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Lyor Cohen (born October 3, 1959 in New York City) is the Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group (WMG). He has been a pioneer in the development of hip hop music and influential in the development of hip hop music acts, including Beastie Boys, Foxy Brown, LL Cool J, Jason Mizell, Nas, Run-D.M.C. and others.
In addition, he has done various promotional work on behalf of rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and the heavy metal band Slayer, pop music singer Mariah Carey and hip hop artists Sean Combs and Jay-Z.
Cohen joined the company shortly after Time Warner's sale of WMG to an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr.. Prior to his current role with Warner Music, he worked with The Island Def Jam Music Group, where he led the growth of its roster of artists and record labels, including Def Jam Recordings, Island Records, Roc-A-Fella Records, and Lost Highway Records.
Biography
Los Angeles and University of Miami
Cohen is one of two sons of Israeli immigrants and the grandson of an Israeli Army general. Although born in New York City, he spent little time there until later in life when he returned to Manhattan for good in his mid-20s to work with Def Jam Recordings' Russell Simmons. Cohen was raised in the affluent Los Angeles community of Los Feliz after divorce led his mother to relocate there. He graduated from John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and then the University of Miami's School of Business, in Coral Gables, Florida, where he majored in business.
Cohen has two half-brothers on his mother's side who have worked for Lyor at some point; both are also record label executives.
Hip Hop Music Career
Run-D.M.C.
Cohen entered the hip hop music business in the mid-1980s after booking a performance by seminal rappers Run-D.M.C. at a club Cohen was running in Los Angeles. He soon became the group's road manager, sharing a room with MC Darryl McDaniels (aka DMC) on the road. He began working in New York City for Def Jam's co-founder, Russell Simmons, in the early part of 1985, spearheading Rush Artist Management, the management division of Simmons' Def Jam/Rush operations and bringing a semblance of order to the often chaotic office shared by both the label and management.
Meanwhile, Cohen continued to act as Run-D.M.C.'s day-to-day and road and tour manager. He managed such tours as the 1986 Raising Hell Tour, (featuring Run-D.M.C., Whodini, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys and various guests such as Doug E. Fresh) and the 1988 Together Forever Tour (featuring Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and occasional guests such as Public Enemy).
Def Jam Records
Cohen's first real public impact came with his creation of Rush Associated Labels (or 'RAL') in 1990. The label mostly served as an outlet for side-projects of Rush-managed acts like Jason Mizell's Afros, but it also served a label for 'baby bands' - acts that needed more time to develop than Def Jam would be able to afford them - to organically grow at their own pace.
Over the years Cohen's influence grew, to the point where he personally earned $100 million from the sale of Def Jam Records to the Universal Music Group (UMG) in 1999. He was then made head of a key part of UMG subsidiary, Island Def Jam, where he led the growth of its roster of artists and record labels, including Def Jam, Island Records, Roc-A-Fella, Lost Highway, The Inc, American, and Def Soul (including Def Soul Classics and Roadrunner records) whose releases earned almost $700 million a year.
Warner Music Group
Cohen left IDJ/UMG in January 2004 for a position with the Edgar Bronfman, Jr. investor group-financed Warner Music Group, which was subsequently 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 including Elektra founder Jac Holzman, Sire Records' Seymour Stein, and Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin.
Controversy
Murder Inc. Records Raid
In 2001, Cohen was given the nickname Lansky (after the notorious Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky) by Irv Gotti in recognition for his partnership and place on the board of directors when the two went into business together forming Murder Inc. Records (named after the original Murder Inc.). Cohen's Island Def Jam label provided Gotti $2,000,000 in 'seed' money to start operations and the label with office space in his Island Def Jam Manhattan headquarters.
This later came under the scrutiny of federal authorities when Murder Inc. Records at Island Def Jam was raided by a joint task force of the NYPD and the FBI as part of a federal probe of label founder Irv Gotti's ties to drug lord Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, alleged drug trafficking, money laundering, and gang activities.
Cohen was eventually absolved of any involvement in the scandal, even after he claimed under oath that he didn't know he was a Murder Inc. Records' board member during the resulting trial against the Gotti brothers (aka Chris and Irving Lorenzo).
The Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff Murder Trial
He was later asked by Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff to be a witness at his February 2007 murder trial. Ironically, persistent rumours have it that it was McGriff who contracted the execution of Cohen's friend and former client Jam Master Jay of Run DMC for working with 50 Cent, breaking McGriff's boycott on working with a rapper he accused of revealing too much about McGriff's drug business.
The TVT Records Lawsuit
In 2002, Cohen was personally sued for fraud, tortious interference, breach of contract and copyright infringement by TVT Records as part of a larger action against Island Def Jam Music Group and Universal Music Group . After a lengthy trial that at times played like a soap opera, the defendants were ordered to pay TVT $132 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Cohen, whose sometimes contradictory and confusing testimony led Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman to comment that Cohen was "morally reprehensible", was found personally liable for $56 million of the total . In September 2003, Cohen's punitive damages were cut from $56 million dollars to $3 million on appeal, while IDJMG was ordered to pay $50 million dollars. However, TVT was awarded $126,720 for a breach of contract claim that IDMG and Cohen did not appeal.
P. Diddy
Although they currently enjoy a working relationship at Warner Music Group , Cohen and rap legend Sean "P Diddy" Combs have a rocky history. In 2002, after Comb's Bad Boy Records thwarted Cohen's attempt at 'stealing' best-selling R&B artists 112 for his Def Jam label, Combs said: "I am shocked that someone who I considered a close friend for 15 years is attempting to steal one of my acts."
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. |
- On Mos Def's 2004 song "The Rape Over," he references Cohen stating: "some tall Israeli is running this rap shit."
- In a 2003 interview, rapper Bumpy Knuckles claimed the biggest mistake of his career was not breaking Lyor Cohen's jaw when he had the opportunity.
- On the 1990 3rd Bass release "The Gas Face", Lyor was made fun of in the end of the track as 3rd Bass shouted out names of who "gets the Gas Face". He was referred to as "Elroy" Cohen.
- Cohen was partners with Russell Simmons with a 16% stake in Simmons' wildly popular Phat Farm clothing company and received a multi-million dollar pay-off when Simmons sold the company for $140 million in 2005.