Hip-Hop Entrepreneurs-By Douglas MacMillan
Hip-Hop Entrepreneurs
Much more than just the music genre created at Bronx block-parties of the late ’70s and early ’80s, hip-hop is a lifestyle. And if you have got a mind for business, it’s a lifestyle with opportunity for serious financial gain.
Though not a musician himself, Russell Simmons is widely credited as the father of hip-hop lifestyle entrepreneurship. After co-founding Def Jam Records in 1984, he created Rush Communications, a media company which paved the way for hip-hop marketing in clothing, television, movies, magazines, advertising, and countless other industries.
From ambitious empire-builders such as Diddy, Jay-Z, and Master P who have followed in Simmons’s footsteps, to the up-and-comer impresarios like Chamillionaire and Paul Wall, this BusinessWeek.com slide show profiles 10 hip hop artists-turned-entrepreneurs to watch in 2007.
The Bad Boy
Sean “Diddy” Combs
In the past 10 years, Sean “Diddy” Combs, the producer and businessman behind the scenes of the powerhouse Bad Boy record label, part of his Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, has become one of the most conspicuous and diversified entrepreneurs of hip hop. In addition to producing and nurturing his own music and acting career, Diddy presides over the Sean John and Sean by Sean Combs clothing lines; Justin’s Caribbean-themed restaurants in New York and Atlanta; and Bad Boy Films, a movie production company, among other ventures. In 2006 Time magazine appointed the mogul to its list of “100 People Who Shape Our World,” estimating him to be worth $315 million.
Read the story
Reader comments –>
Read the story
Reader comments –>
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
Keep up the good work!
http://www.myfreedogtag.com