perfidy

Shaun Carter has 99 problems but a career ain't one.

Jay-Z has been named new head of Def Jam Recordings. This is only interesting if you find the music industry interesting. I do. This is an intriguing move for Def Jam, and one that points up both the strength of the brand and the dangers of having a founder as important as the company itself.

Just look at the chain of stewardship for Def Jam, one of the first-- and arguably the most important-- label in all of hip hop music and culture: Russell Simmons, 1984-1999. Lyor Cohen, 1999-2002, Simmons' longtime right-hand man all the way from the 1980s and now part of the Universal corporate ladder. LA Reid, 2002-2004, hitmaker, songwriter and Russell Simmons Disciple. And now Shaun Jay-Z Carter, the most successful Simmons-style businessman in the industry today (save perhaps Puffy), merging music, fashion, style and business into one irreducible whole.

The thing to notice about this chain is that Def Jam still gets most of its strength and momentum from moves originally made by Russell Simmons, who was never a musician but rather the greatest cool-hunter and trendsetter around. The label's late-90s turnaround with the signings of Ludacris, DMX, and Ja Rule took place under Simmons' auspices even though by that time he was mostly out of the label's picture.

Lyor Cohen was Simmons' chosen apprentice and stalwart company man, and his time in charge amounts to Bush I after Reagan. The strategic distribution deals with labels like Roc-A-Fella and Tha Inc. (formerly Murder Inc.) were done on the strength of Simmons' name and brand. LA Reid-- a once-time Simmons disciple-- had a fabulous run at LaFace and a rocky time in charge of Arista as temporary replacement for Clive Davis, and it's not clear what value he added to Def Jam in his time as label head.

Jay-Z is a natural choice to take the Def Jam helm, since his Roc-a-Fella empire was modelled consciously on Russell Simmons' business strategy (Simmons had/has advertising agencies, management companies, the Phat Farm clothing label, and a galaxy of strategic licensing/branding deals to prop up his brands). Moreover, Jay-Z knows the ropes since his label has been part of the Def Jam family for several years. However, his skill as a corporate warrior remains unproven. As head of Roc-a-Fella he was totally in charge of his own label even as that label reported through Def Jam to the rest of the Universal conglomerate. Now that buffer is gone and he needs to learn how to speak directly to that conglomerate, in a language they can understand.

He takes charge of a label family that, though it is the biggest name in hip-hop, is still one tiny column of figures on the quarterly balance sheet of a gigantic international colossus. For all the Kanye Wests, Ashantis, and Beanie Sigals he has, it is still a small roster in a volatile industry, and a label getting farther every day from the firsthand guidance of the man who founded, grew, and guided it to unparalleled success.

Jay-Z already has the skills. Can he pay Universal's bills?

[wik] A scratched copy of Europe's "The Final Countdown" to the first person to email with the correct answer to this question: What does "Jay-Z" the nickname refer to?