Lyor Cohen
Lyor Cohen (born October 3, 1959 in New York City) is the Chairman and CEO of U.S. Recorded Music for Warner Music Group (WMG). He has been a pioneer in the development of hip hop music and influential in the development of hip hop music acts, including Beastie Boys, Foxy Brown, LL Cool J, Jason Mizell, Nas, Run-D.M.C. and others.
In addition, he has done various promotional work on behalf of rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and the heavy metal band Slayer, pop music singer Mariah Carey and hip hop artists Sean Combs and Jay-Z.
Cohen joined the company shortly after Time Warner's sale of WMG to an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.. Prior to his current role with Warner Music, he worked with The Island Def Jam Music Group, where he led the growth of its roster of artists and record labels, including Def Jam Recordings, Island Records, Roc-A-Fella Records, and Lost Highway Records.
Biography
Los Angeles and University of Miami
Cohen is one of two sons of Israeli immigrants and the grandson of an Israeli Army general. Although born in New York City, he spent little time there until later in life when he returned to Manhattan for good in his mid-20s to work with Def Jam Recordings' Russell Simmons. Cohen was raised in the affluent Los Angeles community of Los Feliz after divorce led his mother to relocate there. He graduated from John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and then the University of Miami's School of Business, in Coral Gables, Florida, where he majored in business.
Cohen has two half-brothers on his mother's side who have worked for Lyor at some point; both are also record label executives.
Hip Hop Music Career
Run-D.M.C.
Cohen entered the hip hop music business in the mid-1980s after booking a performance by seminal rappers Run-D.M.C. at a club Cohen was running in Los Angeles. He soon became the group's road manager, sharing a room with MC Darryl McDaniels (aka DMC) on the road. He began working in New York City for Def Jam's co-founder, Russell Simmons, in the early part of 1985, spearheading Rush Artist Management, the management division of Simmons' Def Jam/Rush operations and bringing a semblance of order to the often chaotic office shared by both the label and management.
Meanwhile, Cohen continued to act as Run-D.M.C.'s day-to-day and road and tour manager. He managed such tours as the 1986 Raising Hell Tour, (featuring Run-D.M.C., Whodini, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys and various guests such as Doug E. Fresh) and the 1988 Together Forever Tour (featuring Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and occasional guests such as Public Enemy).
Def Jam Records
Cohen's first real public impact came with his creation of Rush Associated Labels (or 'RAL') in 1990. The label mostly served as an outlet for side-projects of Rush-managed acts like Jason Mizell's Afros, but it also served a label for 'baby bands' - acts that needed more time to develop than Def Jam would be able to afford them - to organically grow at their own pace.
Over the years Cohen's influence grew, to the point where he personally earned $100 million from the sale of Def Jam Records to the Universal Music Group (UMG) in 1999. He was then made head of a key part of UMG subsidiary, Island Def Jam, where he led the growth of its roster of artists and record labels, including Def Jam, Island Records, Roc-A-Fella, Lost Highway, The Inc, American, and Def Soul (including Def Soul Classics and Roadrunner records) whose releases earned almost $700 million a year.
Warner Music Group
Cohen left IDJ/UMG in January 2004 for a position with the Edgar Bronfman, Jr. investor group-financed Warner Music Group, which was subsequently spun off from Time Warner. Joining Cohen at Warner are his former co-workers at Island Def Jam, Kevin Liles and Julie Greenwald, as well as a trio of older industry figures including Elektra founder Jac Holzman, Sire Records' Seymour Stein, and Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin.
Mos Def reference
Cohen is referenced in the 2004 song "The Rape Over", which appears on rap artist Mos Def's The New Danger. In a list of influential forces he sees running the hip hop music industry, Mos Def refers to Cohen, rapping that "some tall Israeli is runnin' this rap shit":
- Old white men is runnin' this rap shit,
- Corporate forces runnin' this rap shit,
- Some tall Israeli is runnin' this rap shit,
- We poke out our asses for a chance to cash in.
- Cocaine, is runnin' this rap shit,...
- 'Dro, 'yac and e-pills is runnin this rap shit,
- MTV is runnin' this rap shit,
- Viacom is runnin' this rap shit,
- AOL and Time Warner runnin' this rap shit,
- Quasi - homosexuals is runnin' this rap shit.
Trivia
- In a 2003 interview, rapper Bumpy Knuckles claimed the biggest mistake of his career was not breaking Lyor Cohen’s jaw when he had the opportunity.[1]