Trapital - roc la familia

roc la familia

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Hey! If you haven’t already, make sure you check out last week’s pod episode on the state of music with Will Page. I think it’s one of the best ones we’ve done, so definitely give it a listen.

For this week’s episode (drops tomorrow), we’re taking a trip down memory lane. Get your Yankees fitted, your Timbs, your collared shirts and the pink polos. We did a deep dive on Roc-a-Fella Records, one of the most iconic hip-hop labels of its time. I was joined by Zack O’Malley Greenburg and we went deep.

As Dame Dash once said, “It’s the ROC you bastards!”

Here are a few highlights.

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music as a platform

In 1997, Roc-a-Fella left Priority Records and brought the label to Def Jam. Roc sold 50% of the company to Def Jam for $1.5 million. It wasn’t a huge deal, like Cash Money or No Limit’s lucrative distribution deals. But at the time, Roc-a-Fella was just Jay Z (and a one-off R&B album from Christión). It was still a few years away from becoming a collective with multiple commercially successful acts.

A few years later, its $10 million sale to Island Def Jam for the remaining 50% wasn’t a huge deal either. But these deals were a platform. Music was the launch pad for everything else.

At its height, Rocawear cleared nine figures in annual revenue (and was eventually sold for nine figures). Roc Films released Streets Is Watching, Paid In Full, State Property, documentaries, and more. That was their platform.

They executed the same framework in last year’s Culture Report. Artists become millionaires selling music, but they become billionaires selling products.

This concept wasn’t new in hip-hop. Jay Z, Dame Dash, and Biggs executed this over 20 years ago. Jay Z didn’t sell as much as other superstar rappers. Roc-a-Fella Records didn’t have as much ownership or royalty points as others, but they got equity in other areas. That mentality set the stage for the deals Jay Z continued to pursue.

the turning point

Jay’s third album, Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life is often called the turning point for himself and Roc-a-Fella. It’s true, but there were two other important factors: frequency and touring.

Let’s start with frequency. Jay Z released an album every year from 1996 to 2003. Some were classics, a few were forgettable, but he was always in the conversation. That was the Def Jam formula.

By January 1999, Jay Z and DMX had released three albums in the prior eight months that grossed over $82 million in sales. Def Jam’s leaders, Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles, had their foot on the gas.

“There was a huge demand and very little supply,” Lyor said in an interview with The Fader. He offered DMX a $1 million bonus if he could release a second album in 1998, which led to Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. In 1999, Def Jam was ready to sell the remaining half of its business to Polygram. Lyor wanted to squeeze as much revenue as possible into the calendar year to command top-dollar for the company.

On the touring side, The Hard Knock Life Tour is Roc-a-Fella’s dark horse, underappreciated business move. In the late 90s, a nationwide arena rap tour was rare. Promoters thought rap concerts were too violent. They wanted R&B collaborations like Smokin’ Grooves or Puff Daddy & The Family. Despite the unfair and biased profiling, Dame’s hustler mentality shined through.

His main goal was to control the narrative. Dame assured the media there would be no issues. In several cities, he paid for additional security at the shows from the Fruit of Islam. He stocked the tour bus with movies like As Good As It Gets and Good Will Hunting to prove that they’re not just watching gangster movies. They supported the Colorado community after the Columbine shooting. The list goes on.

The Hard Knock Life Tour grossed $18 million. It’s not much compared to hip-hop doors today, but this tour paved the way for those to happen. After Hard Knock Life, we soon saw The Up In Smoke Tour, Ruff Ryders / Cash Money, and several other rap arena tours in the 2000s.

the infamous split

The Jay Z and Dame Dash split always felt inevitable, but the timing was rough. Here are the releases leading up to break up, from March 2003 to February 2004:

Freeway’s Philadelphia Freeway, The Diplomat’s Diplomatic Immunity, Juelz Santana’s From Me to U, Jay Z’s The Black Album, Memphis Bleek’s M.A.D.E., Kanye West’s The College Dropout, and Young Gunz’ Tough Luv

That’s the most prolific year Roc-a-Fella had. Imagine if the Marvel Cinematic Universe ended after 2016’s Captain America – Civil War. We would have missed some great cinema (sorry, Martin Scorsese). That’s how rough the timing of the Jay Z and Dame Dash split was.

Sure, Dame and Jay had issues leading up to the release of The Black Album or the “promotion” of Cam’Ron, but the underlying tension came from their conflicting leadership styles.

Jay wanted to be rich. Dame wanted to be king. Jay moved like a private equity investor making M&A deals. Dame wanted to call the shots and maintain control. As mentioned in Trapital’s essay on Jay and Dame’s split, the two go hand in hand.

Dame is built for early-stage companies. He had the hustle to push Hot 97 for early radio play and the determination to get his record label off the ground. But like any company, the seed stage leaders might not be the best for the Series B or C stage. It’s often time for a leadership shake-up to reach a different level.

I always think about Kanye West’s 2013 interview on The Breakfast Club, where he explains why he decided to partner with Jay instead of Dame:

“The problem was with Dame his truth was more accurate and more closer to what mine was, but his technique was harsh for me as a young kid and stuff. I felt like a little bit more pressure. And Jay Z was a nice guy. And also I felt like I had that truth that Dame has in him. We the same. Me and [Cam’Ron’], me and Dame, we the same. But I wanted to learn this technique that Jay got of actually being likable. Jay Z know how to move in a room full of vultures.”

The quote says a lot about Ye, especially over the last decade, as well as the people he mentioned.

who lost the most?

The media often pits Dame as the one who took an L. But I’ve met Dame, been to his house, and seen how he lives. He’s doing just fine. No one “lost” but Zack and I agreed that the person who was likely held back the most from reaching their full potential as an artist was Cam’Ron.

In 2002 and 2003, KIla Cam was on top. That stretch led to Come Home With Me and Diplomatic Immunity. He starred in Paid In Full, brought the whole Dipset crew with him, and made pink fashionable. Plus, he and Dame Dash blessed us with the “U Mad” line in an unforgettable appearance on The O’Reilly Factor.

Unfortunately, that was his commercial peak. His next album Purple Haze had great songs like “Down and Out” but also had the infamous line, “I got computers putin’.”

While Juelz Santana and Jim Jones still had big hits to come in the post-Roc split days, Cam never quite got there again.

I could write another essay’s worth on takeaways from our episode. Here are a few more topics we discussed:

• the days before Roc-a-Fella started
• how Jay Z’s touring strategy has evolved
• Ye’s tenure on Roc-a-Fella Records

Subscribe to the podcast here to get it when it’s out.

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money moves

• ​Decent launches The Box to make buying digital assets as easy as buying on Amazon (I’m an investor)
• ​the state of music with Will Page

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coming soon from Trapital

Podcast: What’s the role of a music video? We look at the evolution of music videos, the role they’ve served in the industry, how it has changed over time. Excited for this one!

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