For a person who has really been at the forefront of Hip Hop since the mid-1980s, Lyor Cohen, a manager at Rush Productions, a supervisor at Def Jam, the man behind 300 Entertainment and YouTube’s present Global Head of Music, he is known to be behind the shadows. But he had a few interesting things to say during his interview with The Breakfast Club.
Cohen gave Breakfast Club co-hosts DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God spilled the tea on everything from his pre-industry business (“I worked for the National Bank of Israel”), to Drake’s rumored signing to Def Jam before his Cash Money deal (“The truth is Drake shook my hand”), to conflicting with the grain of Jewish record officials who urged him not to work with Public Enemy (Cohen took Chuck D to the Holocaust Museum out of dislike), to ending up in a selfie with Universal Music Group executive, Lucian Grainge, and a Trump-loving Kanye West sporting a Make America Great Again hat. “I didn’t see the hat… I was fully immersed in the experience [and] honored to be there,” he said of the photo opp at West’s Calabasas home.
Cohen reviewed his initial days’ stimulation work when he got to New York City was bringing Run-DMC out and about, and concocting the expression “Who’s house? Run’s house!” on the Tougher Than Leather album.
He discussed Rich The Kid needing to leave 300 Entertainment, and the controversial DMX (shockingly, the straightforward Cohen will sign artists who are addicted to drugs since he’ll take “talent over issues” quickly). At the point when Charlamagne raised Dame Dash’s ongoing cases that it was Cohen who beat down Roc-A-Fella Records, Cohen advised the host to ask JAY-Z and Dame about that. “Who’s Dame Dash? I don’t even know him,” said Cohen. Charlamagne clapped back testily, “Y’all made a lot of money together,” and threw out the notion that Cohen built his career by being a “culture vulture.” Cohen sidestepped the criticism.
Check out the full interview below:
