So they say the record industry's dying? Somebody forgot to tell
Warner Music's Boss of Bosses.
Complex.com:
You can call Lyor Cohen by his official title: Chairman and CEO of
Warner Music Group. Or you can simply call him "the check writer."
Starting in the '80s as Run-DMC's road manager, the now 50-year-old
American-born "tall Israeli" has become hip-hop's industry standard,
having helped build Island Def Jam into a juggernaut by signing acts
like Jay-Z, DMX, Slick Rick,and EPMD. In 2004, he moved over to Warner
and has continued molding stars, including T.I., Trey Songz, and Lupe
Fiasco. Cohen recently sat with us to discuss why his son doesn't like
talking rap with him, his disappointment over not signing Drake, and the
reason he doesn't see much of himself in today's young music
executives.
A lot of people say that the music industry is moving toward music
becoming free. Is that a viable model going forward?
Lyor Cohen: If it's free, then how would record labels support paying
their staff and signing new artists? I think it would be bad for culture
and the art if artists and people who develop the apparatus to support
those artists don't get paid. How about this: Look at the vibe around
the world about America and Americans after eight years of Bush. People
who adored us and aspired to our democracy and our society turned their
backs on us. Content that's generated out of America, whether it be film
or music, has, in my opinion, much greater impact in sustaining our
credibility and our place as a cultural capital. This is our great
export.
What does it say that Gucci Mane, one of your biggest artists, made
his name by releasing a slew of original material for free?
Lyor Cohen: Well, I'm not convinced he didn't get paid, because a lot of
those mixtapes were sold. I don't doubt that mom and pop stores sold
them, but a lot of people got them for free. That has more to do with
some of the corrections that need to happen in our business and the
delivery of our music, whether it be radio or new Internet programming.
He may have been frustrated that he wasn't able to get his music out.
You've played an integral part in hip-hop for 25 years. Nowadays,
people complain about the state of rap. What do you say to people who
think hip-hop's best days are behind it?
Lyor Cohen: I like moments of staleness and mildew, simply because it
creates the lane for change. Remember when everything was full of color
and happy-dappy when Bad Boy was running everything and then we came
with DMX? Do you remember that summer? How excited people got? That's my
favorite moment—when I sit on a porch in the summertime and the air
gets really thick. There's no breeze. The birds start darting around.
And then all of a sudden a violent storm comes through—raindrops as big
as cups; lighting and thunder. I know when things get stale there's
someone making an opportunity. Rap now is multi-generational, which has
its own issues. My son is a big Cudi fan, but he does not like talking
to me about Kid Cudi.
It's not like you don't know anything about Cudi. Why wouldn't he
want to talk to you?
Lyor Cohen: Fuckin' kids don't want knowledge from their 50-year-old
dad. Kids want to have their own shit. It doesn't matter if I'm in the
business.
Speaking of new artists, many people were expecting Drake to sign
with you at Warner Music. Did it disappoint you that he ended up going
with Universal Motown?
Lyor Cohen: A very disappointing thing. But I'm a lover of rap music. I
want good things to happen to this industry. I have so much good fortune
and already have everything. I feel like we have a terrific company,
and we're very old-school in that once we grip someone's hand,
fundamentally we believe that's a deal. But that's not this generation.
They'll grip someone's hand and say they're coming, but if someone
offers them more they will renege. That's not how we get down.
Did Drake do that?
Lyor Cohen: I'll keep that between Drake and myself.
Have you met any young executives that you see a lot of yourself in?
Lyor Cohen: I haven't. Only because this generation is handicapped by
the era of excess. I grew up in an era of love and swimming upstream,
determined to prove people wrong. We had chips on our shoulders, like,
"We belong here." But now it's the most popular, biggest segment of the
industry. We've had a decade of private planes and Maybachs. That's not
the era that I came from. The era I came from, I had zero expectation
that I was going to make any money. I was determined to prove to the
gatekeepers of the industry that we had a place here and we weren't
going to relinquish our opportunity. I never had to keep up with nobody
because we were all on subways. So it was never like, "My subway is
bigger and flyer than your subway." And there was a real fraternal
order. We were backstage with Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and
Keith Haring, and we had zero fucking money. But everybody wanted us in
the VIP room because we were doing something that was so important to
them. People understood that it wasn't if it was going to happen, it was
when it was going to happen.
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