Smooth with mean grace; this is a Must Read for ALL Industry Affiliates. RIP to one of the greatest Hip Hop moguls ever, Chris Lighty you will be missed.
He was a big man, Chris Lighty.
Wide, and tall. Shoulders that stretched from Hollywood to New York City. But his normal speaking voice ranked just above a whisper. As a teenager he carried records for DJs. As a professional, he carried water for an industry and for a culture.
He has managed (among others) the careers of 50 Cent, Missy Elliott, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Busta Rhymes and Foxy Brown. Those who dislike the commercialization of hip-hop may see only money signs in Lighty’s move to brand the game: Long before he negotiated what would become 50 Cent’s $100 million deal with Glacéau’s Vitamin Water, Violator worked out LL’s commercial with the Gap in the late 1990s, as well as Busta and A Tribe Called Quest’s early deals with soda companies.
For those of us who remember when it was near, or actually, impossible to get hip-hop booked into nightclubs and arenas, who remember when pop radio stations would not play rap…
read full piece by Danyel Smith
10 things you didn’t know about Chris Lighty
Tags: chris lighty, violator
