5 Moguldom Lessons From The Billion-Dollar Rise Of Jay-Z

I remember almost 20 years ago I was in my Harlem apartment listening to my favorite Jay-Z song of all time, “Some How, Some Way,” featuring Beanie Sigel. The words were like gospel to me, where my family was motivated by BeBe & CeCe Winans back in the day. I found spiritual words in Jay and Beanie Sigel’s words on this track. The words were real, the words were authentic, and the words were entrepreneurial and motivational. We have to find a way, some how, some way.

After listening to this song possibly a thousand times, I found a way. I found so much way I was able to be an executive producer and drive the vision of the film “A Genius Leaves The Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay-Z.”

“A Genius Leaves The Hood: The Unauthorized Story of Jay-Z” appeared on Netflix, TV One, and has been viewed millions of times by people around the world.

Some viewed my documentary as too critical of Jay-Z but my job was to ask this question in 2013: What did Jay-Z really believe in as it relates to the freedom, justice, and equality of Black people? At the time, that wasn’t clear and a study of millennials concluded something similar: We don’t know what Jay-Z believes in other than making money.

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After this documentary came out, Jay-Z made a more balanced pivot toward leveraging his influence and power for the uplift of his people. He decided to speak up on issues such as the promiscuous police violence against Black America.

In studying his life, here are my top five lessons he dropped on Black America specifically.

1. Intellectual range

Like Tupac and Malcolm X, Jay-Z has always been interested in different things than your typical brother from the block. He shared this when he said, “As you thumb through The Source, I read the Robb Report.” Jay-Z was reading and listening to different things and sharing that he listened to Alanis Morissette when it wasn’t cool to be from the street and listen to more feminist music, white music.

Tupac, Malcolm X, and Jay-Z all had a lot of range. To go on the world stage and bang with the best at business or anything, you can’t be locked in whatever bubble everyone else is in at a given time. Someone shared with me the story of the goldfish. If you put a goldfish in a bathtub, it will swim like it is still confined within the goldfish bowl. Jay-Z knew there was a big world out there he had to master, in part from a natural genetic curiosity but we all could learn from this. This curiosity and a willingness to learn from the “full universe of knowledge” allowed him to pass his business teacher, Damon Dash.

2. Know when to separate from dysfunction and depressed equity

Jay-Z made a bold and calculated move by separating himself from the dysfunction and depressed equity in Roc-A-Fella Records. What I mean by “depressed equity” is if I am the best businessman and THE foundational artist, if I am the genius, then I can’t give away too much value to my partners — partners who were a big positive but now have become a liability for me in getting where I want to go. Jay-Z decided it was time to get more equity for his gift. If friendships were in the way of a feeling of being robbed from getting the proper gift from the talents, Jay-Z felt the friendships had to go. Jay-Z brought the “killer” in business and removed himself from emotional business decisions, specifically, the business of Jay-Z.

Only you can determine when an environment is no longer healthy for you, no longer profitable, and clearly contrary to enabling you to be great. You saw a similar move when Dr. Dre left Suge Knight and was laughed at for not taking the risks of fighting with Knight over a significant ownership stake in Death Row Records.

When you’re from the hood and around others from the hood, the sour fruit from the tree of systemic white supremacy leaves an oil that builds up over time on our wings. We can’t fly according to our potential because the oil weighs our wings down. Jay-Z removed a lot of the remnant oil so he could fly around the world and become great. For example, Beanie Sigel was acquitted on a murder charge in 2005 and Jay-Z pled guilty to stabbing producer Lance “Un” Rivera in 2001. Jay-Z’s former Roc-A-Fella equity partner, Kareem “Biggs” Burke, was busted for being part of a massive marijuana-dealing operation in 2010. By the time the police busted that up, Jay-Z had already moved on and there wasn’t any reputational damage.

3. Make sacrifices, get uncomfortable

After Roc-A-Fella, I don’t believe Jay-Z wanted to be the corporate guy at Def Jam Recordings and come into the office most days of the week. However, he was willing to do it if he could get his masters back. Owning your masters is the foundation and mechanism to get your royalty money. You saw Jay-Z go after his masters in negotiations with Damon Dash and then with Def Jam in exchange for him serving as president. A dirty secret in the music business is a disproportionate number of Black artists selling their publishing or borrowing against the intellectual property at high interest rates. Often they do this to keep up with a floss lifestyle in the short term while giving away value in the long term. Jay-Z fought to get his masters back and won. He was willing to go “corporate” to do so. He got uncomfortable.

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“And most notably, Sprint paid $200 million for a third of Tidal, valuing the company at $600 million, a tenfold increase on the $56 million Jay Z paid to acquire it in 2015,” reported the verge.

4. Turning white supremacy into opportunity

When Jay-Z found out that Cristal didn’t want its brand associated with
the hip-hop community, he didn’t cry, march or tweet. He invested in Champagne Armand de Brignac, nicknamed “Ace of Spades”. According to Forbes, this is the biggest piece in Jay-Z’s wealth portfolio. The racial attack on the hip-hop community by the Cristal CEO was a blessing. It woke us up to do for self as it relates to the business of champagne. Diddy went on to partner with Ciroc vodka. Jay-Z moved America forward when he created a template for Black self-determination in various industries including clothing, spirits, music, entertainment, and technology.

5. Diversification

Jay-Z is well diversified, owning multiple non-correlated businesses. What I mean by non-correlated assets is one business can go up in smoke but this won’t impact his other businesses. For example, Jay-Z’s reported $300-million stake in Armand de Brignac is unlikely to collapse if Jay-Z’s $70-million art collection or $50-million in real estate go down in flames. Jay-Z’s wealth has diversification depth. The opposite of diversification would be if Jay-Z’s wealth was hyper-concentrated in Tidal, his streaming company. If Tidal went bust and all his money was in it, he would go bust with it.