With a career spanning over two decades, 22 Grammys, multiple business investments and accolades, and being responsible for the success of some of the biggest names in entertainment it is only fitting that I conduct my artist case study on the cultural icon that is Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. Personifying the “American Dream”, Jay-Z has build an empire by investing in sports entertainment, clothing, luxury spirits, night life, a global streaming service and creating a record label from the ground up that has reshaped HipHop culture. Before he became one of the genre’s most recognizable figures, he was a poor kid born and raised in Brooklyn, New York’s toughest neighborhood of Marcy projects. Escaping poverty, and rising beyond a past of illegal drug sales, Jay-Z is now a successful rapper and producer, entrepreneur, record executive, and philanthropist who has curated a blueprint for success.
- How do you fund your work?
In 1995, Jay-Z used the money he received from signing deal with Payday Records to start his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, alongside his former associates, Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
Roc-A-Fella began in a small office space in a low-rent part of downtown New York City, operating first as an independent label then as an imprint of the Island Def Jam Music Group. Its first release was Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” which dropped in 1996 to critical acclaim and modest commercial success.
The label would go on to release some of the best and most commercially successful rap music of the late 1990s and 2000s, including Kanye West’s first six albums, and every Jay-Z album through 2013’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” Jay-Z in turn used his money to fund Roc Nation in 2008, an entertainment company that is home to artist like Rihanna, Jcole, and Shakira.
- Do you have a mission or vision?
Jay-Z’s entrepreneurial vision and wealth have grown exponentially since the rapper’s career took off in the early 1990s.
The rapper-mogul made his first major business move in 1995, when he founded Roc-A-Fella Records.
As his rap career prospered over the ensuing decades, Jay-Z also began an insatiable pursuit of new business opportunities, including the founding of several companies and making a number of other shrewd investments that extended beyond the rap world.
From starting record labels and a clothing company, to making major moves into sports management with Roc Nation Sports, and into the competitive world of streaming with Tidal, Jay-Z’s wide-reaching entrepreneurial efforts continue to embody one of his most famous lyrics: “I’m not a businessman / I’m a business, man.”
Jay-Z is the richest hip hop artist in the world with an estimated net worth of $900 million.
Did you look at someone else’s career to make a path for your own and if so, what was it?
Jay-Z admired and studied the work of people like Warren Buffett and Sean “Diddy” Combs the latter in which he surpassed in net worth in recent years. For his musical inspirations Jay-Z is credited artist like Big Daddy Kane, Jaz-O (his mentor from which he got his name), Queen Latifah, and KRS to name a few.
- How are you connecting and building audiences and how do you market to them?
Jay Z has collaborated many times with fellow rappers and hip-hop artists who have the same or a very similar target audience. But by occasionally partnering with an artist outside his own genre (Alicia Keys, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park) Jay Z doubles his listeners. He is also very personable. Aside from roaming the streets of New York for a casual walk, Jay-Z has done interviews that allowed fans to ask him the questions, engaged in Q&A on Twitter, and more importantly captured audiences by steadily evolving in terms of his subject matter in his music. The mogul has also found new ways to market his music such as dropping surprise albums and securing lucrative deals such as the infamous deal with Samsung where he gave away 1 million copies of his album Magna Carter Holy Grail to buyers of the brand. That deal certified the rapper’s platinum before its release day. Finally he attracts none listeners through his philanthropy. He supports causes such as education and prison reform.
