Jay," he said, "this has got to work! I got a bad back! I can't be packing boxes at Home Depot!"
"The dude who gives me the right lane," he continued, "ain't going to lose."
"I've been shot too," he said, "been pronounced dead at Bellevue and all of that, but I don't like to talk about it cause that's 50's thing," referring to the rapper 50 Cent. "Everybody can get a record deal, but you can't buy a star, you can't buy charisma, and I got that." And so it went, Tru Life delivering his sermon for more than 10 minutes. Spent, he finally slumped back in his chair.
Jay-Z leaned forward in his. "Somebody," he declared in delighted exasperation, "get this kid in front of a camera!" The room erupted in laughter. Tru Life was signed to a six-figure deal later that evening.
"It's weird," Jay-Z said the next day over a steak dinner at the 40/40 club, the sports bar he owns. "Because I've been there. I was in his shoes before, and now I'm the one making the dreams come true."
It has been more than seven months since Jay-Z, 35, born Shawn Carter, accepted an offer from Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest record corporation, to assume the presidency of Def Jam, its seminal rap label. He'd be the first to acknowledge that going from international superstar to swivel-chair-riding executive has been no easy leap.
Though he successfully ran the boutique label Roc-A-Fella Records with his former partners Damon Dash and Kareem (Biggs) Burke, managing a company like Def Jam is an entirely different proposition. He has quickly had to learn that his success in this new venture will depend more on his abilities as a talent scout, marketer and office politician than on his past successes.
Initially, he said, he was reluctant to take the job. "I knew Def Jam was in a transition period," he explained. "The artists that had set the brand on fire had been there for a while. It was time to get new blood in the building, and I know that takes a minute, but I also knew that people would expect me to be successful tomorrow. 'You're here. Let's get a hit.' People wouldn't be realistic." In fact, he raps about the problem on the remix of "Diamonds Are Forever" by Kanye West, one of the company's biggest stars: "I'm not a businessman/ I'm a business, man/ So let me handle my business, damn!"
At this time last year, Jay-Z was in the throes of a major bidding war. Lyor Cohen, the chief executive of Island/Def Jam, had left for Warner Music. Def Jam's president, Kevin Liles, clashed with Antonio Reid, who replaced Cohen as his boss, and quit. That left an opening at the top of Def Jam - and it also left Cohen and Reid, two big corporate rivals, pursuing the same man. Warner offered Jay-Z an equity stake in the company, but Universal prevailed, with a deal that is said to include a three-year contract and ownership of his master recordings starting in approximately 10 years.
In the end, he says, he took the job for the challenge. Starting with the classic "Reasonable Doubt," Jay-Z, in less than a decade, had released 10 albums, which sold more than 33 million copies, rising from a housing project in Brooklyn, where he once dealt drugs, to become one of music's most respected and prolific artists.
"I'd been in my comfort zone for a while" is how he describes it.
"I was bored. I didn't want to be doing rap just to do it: Oh, it's November again. Time to put out another record." He said he was eager to prove that there can be life after rap, that artists can do more than star in "Where are they now?" specials. The dearth of African-American executives in the music industry was also a concern, he said.
It may be too early to determine whether Jay-Z will sink or soar as a big label executive, but many are eager to see him succeed. "If he pulls this off, he's the modern-day bootlegger turned president," said the veteran music executive Andre Harrell, a founder of the Nu America marketing company. "He is the American dream."
Reid, chairman of the Island Def Jam Music Group, says betting on Jay-Z has already paid off. "He understands the music, he understands the culture, he understands artists," Reid gushed. "When I look at Jay-Z, I see a genius."
And yet when Jay-Z looks at himself, he sees someone who is doing O.K. When asked what grade he would give himself, in a rare moment of humility, he settled on a C.
True, he has had modest success with acts like the R&B singer Bobby Valentino and the ingénue Rhianna, whose single "Pon de Replay" was one of the summer's hits. He is also proud of the gangster rapper Young Jeezy, whose debut album, "Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101," entered the American Billboard chart at No.2 earlier this month, selling 176,000 copies in its first week.
But Jay-Z largely blames himself for the lackluster sales of new albums by Memphis Bleek and the Young Gunz, both signed to Roc-A-Fella, which Universal purchased when it hired Jay-Z last December.
"Logically, I shouldn't have put them out because the numbers - the video spins and radio spins - didn't indicate that they were ready to go," he said.
And then there's the problem of his celebrity overshadowing the very artists he has been hired to guide. "He's made a habit of rapping on his artists' records in the hopes that this will jump-start their careers - and it does draw immediate attention - but that's just a shortcut," said Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine. "He'll need to do real artist development to ensure these guys have actual long-lasting careers."
Jay-Z did not dress the part of the anxious young executive one day this month when he strolled into work - at just before 1 in the afternoon - wearing denim shorts, a striped polo shirt and gleaming white sneakers from his own Reebok shoe line, S. Carter. On his arm was Beyoncé Knowles, the pop diva who has been his girlfriend for nearly two years.
His day begins at 8 a.m. with breakfast and a workout. He is usually in the office by 11, he said, and "I'll stay until I'm done or tired."
"I know people think that this is a vanity job or that I'm the guy that just brings in talent and I'm out of the office three months a year and I only come in once in while," he said, "but yes, I'm really there."
With each day, the job seems to get easier. Already Jay-Z has his sights set on the future, which includes settling down with Knowles and starting a family. After that? "Maybe I'll open a casino." A fitting job for a man who doesn't mind a gamble.
NEW YORK Jay-Z, the veteran rapper turned president of Def Jam Recordings, sat in his sparsely decorated office in New York City one sweltering August afternoon. He was staring intently at Tru Life, an up-and-coming rapper from the Lower East Side. Desperately seeking a record deal, Tru Life, his patter at turns poignant and comical, was doing his best to convince Jay-Z and others that he was worthy of being signed.
"Yo, Jay," he said, "this has got to work! I got a bad back! I can't be packing boxes at Home Depot!"
"The dude who gives me the right lane," he continued, "ain't going to lose."
"I've been shot too," he said, "been pronounced dead at Bellevue and all of that, but I don't like to talk about it cause that's 50's thing," referring to the rapper 50 Cent. "Everybody can get a record deal, but you can't buy a star, you can't buy charisma, and I got that." And so it went, Tru Life delivering his sermon for more than 10 minutes. Spent, he finally slumped back in his chair.
Jay-Z leaned forward in his. "Somebody," he declared in delighted exasperation, "get this kid in front of a camera!" The room erupted in laughter. Tru Life was signed to a six-figure deal later that evening.
"It's weird," Jay-Z said the next day over a steak dinner at the 40/40 club, the sports bar he owns. "Because I've been there. I was in his shoes before, and now I'm the one making the dreams come true."
It has been more than seven months since Jay-Z, 35, born Shawn Carter, accepted an offer from Vivendi Universal, the world's biggest record corporation, to assume the presidency of Def Jam, its seminal rap label. He'd be the first to acknowledge that going from international superstar to swivel-chair-riding executive has been no easy leap.
Though he successfully ran the boutique label Roc-A-Fella Records with his former partners Damon Dash and Kareem (Biggs) Burke, managing a company like Def Jam is an entirely different proposition. He has quickly had to learn that his success in this new venture will depend more on his abilities as a talent scout, marketer and office politician than on his past successes.
Initially, he said, he was reluctant to take the job. "I knew Def Jam was in a transition period," he explained. "The artists that had set the brand on fire had been there for a while. It was time to get new blood in the building, and I know that takes a minute, but I also knew that people would expect me to be successful tomorrow. 'You're here. Let's get a hit.' People wouldn't be
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