kung fu grippe

“Industry shady—it need to be taken over”

I’ve recommended this excellent profile on Jay-Z to like 10 people now, but I haven’t had time to write anything substantial about it, so here. Just go read this.

There’s a handful of impossibly useful and non-obvious lessons for indies in this article that had me pumping my fist every few paragraphs.

Okay. Here’s a few (emphasis mine):

Jay-Z is careful not to overexpose himself. “He’ll decline something based on his gut, then he’ll tell me, ‘If that play’s big, watch the bigger play that comes because I said no…’”

[…]

On the cover of the book, the golden tentacles of a “Rorschach” print by Andy Warhol dwarf the rapper’s name, tucked into a corner. He vetoed an early mock-up from his publisher that splashed “Jay-Z” across the cover in bold type. “It always starts like that,” he says in the car, wearing jeans, a gold Rolex and loose-laced Timberlands. “I’m not trading on my name; I’m trading on the work.”

[…]

In 2005, Jay-Z took the job of president and CEO of Def Jam while rival labels courted him. What clinched the deal with the label—by then owned by Universal Music Group—was a contract clause giving the rapper full ownership of his past recordings for Def Jam. These rights revert to him starting in 2014.

“I’m happy about it,” he says now. “But when I think about it, it’s something I shouldn’t even have to ask for. It’s mine, I created it.”

[…]

Like many in the industry, Jay-Z is trying to wean himself off a reliance on selling recorded music. His company has released only one album, his own “The Blueprint 3” in 2009. “It’s been two years since the Live Nation deal and I haven’t put out one artist,” he says. “But right now Roc Nation is profitable because we manage [artists] and we have a publishing company….We don’t have to rush out records that don’t work for the sake of making money,” he says.

This is such an insanely savvy dude. Setting aside the ample cock swinging and TEC-9 twirling, this man’s really telling stories about history and equity. I get that now.