Word: def
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...diagnosis, LaBelle has had a Tony Bennett--like resurgence. Her reputation as a singer has deepened, and younger singers now clamor to record with her. In the past year LaBelle's gospel-trained voice has graced albums by rappers DMX, Wyclef Jean and OutKast. She has signed with Def Jam Classics and is working on an album for release...
...Russell Simmons, the godfather of urban marketing, and Sean (P. Diddy) Combs have set the standard. To really make it in the $5 billion rap business, you have to mix more than beats. You have to be into fashion, movies and maybe even a Broadway play. Simmons founded Def Jam records and runs Phat Fashions, a $263 million clothing line, and produced Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. P. Diddy, a star recording artist, also runs Bad Boy Records, a $325 million clothing line and two restaurants...
...interested. Frustrated, Dash kept hustling Jay-Z at clubs in order to raise the money to start his own label, named in homage to the oil barons. He eventually persuaded Priority Records to distribute Jay-Z's debut, Reasonable Doubt, and it quickly sold a million copies. In 1997 Def Jam bought a 50% stake in Roc-A-Fella for about $1.5 million. Dash still laments the price but learned a business lesson. "We should have held out for more," he says. "Those f______ got us so damn cheap." Roc-A-Fella has averaged some $50 million in annual revenue...
...other label would sign him, has expanded into a diversified corporation, selling everything from clothes to vodka. Under the day-to-day management of his friend Damon Dash, Roc-A-Fella posts estimated annual revenues of $1 billion. "Why should he make records?" asks Russell Simmons, architect of Def Jam, the original hip-hop conglomerate. "Records are a distraction. He could be missing an opportunity to get really rich. I haven't produced a record for 15 years." Simmons, who once oversaw classic albums by Run D.M.C. and LL Cool J, adds, "Making records is over...
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