3 Kings

January 15, 2018
A reported history of the business and businesses of hip-hop.Talking about the many successes of Diddy, Dr. Dre, and Jay-Z, Russell Simmons says to Forbes senior media and entertainment editor Greenburg (Michael Jackson, Inc.: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire, 2014, etc.), "they just said, 'Why don't I do it myself?' It's funny that in other industries, people didn't do it, all the rock stars, they never did it." This entrepreneurial spirit is the author's primary concern as he traces hip-hop from its origins in 1970s New York to its current station at the center of the cultural mainstream. Drawing from interviews with several hip-hop pioneers, Greenburg goes in depth on the early years to establish the context in which his titular figures arose. However, forefronting the three iconic moguls proves a bit ham-fisted. While they are the wealthiest individuals to emerge from hip-hop (combined wealth of at least $2.5 billion), the author strains to identify qualities these different men share that might set them apart from other major figures in hip-hop. Greenburg puts forward 50 Cent as a possible fourth king, and he devotes plenty of space to Simmons, the first hip-hop mogul, and other contemporaries such as Nas and Swizz Beatz, who have done well financially. But coming on the heels of The Defiant Ones, HBO's tribute to the business acumen of Dre and Jimmy Iovine, and Jay-Z's album "4:44"--among other things, a wealth-management tutorial--this book offers a pleasingly broad perspective of hip-hop as economic triumph. Furthermore, Greenburg's vivid descriptions--a small sampling includes the "farty bass lines" of Dre's G-funk period; Suge Knight in his notorious 1995 Source Awards appearance "looking like a gang-affiliated Kool-Aid Man"; and Diddy dressed like "a very fashionable porcupine"--make for engaging reporting that will satisfy neophytes and devotees alike.A wide-ranging survey of the first four decades of hip-hop that vividly brings some of the culture's biggest success stories into one place.

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Starred review from January 29, 2018
Greenburg, a media and entertainment editor at Forbes who focused on the business success of Jay-Z in his previous book, Empire State of Mind, here widens his scope for a detailed look at the rise of the financial empires built by Jay-Z and his hip-hop contemporaries Diddy and Dr. Dre. Incorporating interviews with such early hip-hop pioneers as Fab 5 Freddy and Starski, as well as many of his subjects’ current business partners, Greenburg follows the growth of hip-hop from New York City’s “dysfunctional housing projects” in the 1960s and 1970s to Diddy’s Revolt network, which brought hip-hop “to fifty-million people between cable, Web, and mobile.” Greenburg provides sharp looks at the intricate ways in which Diddy, “the flashy impresario”; Jay-Z, “the brainy lyricist”; and Dre, “the quiet perfectionist..obsessed with sound quality” parlayed their unique skills into hugely successful business deals, such as Dre’s cofounding of an electronics company, Beats, that Apple bought in 2014 for $3 billion, and Jay-Z’s investment in the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. It’s an excellent look at hip-hop that combines cultural and financial history to show what Greenburg, referencing rapper KRS-One, calls “the hip-hopitization of corporate America.”

February 1, 2018
Many have covered the popularity and controversy of hip-hop as a musical genre. The most popular figures in its relative short but meteoric rise in the nineties attracted large and loyal audiences and, in the cases of Tupac (2Pac) Shakur and Chris (Notorious B.I.G.) Wallace, died young, violently, and tragically. The landscape of hip-hop has changed significantly in the last 20 years. Greenburg (Empire State of Mind, 2011) highlights the careers of the now-reigning kings of hip-hop, Sean (Diddy) Combs, Andre (Dr. Dre) Young, and Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter. What sets this book apart from other biographies is his attention to hip-hop as a cultural phenomenon. More important, Greenburg details the thinking of these three tastemakers throughout their musical careers and into their corporate identities as they focus on shaping the way people enjoy their lives. Each approached rap music through a different outlet. Each carved out a different lasting mark. And all slowly but intentionally made decisions that impacted the business world on a grand scale. Greenburg offers a refreshing perspective on three immensely talented and popular personalities.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)