Lyor Cohen
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Lyor (Elroy) Cohen Born in 1959, son of Israeli immigrants and the grandson of an Israeli Army general.
Currently he is the CEO of Warner Music Group. Before occupying this position, he was the Chairman and CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group.
Cohen entered the rap business in the early 80s, after an encounter with the seminal rappers Run-DMC at a club Cohen was running in California. He soon became the group's road manager, sharing a room with MC Darryl McDaniels (aka DMC) on the road. He eventually headed for New York to work for Def Jam's founder, Russell Simmons, when Simmons' former partner and influential record producer Rick Rubin left the company.
Lyor Cohen's first public impact came with the de-emphasis of the Def Jam name & logo & the forming of 'RAL' in 1990, which was an informal in house acronym for 'Russel And Lyor', but officially stood for 'Rush Associated Labels'.
Over the years Cohen's influence grew, to the point where he personally earned $100 million from the sale of Def Jam to the Universal Music Group in 1999. He was then made president of a key part of UMG subsidiary, Island Def Jam, where he oversaw relationships with numerous artists & labels and whose units achieved phenomenal growth and earned almost $700 million a year.
Along with oversight of Rick Rubin's 'American Recordings', were partner labels like Irv 'Gotti' Lorenzo's Murder Inc. label , where Cohen was listed on the executive board and reportedly was known by the endearing gangster nickname 'Lansky'. Irv Gotti dubbed Cohen his own "Meyer Lansky" in a 2002 statement publicly renewing Murder Inc. and Def Jam/Universal's business deal.
Lyor Cohen has a reputation for conducting business in a very aggressive manner, including using intense pressure and stealing artists away from others' deals.
After breaking a deal with TVT records over releasing some pre-Murder Inc. Ja Rule rap recordings, Lyor was sued by TVT. Despite his deep ties to the Murder Inc. labels development, distribution and industry largesse, Cohen played down his dealings with the 'Murder Inc' label once the legal heat and spotlight was on. When one attorney asked, "[d]o you sit with Mr. Gotti on the executive board of Murder Inc.," Cohen responded: "I'm not sure." It was ruled that Cohen and UMG had committed fraud and that TVT was owed $132 million, half of which was designated as Cohen's personal responsibility. This $56 million liability was unprecendented in the industry, but was later overturned in June 2005 by an appeals court. TVT has vowed to appeal. Another suit against Cohen was filed in 2003 by Eric "Eric B." Barrier who claims he's owed up to $70 million in royalties for the "Paid In Full" album handled by Def Jam/Island.
Cohen later left IDJ/UMG in January of 2004 for a position with the Edgar Bronfman, Jr. investor group financed Warner Music Group, now officially spun off from Time Warner. Joining Cohen at Warner are his former co-workers at Island Def Jam, Kevin Liles and Julie Greenwald, as well as a trio of older industry figures like Elektra founder Jac Holzman, Atlantic's legendary Ahmet Ertegun and Sire's Seymour Stein. Another industry success that has rejoined the Warner family is Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin.
Cohen announced he would take part in an online reality show about starting a label to be webcast on AOL called The Biz in October 2005.
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