Empire State of Mind – by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Date read: 1/16/23. Recommendation: 8/10.
An exceptional Jay-Z biography that details his journey as one of the greatest artists and entrepreneurs of our generation. This book aims to answer a simple question: How did Jay-Z rise from a Brooklyn housing project to a position as one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs? It contains great lessons in the power of controlling your own destiny, honing resourcefulness, doing the work, taking risks, and allowing your voice to evolve.
See my notes below or Amazon for details and reviews.
My Notes:
This book aims to answer a simple question: How did Jay-Z rise from a Brooklyn housing project to a position as one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs?
The benefits of starting late:
“My first album didn’t come out until I was twenty-six, so I had a bit more maturity….My debut album had all these emotions and complexities and layers that a typical hip-hop album wouldn’t have if you were making it at sixteen, seventeen years old. That isn’t enough wealth of experience to share with the world.” Jay-Z
Control your own destiny:
Record companies had a habit of taking advantage of artists financially. Jay-Z was focused on making great music and controlling the business side too.
Built “an unparalleled commercial hip-hop empire encompassing music, film, liquor, and a clothing company that grew from a few sewing machines into a giant that produced $700 million in annual revenues.” ZG
“Jay-Z’s ability to make money by attaching his name to products is one of his greatest strengths as a businessman, and it was especially important during a period of declining numbers in the record industry, when barely one-fifth of his earnings came from record sales.” ZG
Jaz-O:
Jay-Z’s early mentor helped him fine-tune his rhymes—his lyrics became wittier, his delivery faster, and his syncopation sharper. Jay-Z would practice his rap skills at school by freestyling to beats pounded out on the cafeteria table.
In 1988, Jaz-O became the first rapper to land a deal with the British label EMI. He brought Jay-Z along to London where he got his first exposure to the broader music industry.
In 1989 after returning to the U.S., Jay-Z talked his way onto the tour bus of Big Daddy Kane (a successful rapper). Would go on stage during intermissions to entertain crowds with his freestyle. Spent four months working unpaid for a place to sleep on the tour bus floor and food.
“After the tour, Jay-Z found himself between worlds. Nearly twenty years old, he’d gotten a taste of the good life with Jaz-O in London, and he’d rubbed elbows with the biggest names in hip-hop on Big Daddy Kane’s tour. But he’d dropped out of high school, and his own musical career hadn’t gotten to a point where he could make serious money as an artist. So he picked up where he left off as a hustler.” ZG
Hustling:
Childhood friend DeHaven Irby introduced Jay to the lucrative opportunities offered by drug dealing. At 18, Jay started taking the train to Trenton on weekends where Irby taught him everything he knew about the local drug market.
Jay-Z saw music as a side hustle, his first album was supposed to be his only album. But selling drugs was what he saw as the most lucrative path. But in 1994, in an ambush by rivals, Jay-Z was shot at multiple times before a gun jammed, which saved his life. At that point, he got out of the drug trade in the mid-90s. He knew he couldn’t run the streets forever and the only way out was likely death or prison.
Natural talent:
“What set Jay-Z apart as an artist was the sharpness and rapidity with which he delivered his lyrics; that verbal dexterity earned him some attention in the underground scene.” ZG
Memorization:
Jay-Z is famous for memorizing all his verses instead of writing them down. Early in his career (1992), Clark Kent (A&R department at Atlantic Records) wanted Jay to lay down a song with rapper Sauce Money. Producer, Patrick Lawrence, was in charge of booking studio time for them. After three hours of Jay and Sauce laughing and talking, Lawrence got on them for wasting studio time. Jay asked to hear the song. “Lawrence played the track. Jay-Z began mumbling along to it, then picked up a pen and a notebook and seemed to write several lines. He placed the pad on the sofa and started pacing back and forth, muttering half-formed words. After five minutes, he glanced once more at the pad and told Lawrence he was ready. While Jay-Z was in the sound booth recording his verse, Lawrence went over to see what he’d written in the notebook, still sitting on the couch. ‘I walk to the pad, and there’s fucking nothing on it,’ Lawrence recalls. ‘He was doing it as a fucking joke, like just to show people.’” ZG
Recording Brooklyn’s Finest with Notorious B.I.G.—Big saw Jay do his part without having anything written down. He had to go home to do his part and fill in the blanks and only after he saw Jay do that, he also stopped writing down his rhymes.
Debut Album:
Thanks to connections, Jay-Z landed tracks from well-respected producers for his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. With his debut album nearly complete, he shopped it to all major record labels but no one was interested.
Seize creative control: After getting rejected by every major label, Jay-Z and his business partner, Damon Dash, pooled their resources to start their own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records.
Resourcefulness and doing whatever it takes: They pressed their own records, their CDs, their T-shirts, their stickers, their flyers. Pedaled music from the backs of their cars. Traveled across the five boroughs distributing tracks in clubs, barbershops, and street corners. Went to open mic nights.
Creating their own brands:
One of Dash and Jay’z primary tenants was that they shouldn’t let other people make money off of them or give free advertising—meaning they should always be compensated for endorsements or create their own brands.
During the late 90s, Jay and Dash would often wear Iceberg (Italian knitwear designer). His fans started wearing it and Iceberg’s sales took off. They approached the brand about a partnership and were shrugged off. Jay and Dash then went on to start Rocawear.
Rocawear was started in the back of the Roc-A-Fella Records office with three sewing machines where they stitched a Roc-A-Fella logo on the front of a T-shirt. But they barely knew how to sew and realized they had no idea what they were doing so they started working with Russell Simmons when founded Phat Farm for advice and partners. Within 18 months, Rocawear was doing $80 million in revenue.
Transcending mentors and business partners:
“Just as he honed his lyrical skills with Jaz-O’s help as a teenager in Brooklyn and developed his hustler’s sense selling crack with DeHaven Irby in Trenton, he learned legitimate entrepreneurialism from Damon Dash. In each case, Jay-Z absorbed the best qualities of his mentor, applied his own considerable talents to the subject at hand, quickly surpassed said mentor, and moved on to the next one.” ZG
Taking over as president at Def Jam:
When he started at Def Jam, he found people who had been living off one act for the past 20 years, there was no excitement, nothing fresh. During a retreat, he went around the room asking employees to share their reasons for getting into the record business to revitalize their sense of meaning and connection to their work. “We got people to go back to that inner kid and the joy of being in the record business.” Jay-Z
The key to staying on top is to treat everything like it’s your first project—stay humble and curious.
In December of 2007, his three-year contract was nearing an end and he had launched the careers of Rihanna, Kanye West, and Ne-Yo. His musical career was again on the rise and he immersed himself back into that.
Blazing the trail for hip-hop at rock festivals:
Headlined Glastonbury in UK in 2008. Many, including Noel Gallagher (Oasis), spoke out against a rapper playing a traditionally rock-focused show. Critics thought Jay would be booed off the stage. Jay came out with a parody of the Oasis song “Wonderwall” and the crow erupted.
Allow your voice to evolve:
“But the most remarkable aspect of 4:44 was its reflection of an artist who’d evolved from a closed-off adolescent to victory-obsessed hot-head to overly stoic dad to middle-aged sage finally in touch with his emotions and vulnerability.” ZG