Simmons Bangs Drum for Black Entrepreneurs

Mogul discusses business, music as release approaches

(NEWSER) - As he comes full circle with the Sept. 11 release of The Blueprint 3, exactly 8 years after the original Blueprint, Jay-Z discusses his journey from the projects of Brooklyn to the top of Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash King list with Billboard. “We—Usher, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, myself—are becoming the people that we looked up to musically growing up, like Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra,” he says. More»

(NEWSER) - Jay-Z confirmed to RapRadar today that he has left Def Jam Records after more than a decade. The news follows an unconfirmed report on HitsDailyDouble that the rapper bought out his contract for $5 million. Jay-Z, 39, owed Def Jam one more album, but he was eager to move on to his new Roc Nation venture under the Live Nation umbrella. His Blueprint 3, with Kanye West as a producer, is expected out this year. More»

Live Nation deal sign of industry upheaval

(NEWSER) - Rapper Jay-Z is about to decamp from record label Def Jam and sign a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation, reports the New York Times. The deal, Live Nation's biggest to date, will give the superstar financial backing for tours, his own record label and other related ventures such as talent consulting. It reflects the ongoing scramble in the music business as CD sales plunge and fans download more and more of their music. More»

Class takes sociological view of rapper's work

(NEWSER) - He’s already a hip-hop superstar, a big-shot exec, and married to Beyonce; now, Jay-Z is also the subject of elite academic discourse. Georgetown students are flocking to a sociology course on hip-hop and Jay-Z’s rise, taught by author and radio host Michael Eric Dyson. “Sociology of Hip-Hop—Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z,” as the class is called, seeks “the intellectual, theological, philosophical predicate for Jay-Z’s argument.” More»

He says US foreign policy helps foster terror

(NEWSER) - Conservatives slammed President Obama for hosting Chicago rapper Common at the White House. Now Obama is taking criticism from a different Chicago rapper. "To me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America,” Lupe Fiasco told CBS in an interview noted by the Huffington Post . “I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism.” He said “the root cause of terrorism” includes “the foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists.” More»