Julie K Cohen Popular Books

Julie K Cohen Biography & Facts

Lyor Cohen (born October 3, 1959) is an American music industry executive and entrepreneur. He has been actively involved in hip hop at various record labels for more than 30 years. He started by managing rappers for Rush Productions, then led Def Jam. After Def Jam, Cohen took on a leadership role at Warner Music Group. In September 2012, Cohen resigned from Warner and started his own independent label, 300 Entertainment. On September 28, 2016, Cohen was named YouTube's Global Head of Music. Early life and education Cohen was born in New York City, in 1959, to Israeli immigrants. He grew up in Los Angeles. In 1981, he earned a degree in global marketing and finance from the University of Miami School of Business at the University of Miami. After graduating from the University of Miami, he worked briefly in the Beverly Hills office of Bank Leumi. Music career Rush Productions / Rush Artist Management Late in 1984, after promoting a pair of rock and rap shows at The Mix Club in Hollywood (one featured Run-DMC, the other featured Whodini), Cohen moved to New York to take a job at Simmons' Rush Productions (later called Rush Artist Management). Beginning as Run-DMC's road manager, Cohen quickly began taking on additional responsibilities, working on behalf of an artist roster that included Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. By 1987, Cohen himself was signing artists to Rush. These acts included Slick Rick, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Eric B. & Rakim, EPMD, Stetsasonic, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest. Cohen credits Jam Master Jay with teaching him the basics of the music business. "[Jay] showed me how to settle shows and fulfill my responsibilities to the group," Cohen told Vibe magazine. "It's those lessons that I rely on daily to do what I do now." Before long, according to Rolling Stone, Cohen "became known for his no-nonsense approach to business, his negotiating skill, his ability to forward the plot". It was Cohen who brokered Run-DMC's endorsement deal with Adidas, "one of the first big commercial deals for a rap group". This deal was followed by others that paired up Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with Le Coq Sportif, LL Cool J with Troop sportswear, and Run-DMC with New Coke. By 1989, Rush—under Cohen's leadership—was recognized as "the premier management operation" in the Rap field. Steve Stoute, in The Tanning of America, credits Cohen with "[believing] early on in the cultural melting pot that was being brewed for and by the younger generation". In his own words, Lyor Cohen has said, "I was determined to prove people wrong, to prove to the gatekeepers of the industry that we had a place here and we weren't going to relinquish our opportunity." From artist development to label executive Cohen began transitioning from artist management to the label side of the music business in 1989, when he and Simmons formed Rush Associated Labels. The goal was to capitalize on the ability of established recording artists to sniff out new talent by signing boutique label deals with them. It paid off most notably with Jam Master Jay's JMJ Records, which brought Onyx to Def Jam in 1992 and Jayo Felony in 1994. By then Cohen was starting to groom a new generation of executives, notably Chris Lighty, Julie Greenwald, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Mike Kyser. In 1994 Cohen teamed up with Simmons to negotiate Def Jam's departure from Sony: 142  (which had been distributing Def Jam since 1985) for a new home at PolyGram. By then, having become Simmons's partner in the label several years earlier, Cohen was running Def Jam day-to-day.: 134  (Rick Rubin, Def Jam's founder, had left Def Jam in 1988.) Def Jam under PolyGram and Universal Under PolyGram and Cohen's leadership, Def Jam prospered. Cohen worked with a brand-new roster of successful rappers, like Redman, Method Man, Jay-Z, DMX, Ja Rule and Ludacris. Concurrently, Cohen oversaw custom label deals with Roc-A-Fella Records, Murder Inc., Disturbing Tha Peace, and others. In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram, and merged into Universal. The Island Def Jam Music Group In June 1998, after PolyGram's merger with Universal Music and its MCA-related label group, Island, Mercury, and Def Jam were merged into a new unit called the Island Def Jam Music Group. Cohen was named co-president. In the process, he became (as he himself noted) "the first Hip-Hop president in charge of a major label". This promotion required Cohen to expand his portfolio to include artists who didn't rap, among them Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, Elvis Costello, Ashanti, Nickelback, Slipknot, Sum 41, The Killers, and Slayer. In 2001, Cohen was involved in Island Def Jam's purchase of Roadrunner, a heavy-metal label, as well as the deal to distribute Rick Rubin's American. In 2002, American released Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around. The last album released by Cash before his death, it included Cash's hit version of Trent Reznor's "Hurt". Warner Music Group In January 2004, Cohen left Island Def Jam for a position with the Edgar Bronfman Jr. investor group-financed Warner, which was subsequently spun off from Time Warner. Ultimately, Cohen was named WMG's chairman and chief executive. By 2006, the positive effects of Cohen's leadership were encapsulated in a story for The Los Angeles Times, which reported that, "Under Cohen, Warner Music has thrived, due in part to the executive's innovative initiatives, such as an incubator program that builds relationships with independent label executives the company aspires to hire." Warner's success with Mike Jones and the rock band Paramore both grew out of the incubator program. At Warner, Cohen oversaw the merger of the Atlantic and Elektra labels into Atlantic, and placed Julie Greenwald, his protégée, into a top executive position there. In 2009, Cohen elevated Greenwald to chairman and chief operating officer of Atlantic, a promotion that established Greenwald as the highest-ranking woman executive at an American record company. Greenwald's successes at Atlantic have included The Black Keys, Bruno Mars, Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Mraz, Kid Rock, Lupe Fiasco, Plies, T.I., and Wiz Khalifa. YouTube and Spotify In September 2006, Cohen oversaw an agreement with YouTube that allowed the site to show videos by Warner artists in exchange for a share of YouTube's advertising revenue. According to The New York Times, the deal marked "the first time a major record company [had] licensed content to YouTube". In 2011, Cohen oversaw an agreement on behalf of the Warner roster with Spotify, the digital music service. Eventually, Cohen oversaw all of Warner's digital initiatives. Departure from Warner In September 2012 Cohen resigned from Warner where he served as one of their dominant creative executives. Future ventures and 300 There was much speculation about Cohen's next move. Cohen's own assessment of his career was broa.... Discover the Julie K Cohen popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Julie K Cohen books.