Word: puff
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Davis didn't invent the JV, but he was one of the first to show how lucrative it can be. Arista's 1989 investment in hip-hop-heavy Bad Boy Records, run by Puff Daddy, and its 1994 investment in R.-and-B. powerhouse LaFace Records, run by L.A. Reid and the producer Babyface, were mere chicken feed: about $3 million apiece. Last year LaFace chalked up sales of more than $75 million and Bad Boy of about $35 million. "Rather than buy companies and pay multiples," says Davis, "we started from scratch and made a relatively modest investment...
...Davis made a huge gamble: he invested millions in hip-hop, a genre many viewed as too troubled to be worth the risk. But the grunge bubble went bust, of course, as did a few of the labels betting on it. Today, hip-hop rolls along as comfortably as Puff Daddy does in his Bentley...
Music is a game of averages, and Davis certainly doesn't bat .1000; Puff Daddy's solo album Forever is off to a slow start. But Arista has created enough hits to help lift the market share of its corporate parent BMG from 14% to 18%, second only to the Universal Music Group...
...style that is distinctly Old World. He prefers handwritten notes to e-mail. And he usually dresses in the pin-striped, cuff-linked style of a diplomat. That can make him easy to spot at nightclubs checking out new acts or perhaps talking shop with his protege, Puff Daddy. "When I go to see Clive, I'm going to school," says Puffy...
...with an intensity that's easier to buy from folks who have the Bomb than from sportscasters. That and an ensemble including ice-cool Rob Lowe and the deadpan, woebegone Richard Schiff make this freshman White House worth cutting slack for--for now. This is, after all, no cream-puff game like politics. It's TV, where honeymoons are even shorter...