Paul Rosenberg

Paul D. Rosenberg (born August 1, 1971) is an American music manager and former entertainment attorney.

He is currently the founder and CEO of Goliath Records, a spinoff of his management firm, Goliath Artists.

He is also the co-founder and former president of Shady Records, a subsidiary of Interscope Records, which housed many prominent acts that include co-founder Eminem, as well as Obie Trice, 50 Cent, D12, Yelawolf, Westside Boogie and Griselda.

Paul D. Rosenberg, Esq., was born on August 1, 1971, to a Jewish family in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1996, he formed Goliath Artists, a talent management company.

It was also how he met Eminem the following year, agreeing to not only be his manager, but also his lawyer.

Since 1996 (as mentioned above), Rosenberg is the founder and CEO of Goliath Artists.

Their friendship began during the development of his 1997 extended play, the Slim Shady EP.

Since 1999's Slim Shady LP, he had voiced over skits eponymously titled after him.

The success of the Slim Shady LP granted Eminem his own record label, which he called Shady Records, founded in late-August 1999.

He recruited Rosenberg to be the label's co-founder which he accepted.

Shady's first artist signing was in 2000, when it signed Eminem's group, D12.

Through the help of group members Bizarre and Proof, Rosenberg agreed to sign Obie Trice to the label after he appeared on a Devil's Night freestyle skit named after him.

After being affiliated throughout 2000, Trice joined Shady in late 2001.

He also voiced over his "Paul" skit for Xzibit's album, Man vs. Machine (2002).

The skits portray Rosenberg fictionally as a character concerned with the particular record, advising his client on steps to take and often ordering him to either "tone down" the lyrics or scrap the album completely.

After D12 and Obie Trice, Rosenberg acquired a mixtape from Violator Management co-founder Chris Lighty and Eminem's attorney, Theo Sedlmayr, which apparently would end up being Guess Who's Back? (2002), a mixtape compiled of unreleased tracks, newly recorded content and past radio freestyles recorded by 50 Cent.

Rosenberg, Eminem and Dr. Dre agreed to sign 50 Cent to a five-album joint venture deal with Shady, Aftermath Entertainment, G-Unit Records and Interscope Records.

His February 6, 2003, debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', went to sell over 20 million copies worldwide and become the highest performing album of that year.

He did not voice over skits through Curtain Call: The Hits (2005), Recovery (2010), The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013), Revival (2017), Music to Be Murdered By (2020) nor Curtain Call 2 (2022).

Rosenberg was also instrumental in co-executively producing the Shady compilations, Eminem Presents: The Re-Up (2006), the fifteenth anniversary compilation Shady XV (2014), and the label's two soundtracks to the 2002 film, 8 Mile, which included Eminem's Oscar-winning theme song, "Lose Yourself", and the 2015 boxing drama, Southpaw, which starred Jake Gyllenhaal; both films, along with 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and 2017's Bodied, were all produced by Rosenberg.

Rosenberg was affiliated with Lawrence Vavra, having been the co-owner of his company, DECKSTAR, since its foundation in 2006.

Eminem and Rosenberg also co-wrote all skits on 2009's Relapse.

In 2010, after losing rapper Stat Quo from its roster, Rosenberg signed Yelawolf and rap group Slaughterhouse (consisting of Royce da 5'9", KXNG Crooked, Joe Budden and Joell Ortiz) to the Shady imprint; the signing of Slaughterhouse also reunited member Royce da 5'9" with Eminem after a ten-year dispute between the two which involved D12 and furthermore recruited their rap duo, Bad Meets Evil.

He was also the general manager of Steve Aoki's label, Dim Mak Records, throughout 2012.

Besides Eminem, he also managed other breakout or underground acts that include DJ AM, the Knux, Action Brunson, Blink-182, Xzibit, Spark Master Tape, The Alchemist and as of 2013, Danny Brown.

In November 2017, as Def Jam Recordings fended off from their involvement with co-founder Russell Simmons due to sexual misconduct accusations against him, the label announced Rosenberg as its chairman and CEO, thus replacing Steve Bartels, who had been a part of Def Jam solely, following the April Fools' Day 2014 separation of the Island Def Jam Music Group.

The company merged with British business management company James Grant Group through a $12 million agreement in 2017.

In January 2018, he became the chairman and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, but only for two years, departing from the label in early 2020.

Rosenberg is not only known for his management of Eminem, but is also notable for his associations with the Knux, DJ AM, Action Bronson, Danny Brown and band Blink-182.

Since his assignment to Def Jam Recordings as its chairman and CEO in 2018, Rosenberg was mostly inactive in his involvement with Shady Records during and after his Def Jam tenure.

On New Year's Day 2018, he was officially appointed the dual position.

After two years and one month, Rosenberg announced, on February 21, 2020, that he had stepped down from his dual position at Def Jam and negotiated with Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Def Jam, Shady and Interscope's parent company, the Universal Music Group, to work on a creation of a new record label in a 50-50 joint venture with Universal.

In 2020, after departing from Def Jam, Rosenberg reunited with Universal Music and created a joint venture limited partnership called Goliath Records.

The label division is also used a spinoff division of the management firm.

Its first official label signing was in February 2021, when it signed rapper Vince Ash to the label in conjunction with Interscope Records.

The deal wasn't made public until the re-release of Ash's mixtape, VITO, on April 16.

Rosenberg was a co-producer for Eminem's hip-hop radio station Shade 45, which airs on Sirius XM.

Through Shade 45, he (since December 2021) hosts a weekly podcast called the Paul Pod, which airs one episode per week.

From August 1 to September 14, in promotion for Eminem's second greatest hits album, Curtain Call 2, Paul Pod aired a seven-episode edition.