![]() ![]() It was more so the principle than the amount of money. “I’ve always prided myself on being a principled person. It seemed a little archaic in my plans,” he says. Everything in my life I had taken charge of, but yet I was still an artist signed to a label. “I still owed an album to Def Jam, but I wanted to have it back for a number of reasons, the most important being that it wasn’t consistent with the type of business I planned for me or where I was positioning myself. ![]() In June, he signed a deal with Atlantic to distribute his upcoming, 11th studio album, “The Blueprint 3” a month later, he signed a deal with Sony for all future Roc Nation releases. In May, Jay-Z parted ways with Def Jam, his longtime label home, at the cost of $5 million, but gained control of his future master recordings. ![]() PAYING THE PREMIUMįollowing in the footsteps of Madonna and U2, the 39-year-old rapper last year signed a 10-year, $150 million deal with the concert promotion giant Live Nation that includes touring, publishing and recording. But it’s his overarching big-business vision and talent that have positioned him as one of the most well-known and influential artists of his time. Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter and raised in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects, is the first to admit he could not have achieved half of his successes on his own. His assistant is booking flights, hotels and car service for the BET Awards, which is taking place that weekend his publicist whispers on the phone about another magazine story. His employees are scattered around the room, some perched on stools or couches, others standing or sitting on the floor, some with laptops before them. Sitting on a swivel chair at his Roc the Mic studios in downtown Manhattan with a glass of Santa Margherita white wine in hand, he tackles interview after interview with Japanese reporters, pausing only to use the restroom or ask his assistant to get him a refill or an order of food from his sports club, 40/40.īut while he handles his international duties, his Roc Nation team - seven people, including his assistant, longtime publicist and engineers - make sure his empire runs smoothly. Singer Jay-Z performs "D.O.A." at the BET Awards '09 in Los Angeles June 28, 2009. ![]()
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