Lyor Cohen

Lyor Cohen (born October 3, 1959) is an American music industry executive and entrepreneur.

He has been actively involved in hip hop at various record labels for more than 30 years.

He started by managing rappers for Rush Productions, then led Def Jam.

After Def Jam, Cohen took on a leadership role at Warner Music Group.

Born in New York to Israeli immigrants in 1959, Cohen grew up in Los Angeles.

In 1981, he earned a degree in global marketing and finance from the University of Miami School of Business at the University of Miami.

After graduating from the University of Miami, he worked briefly in the Beverly Hills office of Bank Leumi.

Late in 1984, after promoting a pair of rock and rap shows at The Mix Club in Hollywood (one featured Run-DMC, the other featured Whodini), Cohen moved to New York to take a job at Simmons' Rush Productions (later called Rush Artist Management).

Beginning as Run-DMC's road manager, Cohen quickly began taking on additional responsibilities, working on behalf of an artist roster that included Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy.

By 1987, Cohen himself was signing artists to Rush.

These acts included Slick Rick, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Eric B. & Rakim, EPMD, Stetsasonic, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest.

Cohen credits Jam Master Jay with teaching him the basics of the music business.

"[Jay] showed me how to settle shows and fulfill my responsibilities to the group," Cohen told Vibe magazine.

"It's those lessons that I rely on daily to do what I do now."

Before long, according to Rolling Stone, Cohen "became known for his no-nonsense approach to business, his negotiating skill, his ability to forward the plot".

It was Cohen who brokered Run-DMC's endorsement deal with Adidas, "one of the first big commercial deals for a rap group".

This deal was followed by others that paired up Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with Le Coq Sportif, LL Cool J with Troop sportswear, and Run-DMC with New Coke.

(Rick Rubin, Def Jam's founder, had left Def Jam in 1988. )

Under PolyGram and Cohen's leadership, Def Jam prospered.

Cohen worked with a brand-new roster of successful rappers, like Redman, Method Man, Jay-Z, DMX, Ja Rule and Ludacris.

Concurrently, Cohen oversaw custom label deals with Roc-A-Fella Records, Murder Inc., and Disturbing Tha Peace.

By 1989, Rush—under Cohen's leadership—was recognized as "the premier management operation" in the Rap field.

Steve Stoute, in The Tanning of America, credits Cohen with "[believing] early on in the cultural melting pot that was being brewed for and by the younger generation".

In his own words, Lyor Cohen has said, "I was determined to prove people wrong, to prove to the gatekeepers of the industry that we had a place here and we weren't going to relinquish our opportunity."

Cohen began transitioning from artist management to the label side of the music business in 1989, when he and Simmons formed Rush Associated Labels.

The goal was to capitalize on the ability of established recording artists to sniff out new talent by signing boutique label deals with them.

It paid off most notably with Jam Master Jay's JMJ Records, which brought Onyx to Def Jam in 1992 and Jayo Felony in 1994.

By then Cohen was starting to groom a new generation of executives, notably Chris Lighty, Julie Greenwald, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Mike Kyser.

In 1994 Cohen teamed up with Simmons to negotiate Def Jam's departure from Sony (which had been distributing Def Jam since 1985) for a new home at PolyGram.

By then, having become Simmons's partner in the label several years earlier, Cohen was running Def Jam day-to-day.

In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram, and merged into Universal.

In June 1998, after PolyGram's merger with Universal Music and its MCA-related label group, Island, Mercury, and Def Jam were merged into a new unit called the Island Def Jam Music Group.

Cohen was named co-president.

In the process, he became (as he himself noted) "the first Hip-Hop president in charge of a major label".

This promotion required Cohen to expand his portfolio to include artists who didn't rap, among them Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, Elvis Costello, Ashanti, Nickelback, Slipknot, Sum 41, The Killers, and Slayer.

In 2001, Cohen was involved in Island Def Jam's purchase of Roadrunner, a heavy-metal label, as well as the deal to distribute Rick Rubin's American.

In 2002, American released Johnny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around.

The last album released by Cash before his death, it included Cash's hit version of Trent Reznor's "Hurt".

In September 2012, Cohen resigned from Warner and started his own independent label, 300 Entertainment.

On September 28, 2016, Cohen was named YouTube's Global Head of Music.