Over the years, Carter has successfully used Jay-Z’s influence as a hip-hop star to build a franchise of businesses that capitalize on the rapper’s popularity. Where he is different than a typical brand is that he has an extreme amount of highly valuable influence. He could easily stand on the merits of what he is famous for, but he has shot to extreme levels of success due to his influence.”
In fact, it was recognizing that influence early on in his career that ultimately lead to the creation of the Rocawear clothing. When Carter noticed that a large portion of the audience attending his concerts were wearing ICEBERG—a clothing brand he was well-known to favor at the time—it occurred to him that his fans wanted to do more than just listen to his music. They wanted to live his lifestyle as well. Believing he had cachet as a trendsetter, Carter approached executives at the clothing company with the intention of securing an endorsement deal. But they declined his offer; ICEBERG’s loss in retrospect (”Sometimes you’ve gotta learn to live with regrets.”) That’s when he and then-partner Damon Dash decided to found Rocawear.
Jay-Z Inc. represents the business ventures built around Jay-Z the hip-hop star. What began with rapping, soon grew to include Rocafella records, Rocawear, and a host of endorsement deals and joint ventures. For the most part, all of these undertakings owe their success to Jay-Z’s influence as a hip-hop star. But after 12 years of building up the franchise, Carter has cashed in piece by piece.
Within Jay-Z music career he has 11 albums to the date that total up to over 28 million units sold worldwide which marks Jay-Z as the “best rapper alive”. Businessman Shawn Carter is always recognizing ways to advance his empire like the earlier example of the clothing brand. He recognized talent signing many artists to his record label such as Camron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, and the most popular is Kanye West. Apart from signing these artists to his label he is also played an instrumental role in getting Rhianna to sign with Def Jam Records.
In late 2004, Jay-Z, and Dash sold their remaining interests in Roc-A-Fella Records and the Def Jam Recordings by Island Def Jam chairman L. A. Reid. Reportedly this major industry move was prompted by disagreement between Jay-Z and Dash as to what new ventures Roc-A-Fella could undertake. In 2005, Carter bought out Dash’s stake of Rocawear for $30 million. Then in 2007, sold the company to Iconix Brand Group for $204 million in cash, plus an additional $35 million in Iconix stock, contingent on whether Rocawear meets certain performance goals over the next few years. The deal is Iconix’s largest acquisition to date.
Upon doing this Shawn Carter became the CEO and President of Def Jam Records from 2006-2008. Jay-Z announced on December 24, 2007 that he will not remain at Def Jam as the company's President, and vacated the position effective of January 1, 2008. Jay-Z teamed up with Norwegian production duo Stargate to establish a record label called StarRoc.
Jay-Z has recently finalized a deal with concert promoter LiveNation for $150 million, one of the richest contracts ever awarded to a musician. This partnership, is named Roc Nation, it includes financing for Jay-Z's own entertainment ventures (which are expected to become a record label, talent/management agency, and music publishing company).
Carter’s current portfolio of business interests—which include the New Jersey Nets, 40/40 Club, beauty care line Carol’s Daughter, J hotels, Scion, LLC., and Translation Advertising. Carter looks to make the transition from hip-hop star to a business celebrity, much like Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, and Magic Johnson.
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