Contemporary Authors

• Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office Portfolio/Penguin (New York, NY), 2011
• Michael Jackson, Inc.: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of a Billion-dollar Empire Atria Books (New York, NY), 2014
• Three Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and Hip-hop's Multibillion-dollar Revolution Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2018

1. Three kings : Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and hip-hop's multibillion-dollar revolution https://lccn.loc.gov/2017021046 Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. Three kings : Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and hip-hop's multibillion-dollar revolution / Zack O'Malley Greenburg. First edition. New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2018. pages cm ML3531 .G74 2018 ISBN: 9780316316538 2. Empire state of mind : how Jay-Z went from street corner to corner office https://lccn.loc.gov/2016561310 Greenburg, Zack O'Malley, author. Empire state of mind : how Jay-Z went from street corner to corner office / Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Revised edition / foreword by Steve Forbes. New York : Portfolio/Penguin, 2015. xiv, 287 pages ; 20 cm ML420.J29 G74 2015 ISBN: 9781591848349 (pbk.)1591848342 (pbk.) 3. Michael Jackson, Inc : the rise, fall and rebirth of a billion-dollar empire https://lccn.loc.gov/2013045449 Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. Michael Jackson, Inc : the rise, fall and rebirth of a billion-dollar empire / Zack O'Malley Greenburg. New York : Atria Books, 2014. 93 pages ; 24 cm ML420.J175 G75 2014 ISBN: 97814767059651476705968 4. Empire state of mind : how Jay-Z went from street corner to corner office https://lccn.loc.gov/2010035334 Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. Empire state of mind : how Jay-Z went from street corner to corner office / Zack O'Malley Greenburg. New York : Portfolio / Penguin, 2011. viii, 246 p. ; 22 cm. ML420.J29 .G74 2011 ISBN: 9781591843818

• Zack O'Malley Greenburg - https://www.zogreenburg.com/about/

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg is the senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and author of three books: 3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise (Little, Brown, 2018); Michael Jackson, Inc. (Simon & Schuster / Atria, 2014) and the Jay-Z biography Empire State of Mind (Penguin / Portfolio, 2011). In a decade at Forbes, Zack has investigated topics from pension fund scandals to Katy Perry's touring business to the Wu-Tang Clan's secret album. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Billboard, Complex, Vibe and McSweeney's; he's served as an expert source for BBC, NPR, MTV, NY Times and 60 Minutes, and as a speaker at SXSW, TEDx, CES, Georgetown and Harvard. Zack graduated from Yale in 2007 with a degree in American Studies. A recovering child actor, he played the title role in film Lorenzo's Oil (1992). He lives in New York with his wife and cats.

• Michael Jackson, Inc. - http://michaeljacksoninc.com/about-the-author/

  Author

  Zack_O'Malley_Greenburg

  MICHAEL JACKSON, INC: THE RISE, FALL AND REBIRTH OF A BILLION-DOLLAR EMPIRE

  ZACK O’MALLEY GREENBURG is a senior editor at Forbes, where he covers the business of music & entertainment in his column, The Beat Report. His first book, a Jay-Z biography called Empire State of Mind, was published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint in 2011. Zack’s second book, a business-focused biography of Michael Jackson, was published by Simon & Schuster’s Atria in 2014. In addition to Forbes, Forbes Asia and ForbesLife, his work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Billboard, Sports Illustrated, Hollywood Reporter, Vibe and McSweeney’s.

  Zack has been writing professionally since the age of 14, when he landed a gig reviewing video games for Boys’ Life magazine. A former child actor, he played the title role in the film Lorenzo’s Oil alongside Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. He retired early to pursue his dream of winning a middle school intramural baseball championship before starting his writing career.

  His first taste of the music business came at Yale, where he majored in American Studies with a concentration in Urban Studies. When he wasn’t busy booking gigs and singing for pop/rock a cappella group Out of the Blue, he profiled artists ranging from Gunther to the Goo Goo Dolls for the Yale Daily News. During his sophomore year, he saw a flyer for an internship at Forbes posted in the newspaper’s offices; he joined the magazine that summer and continued to freelance as a student at Yale.

  Two weeks after graduation, Zack joined Forbes as a full-time reporter and has since written over 500 articles for Forbes, Forbes Asia and Forbes.com. His stories on music, business, travel and sports have taken him from the back rooms of New York’s Apollo Theater to the rail yards of Omaha to the diamond mines of Sierra Leone–and, most terrifying of all, the bleachers of Fenway Park.

  Along the way, Zack has profiled luminaries from all walks of life–including Bruno Mars, Richard Branson, Alicia Keys, 50 Cent, Toby Keith, Afrojack, Steve Wozniak, Justin Bieber, Afrika Bambaataa, Mac Miller, Wiz Khalifa, Dr. Ruth, Swizz Beatz, Mr. T, Skrillex, Akon, Ludacris and Bill Gates (sort of) – as well as a host of non-famous mutual fund managers, musicians,CEOs and billionaires. He once helped arrange a ukulele duet between Jon Bon Jovi and Warren Buffett.

  Zack’s first book, a unauthorized, business-focused biography of Jay-Z titled Empire State of Mind, was published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint in March 2011 and is now on its third printing (more info on the bookhere). Though Jay-Z told Zack that the book was “horrible,” a lot of other people seem to have liked it–including hip-hop pioneer Fab Five Freddy, rap historian Jeff Chang, and Zack’s boss’s boss’s boss, Steve Forbes, who wrote the foreword to the book’s paperback edition.

  Empire State of Mind also received received high marks from media outlets including the Financial Times,CNN, the New York Times and Bloomberg News, which called it “one of the year’s best rock books.” The book earned Zack praise for being, in the words of The Big Payback author Dan Charnas, “one of the rare reporters to bring dignified coverage of the hip-hop business into the mainstream.” And, for what it’s worth, DJ Khaled has said that Zack is “the best” at what he does.

  Zack’s Michael Jackson book was published by Simon & Schuster’s Atria in June 2014 and has been featured on air by NPR, CBS, CNN, CTV, CNBC and Revolt, and in print by Forbes, Billboard, Ebony, Hollywood Reporter, Vibe, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and many others. Amazon named it the Best Book Of The Month in the Business & Leadership category and USA Today called it one of “the hottest titles this season,” along with books Hillary Clinton and Stephen King.

  Zack has also served as an expert source for BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, MTV, NPR, Entertainment Tonight, Good Day New York, CBS’s 60 Minutes and other print, web, radio and video outlets. He has become a go-to speaker and panel moderator at private functions and industry conferences ranging fromSXSW to SF MusicTech to TEDx. He has appeared as a guest speaker at Yale College, Harvard Business School, Howard University, Berklee College of Music, Year Up Boston and Georgetown University.

  Zack lives in New York City with his wife; together, they enjoy anthropomorphizing their cats and memorizing/forgetting/making up song lyrics.

  To inquire about Zack’s availability, see the contact page. Also, follow him on Twitter.

  Zack reveals how he first started writing about music for Forbes:

  Zack talks about Jay-Z’s rise as a businessman on Bloomberg TV’s Game Changers:
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• JAY-Z BOOK: Empire State of Mind - http://jayzbook.com/about-the-author/

  ZACK O’MALLEY GREENBURG is a senior editor at Forbes, where he covers the business of music & entertainment in his column, The Beat Report. His first book, a Jay-Z biography called Empire State of Mind, was published by Penguin’s Portfolio imprint in 2011. He’s currently working on his second book, a business-focused biography of Michael Jackson, for Simon & Schuster.

  Zack has been writing professionally since the age of 14, when he landed a gig reviewing video games for Boys’ Life magazine. A former child actor, he played the title role in the film Lorenzo’s Oilalongside Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon. He retired early to pursue his dream of winning a middle school intramural baseball championship before starting his writing career.

  Zack’s first taste of the music business came at Yale, where he majored in American Studies with a concentration Urban Studies. When he wasn’t busy booking gigs and singing for pop/rock a cappella group Out of the Blue, he profiled artists ranging fromGunther to the Goo Goo Dolls for the Yale Daily News. During his sophomore year, he saw a flyer for an internship at Forbes posted in the newspaper’s offices; he joined the magazine that summer and continued to freelance as a student at Yale.

  Two weeks after graduation, Zack joined Forbes as a full-time reporter and has since written over 500 articles for Forbes, Forbes Asia and Forbes.com. His stories on music, business, travel and sports have taken him from the back rooms of New York’s Apollo Theater to the rail yards of Omaha to the diamond mines of Sierra Leone–and, most terrifying of all, the bleachers of Fenway Park.

  Along the way, Zack has interviewed luminaries from all walks of life–including Bruno Mars, Alicia Keys, 50 Cent, Akon, Russell Simmons, Steve Wozniak, Justin Bieber, Timbaland, Afrika Bambaataa, Mac Miller,Richard Branson, T.I., Wiz Khalifa, Dr. Ruth, Swizz Beatz, Lil Jon, Fab 5 Freddy, Mr. T, Skrillex, Ludacris andBill Gates (sort of) – as well as a host of non-famous mutual fund managers, musicians, CEOs, billionairesand a convicted murderer (though nobody who could be described as all of the above). He also helped arrange a ukulele duet between Jon Bon Jovi and Warren Buffett.

  Zack’s first book, a unauthorized, business-focused biography of Jay-Z titled Empire State of Mind, was published by Penguin/Portfolio in March 2011 and is now on its third printing (more info on the book here). Though Jay-Z told Zack that the book was “horrible,” a lot of other people seem to have liked it–including hip-hop pioneer Fab Five Freddy, rap historians Dan Charnas and Jeff Chang, and Zack’s boss’s boss’s boss,Steve Forbes, who wrote the foreword to the book’s paperback edition. Empire State of Mind also received received high marks from media outlets including the Financial Times, CNN, the New York Times and Bloomberg News, which called it “one of the year’s best rock books.”

  Aside from the book and Forbes, Zack has written for The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Vibe,McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, AOL/Huffington Post and others. He has also served as an expert source for BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, MTV, Entertainment Tonight, Good Day New York and other print, web, radio and video outlets. Zack has appeared as a guest speaker at Yale College, Harvard Business School, Howard University, Berklee College of Music, Year Up Boston and Georgetown University.

  To inquire about Zack’s availability, see the contact page. Also, follow him on Twitter.

  Zack reveals how he first started writing about music for Forbes:

• ZY See Beyond - https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/zack-omalley-greenburg-is-all-about-the-benjamins/4822

  QUOTE:
  It took a couple of years before I was really able to convince the powers that be over at Forbes that this ought to be my focus: the business of music
  Forbes has embraced hip-hop as much as hip-hop has embraced Forbes,
  My initial dream was to be general manager of the New York Yankees. But as time went on it became very clear how difficult it was to get into that business. And I’ve always loved writing, but my parents are both writers and I didn’t want to do what they did. My dad has written children’s books and adult humor and thrillers, and my mom has written a lot of true crime stuff and TV, so I guess I ended up doing music and business writing, which are the only things that weren’t covered.

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg Is All About The Benjamins

  By Keith Murphy
  Why you should care

  Because the unlikeliest hip-hop hero is a Forbes senior editor who calculates and crowns rap’s top earners, writes celeb biz books and stars in feature films. And yes, you read that last part right.

  Zack O’Malley Greenburg lets out an “I’m-the-luckiest-bastard-in-the-world” howl that is as infectious as it is unpretentiously goofy. This revelation comes as a shocker given that the Forbes senior editor (who as a child actor starred in ”Lorenzo’s Oil,” alongside Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon) has become the go-to writer covering the otherwise serious world of business and finance. But while his peers have stuck to the well-worn path of reporting on billion-dollar company mergers, mutual funds and pension fraud, the Yale graduate has taken business journalism to populist heights with his annual Cash Kings list, which counts down the top hip-hop money makers of the year each fall. In this new, brave world, hip-hop mogul Shawn “Jay Z” Carter’s business wheeling and dealing is given the same serious-minded breakdown as billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s high-profile takeover of H.J. Heinz.

  Forbes has embraced hip-hop as much as hip-hop has embraced Forbes.

  “It took a couple of years before I was really able to convince the powers that be over at Forbes that this ought to be my focus: the business of music,” explains Greenburg, who has written the Cash Kings list since he started at the magazine in 2007. Back then Cash Kings was a mere sidebar to a Tupac Shakur piece on the late rapper’s posthumous earning power. Today, the anticipated list — which has featured a diverse collection of superstars and music industry powerbrokers including Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Nicki Minaj, Dr. Dre, Wiz Khalifa, Eminem, Drake and the aforementioned Jay-Z — has become a badge of honor for the rhyme and roll contingent. Artists who don’t make it or slip a notch or two, have been known to place heated calls to Greenburg. There was even a 2007 song by 50 Cent featuring Jay Z and Diddy, dedicated to their dominance of the top three slots that year titled “I Get Money (Forbes 1, 2, 3 Remix).”

  “Forbes has embraced hip-hop as much as hip-hop has embraced Forbes,” the easy smiling, soft-spoken Greenburg adds. “Every year that I put it out, it seems to get more established.”

  The Yale graduate has taken business journalism to populist heights with his annual Cash Kings list.

  The three of them lying on a bed looking up towards the camera

  Zack with Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon Lorenzo’s Oil

  And Greenburg continues to expand his financial journalistic reach. The author of the 2011 biography ”Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office,” is gearing up for the release of his second page turner, ”Michael Jackson Inc.” The book, scheduled to hit shelves June 3, “reveals the incredible rise, fall and rise again of Michael Jackson’s fortune.” OZY caught up with Greenburg to discuss everything from Beyoncé’s self-titled, game-changing album (no videos, no official single, no promotion and a sh!tload of albums sold) to how he managed to merge the swaggering world of hip-hop with the overtly corporate world of Forbes.

  This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

  Ozy: Your annual Forbes Cash King list has become much anticipated. How did you come up with the idea for that list, and did the conservative suits at Forbes look at you like you had two heads when you first pitched the idea to them?

  Zack O’Malley Greenburg: The Cash King list started when I had interned at Forbes. I interned in 2005 and 2006 and they brought me in full time right after I graduated from Yale in 2007. I was basically sitting in my cubicle one day and one of the younger editors came by and said, “Hey, we are thinking about putting together a hip-hop earnings list. Do you like hip-hop?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I love hip-hop!” I grew up in New York on hip-hop, so I ended up helping her put that package together. I did a story on Tupac and how he at the time was making more money dead than all but about five artists were making alive. And we ran my story in the magazine, and we did this sidebar entitled ”Hip-Hop Cash Kings: Who Earned the Most Last Year?” It was Jay-Z, Diddy, 50 Cent, Timbaland and Dr. Dre. So we finished the package and put it out, and I remember driving around on some assignment and I heard this song. It sounded like, 50’s “I Get Money.” But Jay-Z and Diddy [Ludacris as well] were rapping on it, and they were shouting-out “Forbes” a lot! The top three guys on the list were so excited by the acknowledgment that they made this remix and put it out! We all at Forbes thought this was the coolest thing ever. And so a few months after the list came out, the editor I worked with told me I should really run with it and make it my thing.

  Is there an artist that continues to shock you in terms of their showing on the Forbes hip-hop Cash King list?
  Ludacris wearing sunglasses in concert

  Source Basheer Tome

  Yeah. It depends every year but in terms of the consistency of their earnings, Ludacris is always in the $10-$15 million range. He’s above guys like Drake and Wiz Khalifa even though he’s more under the radar, but he’s a guy with tremendous business savvy. You know, it’s always funny when people rap about how they should have been on the list. I always give everyone a chance to comment on their number before I publish it. And in a lot of cases, they come back with a figure that’s outrageous, so I don’t adjust my estimate.

  Tell the truth. You’re talking about Diddy aren’t you?

  [Laughs] And then sometimes they point out something that I might have missed, and I will adjust it before the list comes out. And then there are other people who try to claim that they made less than they did, and you can kind of figure that out easily too. It’s the same process we go through with our billionaires list.

  Beyoncé seems to be on everybody’s mind these days with the record-breaking release of her recent self-titled digital album. Are you surprised she took such a left-field approach with the launch of this project, having no promotion, no traditional rollout?

  Well, it’s pretty incredible. Beyoncé sold more in three days than Lady Gaga and Katy Perry sold in their opening weeks of each of their albums combined, and in half the time. To me this really seems like part of the affect of her marriage with Jay-Z, which is in many ways a merger as much as it is a marriage. I think that this launch feels very Jay-Z to me. And that’s not to undermine Beyoncé’s chops when it comes to business.

  Of course, she is always one of the leaders on the top moneymakers list.

  That’s right. But you have to imagine — given the way Jay-Z rolled out his last album (”Magna Carta Holy Grail”) and the way that she rolled out her album — that there was a lot of brainstorming and comparing notes. Jay-Z’s last album didn’t have the traditional buildup. To be able to do that deal with Samsung is the kind of deal that I get into in my book (”Empire State of Mind”) that throughout his career he manages to get a brand to pay him millions of dollars to do something he wanted to do anyway [laughs].
  BW album cover

  So what actually pushed you to become journalist?

  My initial dream was to be general manager of the New York Yankees. But as time went on it became very clear how difficult it was to get into that business. And I’ve always loved writing, but my parents are both writers and I didn’t want to do what they did. My dad has written children’s books and adult humor and thrillers, and my mom has written a lot of true crime stuff and TV, so I guess I ended up doing music and business writing, which are the only things that weren’t covered.

  In your upcoming book, ”Michael Jackson Inc.,” you breakdown the various groundbreaking deals MJ was involved in, even after his death. What was the main view you came away with in terms of Michael Jackson as a business both in life and posthumously?

  Well … I began to realize not only how much money he was making after his death, but how much he made during his life. The kind of deals that Jackson did to make that money really surprised me. I think a lot of people are going to be like, “Wait a minute, Michael Jackson did that? He was the first to do that?” There are a lot of things you see Jay, Puff and 50 Cent doing now that Michael Jackson laid the groundwork for business-wise in the ‘80s. If you are an icon who continues to put out new music, even if you are dead, that enables you to make these business deals that can put you in incredible standing like Michael Jackson. It’s a testament to his longevity as an artist.

  MJ was a child artist and you were a child actor, starring in Lorenzo’s Oil with Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon, how did you get casted and what made you stop the acting biz?

  A friend of mine in kindergarten did a commercial and I got jealous, so I started auditioning for stuff. Although I’m really glad I did the movie, it was a pretty unpleasant experience and I just didn’t want to do it again.

  Seems like you were right on the money with your career choice.

  Keith Murphy, OZY Author
  Contact Keith Murphy

• Linked In - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zogblog/

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  3rd degree connection3rd
  Forbes Senior Editor, Media & Entertainment; book author ('3 Kings,' 'Michael Jackson, Inc,' 'Empire State of Mind')
  New York, New York
  Forbes Magazine
  Yale University Yale University
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  500+ connections

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg is the senior editor of media & entertainment at Forbes and has authored three books, most recently "3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise" (Hachette / Little, Brown, 2018). Before that: "Michael Jackson, Inc" (Simon & Schuster / Atria, 2014) and Jay-Z biography "Empire State of Mind" (Penguin / Portfolio, 2011). He started at Forbes in 2007, profiling personalities from Richard Branson to Katy Perry to Ashton Kutcher to Justin Bieber along the way. Zack's stories have taken him from Omaha to Sierra Leone; he has also written for the Washington Post, McSweeney's, Vibe and Sports Illustrated. He has appeared as a guest lecturer at Yale, Georgetown and Harvard, and as an expert source for BBC, CBS, E!, MTV, CNN and others.
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  The race between Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal is the race between Dr. Dre, Diddy and Jay-Z

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  Experience

  Forbes Magazine
  Senior Editor
  Company Name Forbes Magazine
  Dates Employed Jan 2013 – Present Employment Duration 5 yrs 5 mos
  Michael Jackson, Inc
  Book Author
  Company Name Michael Jackson, Inc
  Dates Employed Jul 2012 – Jun 2014 Employment Duration 2 yrs

  Author of the only business-focused biography of the King of Pop, published by Simon & Schuster's Atria imprint in 2014.
  Forbes Magazine
  Staff Writer
  Company Name Forbes Magazine
  Dates Employed Oct 2010 – Dec 2012 Employment Duration 2 yrs 3 mos
  Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office
  Book Author
  Company Name Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office
  Dates Employed Nov 2009 – Mar 2011 Employment Duration 1 yr 5 mos
  Forbes Magazine
  Reporter
  Company Name Forbes Magazine
  Dates Employed Jun 2007 – Nov 2009 Employment Duration 2 yrs 6 mos
  Forbes Magazine
  Editorial Intern
  Company Name Forbes Magazine
  Dates Employed Jun 2005 – Jun 2007 Employment Duration 2 yrs 1 mo

  Back-to-back summer internships.
  Random House
  Production Intern
  Company Name Random House
  Dates Employed May 2004 – Aug 2004 Employment Duration 4 mos

  Summer internship in New York.

  Education

  Yale University
  Yale University

  Degree Name BA

  Field Of Study American Studies (concentration in Urban Studies)

  Dates attended or expected graduation 2003 – 2007

  Activities and Societies: Yale Daily News, YDN Magazine, Out of the Blue, Calhoun IMs

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  Endorsed by 13 of Zack’s colleagues at Forbes

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  Endorsed by Christopher Taylor and 5 others who are highly skilled at this

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  Peter J. Schwartz and 15 connections have given endorsements for this skill

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  Web Content
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  Online Journalism
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  Music
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  Angel Rivera
  Angel Rivera

  Director, IT Service Desk Operations at Macmillan

  February 26, 2013, Zack worked with Angel in different groups

  Angel is a knowledgeable and thoughtful IT expert who's always a pleasure to work with -- no matter how frustrating my computer problem is!

  Damien McCaffery
  Damien McCaffery

  Electronic Resources Librarian at Philadelphia University

  November 5, 2011, Zack was a client of Damien’s

  Damien has a keen editorial eye, an unmatched musical expertise and a genial personality to boot. That's why I hired him as a freelance editor to take one last look at my manuscript (for a business-focused biography of Jay-Z called "Empire State of Mind") before I sent it to my publisher.

  Damien didn't disappoint; even on short notice, his eagle eyes found things missed by both myself and my publisher's in-house editors, and knowing that he'd looked it over allowed me to sleep easier as I awaited the book's March 2011 debut.

  My decision to hire Damien was worth every penny -- the book has been out for six months now, it's been selling extremely well, and perhaps more importantly, it's error-free. Damien played a big part in that, and I'm eternally grateful. I'd recommend him to anyone.

  Scott Swanay, FCAS
  Scott Swanay, FCAS

  Actuary at Petplan Pet Insurance (North America)

  October 1, 2010, Zack worked with Scott but at different companies

  I've known Scott for a number of years, first for a story I wrote about him in Forbes, later as a contributor to my weekly football and baseball columns. He's super-reliable and never, ever missed a deadline. He's extremely sharp, unusually insightful, and has an ability to think beyond traditional notions as well. He's also highly skilled at using social media to complement whatever he's working on. I have full faith in his ability to meet -- and exceed -- the expectations of anybody with whom he works.

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  Reporter at Bloomberg LP

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• Forbes - https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/#7dd6a4ec71dd

  Forbes Staff
  Zack O'Malley Greenburg

  Senior Editor, Media & Entertainment

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg here, thanks for reading! I'm a senior editor at Forbes, where I cover the business of music, media & entertainment. I'm author of three books: '3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise' (2018); 'Michael Jackson, Inc.' (2014); and the Jay-Z biography 'Empire State of Mind' (2011). Here at my day job, I've investigated topics from Wu-Tang Clan's secret album in Morocco to the return of tourism in post-conflict Sierra Leone to the earning power of Hip-Hop's Cash Kings, writing cover stories on subjects ranging from Richard Branson to Ashton Kutcher to Katy Perry in the process. In addition to Forbes, where I arrived in 2007 after graduating from Yale with an American Studies degree, my work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Billboard, Complex, Sports Illustrated, Vibe, Hollywood Reporter, McSweeney's and others. A recovering child actor, I played the title role in the film Lorenzo's Oil (1992). For more, follow me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, newsletter and my website, www.zogreenburg.com

QUOTE:
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.

Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: 3 KINGS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley 3 KINGS Little, Brown (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 3, 6 ISBN: 978-0-316-31653-8
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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Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: 3 KINGS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643040/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=f00242a9. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522643040
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QUOTE:
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

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3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and
Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise
Michael Ruzicka
Booklist.
114.11 (Feb. 1, 2018): p15. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise. By Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Mar. 2018. 320p. Little, Brown, $28 (9780316316538). 782.4216.
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. --Michael Ruzicka
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ruzicka, Michael. "3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise."
Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 15. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc /A527771758/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=71f4e39e. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527771758
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QUOTE:
quick-moving yet comprehensive narrative of the singer's career, downfall and unlikely post- mortem second act.
useful, informative examination of this important artist"s career.
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Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: MICHAEL JACKSON, INC
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 15, 2014): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2014 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley MICHAEL JACKSON, INC. Atria (Adult Nonfiction) $26.00 6, 3 ISBN: 978-1-4767-0596-5
A quick-moving yet comprehensive narrative of the singer's career, downfall and unlikely post- mortem second act.Forbessenior editor Greenburg (Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office, 2011) focuses on Jackson's financial acuity throughout his career, only briefly recounting the many well-known, sordid aspects of his life.As the precocious preteen star of the Jackson 5, he sought to learn how to write, record, market and, notably, profit from a song. The author charts the progress and breadth of Jackson's accomplishments through his collaborations with the best in many aspects of the entertainment industry, including his chart- breaking, three-album collaboration as a solo artist with legendary record producer Quincy Jones.Though he is a business writer, Greenburg adroitly reviews Jackson's artistic growth and achievements not with pecuniary jargon or obsequious praise, but as a narrative of the fruitful relationships the artist established with others. He includes surprising facts about Jackson's recording breakthroughs--he and his recording team developed nascent, innovative technologies such as digital music sampling and multitrack recording--as well as his ambitious, and very expensive, long-form music videos, which became the industry standard.Greenburg maintains an even narrative flow in his overview of Jackson's business acumen and how he surrendered it. Upon Jackson's death in 2009, dozens of creditors laid claim to his estate; though Jackson earned $1.1 billion in his career, he was in financial ruin.Greenburg doesn't overanalyze the complex deals and maneuverings of the private equity firm charged to manage his debt, and admirers will be gratified to learn how, five years after Jackson's death, the executors negotiated record deals, eliminated his personal debts and helped make him more popular than he had been since the 1990s.A useful, informative examination of this important artist"s career.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: MICHAEL JACKSON, INC." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2014. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A370997943/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=17545b47. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A370997943
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QUOTE:
In a classic American tale of cultural openness to the skilled outsider, he rose to these heights from disreputable roots: street cocaine slinging and, for that matter, rap itself.

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Run this industry tonight
Brian Doherty
Reason.
43.2 (June 2011): p46. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2011 Reason Foundation http://reason.com/about
Full Text:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Forbes staffer Zack O'Malley Greenburg seems to have been surprised that Jay-Z wouldn't cooperate with his book on the hip hop mogul's personal industry, Empire State of Mind (Portfolio). Studying how the talented rapper got so rich--he is personally worth something like half a billion dollars--should have told Greenburg that his subject had nothing to gain from cooperating, and thus wouldn't.
Jay-Z has admitted to watering down his artistry to sell records, and he makes sure he is well- compensated for linking his personal brand with any product. He has conquered music, clothing, drinks, books, and nightclubs. President Obama calls him to feel out the American street. In a classic American tale of cultural openness to the skilled outsider, he rose to these heights from disreputable roots: street cocaine slinging and, for that matter, rap itself.
Greenburg explains how flourishing entertainers sell more than just art. As Jay-Z rapped, 'Tin not a businessman--I'm a business, man."
Doherty, Brian
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Doherty, Brian. "Run this industry tonight." Reason, June 2011, p. 46. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A255493611/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=5364aaee. Accessed 19 May 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A255493611
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QUOTE:
winning survey

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Empire State of Mind
California Bookwatch.
(June 2011): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2011 Midwest Book Review http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Empire State of Mind
Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Portfolio
c/o Penguin Group (USA)
375 Hudson Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10014 9781591843818, $25.95, www.penguin.com
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: HOW JAY-Z WENT FROM STREET CORNER TO CORNER OFFICE charts jay-Z's rise to the top and how he leveraged his personal brand into multimillion- dollar companies. His lucrative career in music and business alike is presented in a fine autobiography which pairs interviews with recording industry executives, NBA stars and more with conversations with Jay-Z that reveal his history and unique business philosophy. Business and general lending collections alike will find this a winning survey!
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Empire State of Mind." California Bookwatch, June 2011. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A259156733/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=bc2c9d04. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A259156733
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QUOTE:
very readable, enjoyable take on Jackson, both the man and the business, that should appeal to any Jackson or music fan.

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King of Pop
Library Journal.
139.11 (June 15, 2014): p92. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2014 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. Michael Jackson, Inc: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire. Atria. Jun. 2014. 304p. notes, index. ISBN 9781476705965. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781476706382. MUSIC
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Given that there is no shortage of biographical works about the late King of Pop, Greenburg's focus on the business side of Michael Jackson's life and death (1958-2009) is a wise choice. Starting with the early days of the Jackson 5, former child actor (Lorenzo's Oil) Greenburg looks at Jackson's ability to generate revenue and how he chose to spend his earnings. While the world often perceives Jackson as a puppet controlled by others, the author presents him not only as an artist who wanted to create the perfect record every time he entered the studio, but also as a shrewd businessperson when it came to marketing opportunities and record sales. Most of Jackson's family members declined to comment for the book but there are many first-person accounts from his former business partners and legal advisers. It's interesting that while many people were perhaps not treated fairly or lost out in some dealings not one of them has a bad thing to say about Jackson. VERDICT A very readable, enjoyable take on Jackson, both the man and the business, that should appeal to any Jackson or music fan.--Craig L. Shufelt, Fort Erie P.L., Ont.
Weisner, Ron with Alan Goldsher. Listen Out Loud: A Life in Music-Managing McCartney, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Lyons: Globe Pequot. Jun. 2014. 256p. photos, index. ISBN 9780762791446. $24.95. MUSIC
A tasty nugget of insider information about Michael Jackson's wardrobe influences draws the
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reader into the story of Weisner's career in music, giving a singular glimpse into the industry and artistic process. There are tales of working as a manager for performers he loved, such as Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, Sha Na Na, Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, and others, as well as a few he did not, including Madonna and John Mellencamp. The author's success came from a desire and ability to help artists be their most creative and successful selves combined with his years of experience and knowledge of the music business and industry. One of the many highlights are descriptions of working with Jackson on recording his first two solo albums (Off the Wall and Thriller). Weisner assembled some incredible collaborators, including Quincy Jones, and helped foster creativity, hard work, experimentation, and musical genius. Some of his stories portray the seedier side of the industry but most are upbeat, highlighting the wonderful music Weisner was involved with, and how it is made. It's like listening to a friend share incredible stories, swear words and all. VERDICT An eyewitness account that is not just gossip but a glimpse into the workings of the music industry from the 1960s through the 2010s.--Lani Smith, Ohone Coll. Lib., Fremont, CA
Whitfield, Bill & Javon Beard. Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days. Weinstein: Perseus. Jun. 2014. 320p. index. ISBN 9781602862500. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781602862517. MUSIC
Love him or loathe him, Michael Jackson is indisputably one of the most intriguing and enigmatic entertainers of the 20th and 21st centuries. With a career spanning early childhood to his disturbing descent into a reclusive adulthood, he is a global icon. While much is known about his life (his humble beginnings, plastic surgeries, sex abuse allegations, etc.), very little is known about the "true" man. Although his former bodyguards Whitfield and Beard's first-person vignettes provide little-known facts about Jackson, this title raises more questions than can be gleaned from their two-and-half-year security detail. Written with Tanner Colby (Some of My Best Friends Are Black), this book attempts to showcase Jackson's "humanity" while leading the reader to speculate about those things that kept him imprisoned by paranoia and isolation. Colby augments the bodyguards' narratives by providing background information about the artist's success and decline--a combination that is likely to make readers frustrated and wondering why the singer's life deteriorated so rapidly and why he behaved as he did. Whitfield and Beard present Jackson as a "normal eccentric" who craved stability and relationships while remaining distrustful of most; a childlike, doting father whose naivete in certain situations (e.g., finances) is both baffling and fascinating. VERDICT Recommended primarily for Michael Jackson fans-- Tamela Chambers, Chicago Pub. Schs.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"King of Pop." Library Journal, 15 June 2014, p. 92. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A370894349/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=17e5f9aa. Accessed 19 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A370894349
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QUOTE:
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."

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3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise
Publishers Weekly.
265.5 (Jan. 29, 2018): p182+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* 3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise
Zack O'Malley Greenburg. Little, Brown, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-316-31653-8
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 hiphop 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 NBAs 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." (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise." Publishers Weekly, 29
Jan. 2018, p. 182+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc /A526116572/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=639fd326. Accessed 19 May 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A526116572
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"Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: 3 KINGS." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522643040/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=f00242a9. Accessed 19 May 2018. Ruzicka, Michael. "3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 15. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771758/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=71f4e39e. Accessed 19 May 2018. "Greenburg, Zack O'Malley: MICHAEL JACKSON, INC." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2014. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A370997943/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=17545b47. Accessed 19 May 2018. Doherty, Brian. "Run this industry tonight." Reason, June 2011, p. 46. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A255493611/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=5364aaee. Accessed 19 May 2018. "Empire State of Mind." California Bookwatch, June 2011. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A259156733/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=bc2c9d04. Accessed 19 May 2018. "King of Pop." Library Journal, 15 June 2014, p. 92. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A370894349/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=17e5f9aa. Accessed 19 May 2018. "3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise." Publishers Weekly, 29 Jan. 2018, p. 182+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526116572/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=639fd326. Accessed 19 May 2018.

• The Washington Post
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/book-review-michael-jackson-inc-by-zack-omalley-greenburg/2014/05/29/ec0ede9e-db62-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html?utm_term=.92aaf9a2fc69
  Word count: 963

  QUOTE:
  With his soft-drink deals and sneaker endorsement, Jackson was a new kind of celebrity mogul, argues Zack O’Malley Greenburg,

  Book Review: ‘Michael Jackson, Inc.,’ by Zack O’Malley Greenburg
  By Mike Musgrove May 30, 2014
  Michael Jackson, Inc.
  The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of
  a Billion-Dollar Empire

  By Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Atria, 293 pp.

  The accountants must breathe a sigh of relief whenever a certain troublesome type of celebrity client dies unexpectedly.

  Take Michael Jackson. The singer was in debt when he died five years ago, but today his finances are in better health than ever. Thanks to capable management by his estate, the King of Pop has brought in $700 million since his fatal overdose in June 2009. Finally, the Gloved One is back atop the charts: That’s more money than any other musician, alive or dead, generated during the same period.

  When he was offstage, Jackson’s oddball exploits and alleged crimes kept the tabloids filled, but this biography, “Michael Jackson, Inc.,” leaves out the juicy stuff to focus on the pop icon as a business entity. With his soft-drink deals and sneaker endorsement, Jackson was a new kind of celebrity mogul, argues Zack O’Malley Greenburg, an editor at Forbes (and, as a child, the actor who played the ailing boy in the movie “Lorenzo’s Oil”). “Jackson fundamentally changed the formula for monetizing fame forever,” Greenburg writes. Today’s entrepreneurial artists, such as Jay Z, are following a trail once blazed by Jackson’s famous black loafers.

  Although he later became famous for his erratic behavior and million-dollar spending sprees, music executives who worked with Jackson from the beginning of his career turn up in Greenburg’s pages to declare that the young singer had a head for business. Jackson wrote notes in the margins of his contracts, recalls a former CBS records executive; Jackson made attentive comments in meetings, remembers another business associate. Unfortunately, the most memorable anecdotes that Greenburg unearthed tend to undermine his thesis — such as the time Jackson called his lawyer in the middle of the night to complain about a broken pinball machine. Oh, Michael!
  "Michael Jackson, Inc.: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire" by Zack O'Malley Greenburg (Atria/Atria)

  Although he was an obsessive worker for much of his career, some of the singer’s successes came nearly in spite of him. After filming the groundbreaking music video for “Thriller,” Jackson tried to halt its release, suddenly worried that the paranormal themes would jeopardize his spot in heaven. Later, he got cold feet about publishing his memoirs, although the book, titled “Moonwalk,” climbed to the top of the bestseller lists.

  Jackson made at least one brilliant investment. In 1985, he acquired a music-publishing catalog containing the copyrights to the Beatles’ biggest hits. He bought the catalog for $47.5 million — against the advice of his financial advisers and music industry acquaintances. Today that investment is worth about $1 billion.

  Jackson sorely needed the money generated by that catalog after 1993, the year his reputation was shattered by charges of child molestation. As his endorsement deals dried up, his spending habits remained unchanged. By one account quoted by Greenburg, Jackson made $13 million per year during this period but somehow managed to spend $25 million per year. To make ends meet, he took out a series of loans against his music catalog.

  After 1993, Jackson ditched many of the experienced business people who had helped him become a megastar. He periodically sought new financial gurus to help him straighten out his affairs but rarely followed their guidance. Tracked down by Greenburg, most of them offered a version of the same sound bite. “Anyone that told Michael something he didn’t want to hear, Michael got rid of,” said billionaire Tom Barrack, who had been working with the singer on his proposed comeback tour.

  In the year after his death, the public’s interest in Jackson’s music suddenly revived, and the King of Pop was no longer there to get in his own way. His estate, over the protests of his family, sold footage from some of his final rehearsals to Sony for $60 million. The resulting film, “This Is It,” became the highest-grossing documentary ever made.

  “Immortal,” a Cirque du Soleil show based on him, is bringing in $250,000 per night for the estate. And more revenue streams for Michael Jackson Inc. are in the works.

  The story comes to an abrupt end, with an unsatisfying coda — but that’s more the fault of Michael Jackson’s life and times than of his latest biographer. It’s not often that a pop star rises to the top, generates a billion dollars, and still leaves the world wondering about untapped potential and missed opportunities. The singer was a “bundle of contradictions,” Greenburg writes, “a showbiz revolutionary who eventually lost control of his personal finances.”

  Would Jackson ever have regained that control? Possibly not. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to perform a series of concerts in London that would have earned him an estimated $50 million. Then again, he was thinking about buying a $55 million mansion in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. You don’t need a degree in accounting to see the problem with those two figures for a man already in debt.

  Mike Musgrove is a former technology columnist for The Washington Post.

  We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

• Wall Street Journal
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-michael-jackson-inc-by-zack-omalley-greenburg-1401480239
  Word count: 1607

  QUOTE:
  Greenburg covers the dysfunction of the Jackson family, who thrust him out front onstage when he was barely 5, and the darker phases of Jackson's adult life adequately enough, but his focus is on the singer's business empire.

  Book Review: 'Michael Jackson, Inc.' by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  Michael Jackson bought the Beatles' song catalog for $47.5 million in 1984. It's now worth nearly $1 billion.
  By Edward Kosner
  May 30, 2014 4:04 p.m. ET
  0 COMMENTS

  Michael Jackson was kind of a shaman of American popular culture. In ancient Greece or Rome, he would have been a minor god—lithe and beguiling, a tricky deity. Preternaturally talented, childlike but perhaps a child molester, he entranced millions, earned nearly $2 billion and left a shadowed legacy. He was an authentic global superstar but a tortured human being.

  Five years since his squalid death and eight years since the second pedophilia scandal that derailed his career as the "King of Pop," Jackson's legend only grows. A Jacksonian Cirque du Soleil extravaganza has been touring the world for three years, racking up more than $350 million in ticket sales. Just this month, necromancers conjured up a creepy holographic Jackson on a music-awards TV show, and his estate released a "new" Jackson album of remixed old material. Now a new book argues that Jackson wasn't merely a moonwalking marvel but a visionary business wunderkind.
  Michael Jackson, Inc.

  By Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  Atria, 293 pages, $26
  Michael Jackson ca. 1980.
  Michael Jackson ca. 1980. Getty Images

  As Zack O'Malley Greenburg tells it in "Michael Jackson, Inc.," the entertainer's supreme talent was in "monetizing fame." Alive—and, especially, dead—Jackson earned more money than any other single performer. Much of it was frittered away in demented extravagance and misbegotten deals by sketchy "advisers." At one point, the singer had no fewer than 120 people working at his Neverland ranch and exotic zoo in California. He once had six recording studios working around the clock at the same time on a new album. Nearly bankrupt toward the end, he spent $6.5 million in an antic shopping spree at a Las Vegas antique dealer.

  Mr. Greenburg, a writer for Forbes, is hard-pressed to make the case that Jackson, for all his gifts as a performer, was a business wizard as well. He wrangles all sorts of show-biz types and big-money men to attest to the entertainer's uncommon acumen. Record moguls like Walter Yetnikoff and Tommy Mottola and deal makers like Ron Burkle can't stop burbling about Jackson's business smarts. "A brilliant, unbelievable mind," proclaims Tom Barrack, a real-estate Croesus who helped untangle Jackson's finances in his last year.

  There's no doubt that Jackson was a virtuoso entertainer. He was a pioneer—and not only as the first African-American megastar. Besides his incandescent talent as a singer, songwriter and dancer, Jackson was the first to recognize that music videos—originally low-rent record promos—could be developed into a lucrative new art form of sorts.

  He created a 3-D show for Disney that ran for years at the parks. He turned arena tours into extravaganzas that drew epic crowds in the U.S. and around the world. For one overseas tour, he insisted on such a mammoth stage set that the world's biggest cargo jet—a Russian An-225—had to be chartered at astronomical rates to airlift his mise-en-scène around the globe. His "Thriller" album remains the biggest-selling record of all time. No less a publishing doyenne than Jacqueline Onassis commissioned his best-selling autobiography, "Moonwalk" (1988). He left her confused: "Do you think he likes girls?" she giggled to a colleague after an editorial conference.

  Jackson may have preferred sleepovers with near-pubescent boys, but he was married twice—most famously, to Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley —and had three attractive children, although their paternity is mysterious. He made world-wide headlines when he dangled one of his tots over a Berlin hotel balcony, but he was by all accounts an attentive father always ready to whip up oatmeal or PB&Js. Still, he could never shake the notoriety of the two child-molestation cases against him. He settled the first, in 1993, for some $20 million and was acquitted in the second in 2005, but the stigma followed him to the grave.

  Mr. Greenburg covers the dysfunction of the Jackson family, who thrust him out front onstage when he was barely 5, and the darker phases of Jackson's adult life adequately enough, but his focus is on the singer's business empire. Indeed, the claim that Jackson was some kind of Jack Welch in sequins and white glove turns out to rest almost entirely on a single instinctive coup.

  According to " Michael Jackson, Inc.," the singer began thinking about music as a business soon after Berry Gordy's Motown records signed the Jackson 5 in 1968. He was 10 years old. The boy soon came to understand that the publishing rights to the words and music of an artist's songs could hold great value. The owner of the rights to a song collects a small royalty every time a record of the tune is sold and every time the song is played on the radio or TV, licensed for use in a movie or recorded by another singer. These pennies per use could mature into a lifetime bonanza.

  It took Jackson more than a decade to act on his instinct, but once he started, he moved quickly. With his lawyer John Branca doing the scouting, Jackson started using the mountains of cash he was earning to buy up song catalogs. His first big investment—$500,000—got him the rights to Sly and the Family Stone's oeuvre in 1984. He promptly got it back when a British group recorded one of the numbers and it topped the U.K. charts.

  Jackson selectively added a few more catalogs. Then, in 1985, he made the big deal that cemented his fortune, saved him from bankruptcy and still generates millions in annual royalties today. For $47.5 million he bought from an Australian buccaneer a company called ATV, whose chief asset was "Yesterday," " Penny Lane, " "Hey, Jude" and the rest—the Beatles catalog. Walter Yetnikoff and show-business billionaire David Geffen warned Jackson off the deal, Mr. Greenburg reports, but the singer persevered. Today the expanded ATV catalog is valued at $1 billion—a nifty return on investment by any measure.

  His eye for the main chance went beyond the music business. In the late '90s, Jackson wanted to buy Marvel Comics, sensing that its roster of Spider-Man, the X-Men and their fellow superheroes could be turned into blockbuster movies. A decade later, Disney did the deal for $4 billion. He also made lucrative endorsement deals with Pepsi and LA Gear and popped up in videogames and in stores with a clothing line.

  Jackson's peak earning years were $125 million in 1988 and $118 million in 1995, but he was too crazed and mercurial to sustain that level. He regularly dismissed Mr. Branca and other trusted managers and replaced them with charlatans and rogues whose principal talent was saying "yes" to the star's every harebrained scheme. He spent 40 or 50 times the normal budget producing a single album for Sony and decamped for long periods to Bahrain, Ireland and Las Vegas. Multiple facial surgeries and skin-bleaching treatments turned him into a ghostly freak. Ultimately, Jackson came under the malign ministrations of L.A. doctor Conrad Murray, who supplied him with, among other things, Propofol, a surgical anesthetic, and went to prison after the singer's death in 2009.

  Jackson always thought big. "Chaplin Michelangelo Disney," he once scribbled in a note to himself. But in the last decade of his life, Jackson was careening toward financial ruin. He hadn't been on the road since 1997 and hadn't released an album since 2001. To stay afloat, he had borrowed so heavily against his music catalogs that he was paying $11 million a year in interest alone. A 2005 accounting, Mr. Greenburg reports, showed Jackson's essentially illiquid assets "had a gross value of $567 million—led by his Sony/ATV stake ($390.6 million), Neverland ($33 million) and a collection of cars and antiques ($20 million)—but he had debts of $331 million. His cash reserves: just $668,215."

  Finally, Jackson decided to save himself by going back on the road with the "This Is It" tour that was to begin in London in June 2009. During the rehearsals, Dr. Murray was on hand to pump the star full of Propofol after hours. A member of the entourage warned the tour's promoters that Jackson was exhibiting "strong signs of paranoia, anxiety, and obsessive-like behavior." On June 25, Michael Jackson died of acute Propofol intoxication. He was 50 years old.

  But Michael Jackson, Inc. churned on. Mr. Branca helped spin video of the doomed tour rehearsals into a concert film, "Michael Jackson's This Is It," that became the highest-grossing documentary ever, earning the singer's estate $200 million. By the end of the year, Jackson had sold 8.3 million albums, nearly twice as many as the runner-up, Taylor Swift. With a new videogame, T-shirt and other deals in the mix, by the end of the next year the estate had gross revenue of $313 million. And the money keeps rolling in.

  The final testament to the scope of the King of Pop's business interests came from the Internal Revenue Service. Last October, it quietly filed a $702 million tax bill against Jackson's estate.

  —Mr. Kosner is the author of a memoir, "It's News to Me," about his career as editor of Newsweek, New York, Esquire and the New York Daily News.

• Chicago tribune
  http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/ct-prj-michael-jackson-inc-zack-omalley-greenburg-20140801-column.html
  Word count: 1135

  Printers Row Preview Review: 'Michael Jackson, Inc.' by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  Michael Jackson
  Michael Jackson's business acumen is explored in Zack O'Malley Greenburg's new book, "Michael Jackson, Inc." (Dave Hogan, Getty Images)
  Steve JohnsonSteve JohnsonContact ReporterChicago Tribune
  "Michael Jackson, Inc." looks at how the "King of Pop" has earned big, even in death

  Michael Jackson made a few brilliant business decisions in his life and a lot of cruddy ones. But probably his most effective move of all — from a financial sense, anyway — was to die of a drug overdose at age 50 on June 25, 2009.

  Before then, Jackson's finances were a floundering mess of debt, high spending and very little musical work to turn things around, according to Zack O'Malley Greenburg's new book, "Michael Jackson, Inc.: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Billion-Dollar Empire."

  Since then, without the often uncomfortable reality of Michael Jackson around to get in the way of his own legend, the ship has been righted and is operating at full sail.

  Two Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil shows, one traveling, one based in Las Vegas, are among the highest earners in live performance today. "Michael Jackson's This Is It," a performance film culled mostly from rehearsal footage for his planned comeback concert tour, has done more than $250 million in gross receipts. And Sony signed a fresh record deal with the singer's estate for that same amount, planning to issue unreleased material and anniversary editions of existing records.

  Where Jackson was earning less than $30 million annually in the seven unproductive years prior to his death, Jackson's estate has pulled in at least $117 million in every full year since his death and as much as $262 million in 2010, according to calculations made by Greenburg, a senior editor at Forbes.

  Jackson is, Greenburg writes, "an artist powerful enough to earn more than $700 million from beyond the grave — more than any living solo act over the past five years."

  His artistic power is one way to look at it. Another is to chalk it up to the miraculous restorative powers of death. Once we started missing Michael Jackson, we were willing, it seemed, to set aside all those years marred by child-abuse allegations and a public perception of Jackson as the freakish prisoner of his own, ever tighter and lighter skin.

  The singer even got a Pepsi deal, postmortem, a shocking change. In his early years, he was an endorsement pioneer, but no company would touch him in the last decade-plus of his life.

  Greenburg details all of Jackson's tabloid woes, even making the case that he brought some of them on himself in misguided attempts to replicate the no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity ethos of circus impresario P.T. Barnum, a man Jackson studied. (Remember the story about him sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber? That was a Jackson plant, this book says.)

  Writing as an investigator on the hunt for details, often taking readers along on interviews, the author has talked to close Jackson associates and celebrities aplenty: former backup singer Sheryl Crow, acolytes 50 Cent and Ludacris, Joe Jackson, members of Michael Jackson's inner business circle, and assorted record moguls.

  Such pop-culture details make the book more readable than the average tale of accumulated wealth. But although written for lay audiences, this is foremost a business book, with Jackson's finances serving as the throughline. This focus helps the author find a fresh take on one of the most discussed human beings of our era.

  But the writer sets himself a harder task with Jackson than he did in looking at Jay Z for a previous business-themed biography. Greenburg has to prove the fiscal savvy of a man who, to cite one late-life example, dropped more than $6 million on antiques in Las Vegas at the same time that he was living off of huge loans and had less than $700,000 cash.

  For the first half of the book, though, the case is strong. Greenburg, who himself was a child star (in the film "Lorenzo's Oil"), details a young Michael Jackson whose talent, shepherded by his cruelly ambitious father, Joe, propelled the family out of its working-class roots in Gary, Ind.

  Jackson was not content just to be the lead singer, the cute face of a brother act under Joe's control. Berry Gordy Jr., the Motown Records head, tells Greenburg about the young Jackson asking question after question about the music business, but also just staring at him, seeming to want to take in by osmosis the essence of Gordy's success.

  As Jackson began to craft a solo career, he studied the greats across many disciplines. The author's reporting turned up a telling doodle Jackson made during a business meeting. It said, "Chaplin Michelangelo Disney."

  He broke free of his father's control to sign his own record deal. Jackson surrounded himself, at least for the first period of his adult career, with talented business and musical people (the yes-men would come in later). He insisted, contractually, on being called the "King of Pop." That was no mere nickname. It was a business move.

  Leveraging his market power to make endorsement deals, boost his record earnings and pioneer music videos (while he, essentially, integrated early MTV), the singer "fundamentally changed the formula for monetizing fame forever," writes Greenburg.

  But Jackson's best business maneuver was in 1985, when he bought the publishing rights to the Beatles' most popular songs. Trusting his gut more than his advisers, Jackson paid $47.5 million for a catalog that (a) is worth an estimated $1 billion today and (b) he was able to borrow against to keep himself afloat even after his income began shrinking.

  During the downfall years, whatever business acumen the singer had seemed to disappear. He spent beyond his means. Jackson was never convicted of child molestation, but by inviting boys to his Neverland Ranch for sleepovers, he, at minimum, made himself vulnerable to the accusations.

  But worst of all, the singer seemed unable, in the end, to do the work that had brought him to such popular peaks. Only impending financial disaster led him to agree to the comeback tour he was rehearsing for at the time of his death.

  And that's when the money started rolling in again. Jackson isn't around to enjoy any of it, of course, or to contribute fresh songs or live performances. But Greenburg makes a pretty compelling case, between the lines, that Jackson wasn't enjoying much of his life by then, anyway.

  Steve Johnson is a Tribune features reporter.

  "Michael Jackson, Inc."

  By Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Atria, 295 pages, $26

• Hip Hop DX
  https://hiphopdx.com/editorials/id.1677/title.10-things-we-learned-reading-the-jay-z-book-empire-state-of-mind#
  Word count: 605

  10 Things We Learned Reading The Jay-Z Book "Empire State Of Mind"
  March 25, 2011 | 1:20 PM
  by DX Staff
  10 Things We Learned Reading The Jay-Z Book "Empire State Of Mind"
  51

  This month, Forbes’ Zack O’Malley Greenburg released his book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner To Corner Office. The biography of Shawn Carter looks at Jay’s personal and business relationships, through comprehsive archival interviews and new and rare insights from the likes of mentor Jaz-O, paternal hustler DeHaven, Dame Dash, MC Serch, DJ Clark Kent, Branson and others.

  The staff of HipHopDX thought we knew a lot about Jay-Z, but in the interest of supporting Hip Hop literacy, we thought we would share 10 things about Jay-Z from Empire State of Mind.

  1. Jay-Z maintains that his name comes from a childhood family nickname of “jazzy,” not the popular belief that it was taken to match mentor Jaz-O’s name, or the J and Z train lines that stop at the Marcy station in Brooklyn.

  2. Sauce Money, often mistakenly considered a Roc-A-Fella Records artist, was a collaborator suggested by DJ Clark Kent to try and get demo recognition. Additionally, Sauce was managed by then-NBA star Dennis Scott. Jay and Sauce would appear together on Big Daddy Kane’s Daddy’s Home album, a time in Jay’s career that Empire State of Mind sheds new light on.

  3. Jay-Z would have likely been murdered during a 1994 shooting – if the assailants gun did not jam. Both DeHaven and Jaz-O, Jay’s then-musical and street guides, recall the event. One of them alludes to ‘making that problem go away’ too.

  4. During his Def Jam presidency, Jay-Z helped collaborators The Roots clear a Radiohead sample, just hours before the clearance had to be made. Jay accomplished this through his direct relationship with the British band.

  5. Jay-Z never forgets. The book interviews producer A Kid Called Roots, who’s known for his work with artists ranging from Memphis Bleek to Sha Stimuli. AKCR provides an anecdote claiming that during a Japanese performance, Jay recognized the Roc-affiliated producer in the crowd, and invited him to the stage for his then-hit, “Do My…”

  6. Champagne wishes. Although it’s never formally said, Empire State of Mind suggests a number of interesting things about Jay-Z’s switch from musically-endorsing Cristal to Ace of Spades. The chapter includes revelations that longtime friend, collaborator and mid-’00s Island Def Jam executive Jermaine Dupri had a business relationship with the same people responsible for Ace of Spades, although Jay-Z has always maintained that there are no business ties to Armand De Brignac, Ace of Spades’ producer.

  7. Jay-Z invested in Carol’s Daughter, a cosmetics line. While we hear about various Jay backings, this one slipped under the Hip Hop radar.

  8. Jason Kidd was the first person that suggested to Jay-Z that he explore New Jersey Nets ownership. Count it.

  9. MC Serch of 3rd Bass fame was responsible for making “the Jay-Z Jeep” nearly happening. An artistic contemporary of Jay’s, Serch presented the idea to both sides, although it never happened – a deal and series of events that the book delves into.

  10. Jay-Z is still earning from Roc-A-Wear. Although the brand changed ownership, the book estimates that Jay receives close to $5 million dollars yearly off of the brand that he, Dame Dash, and Kareem Biggs started over a decade ago.

  Purchase Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office

• Bloomberg
  https://www.bloomberg.com/businessweek
  Word count: 1161

  QUOTE:
  In theory this rise should be inspiring. In practice it's quite disturbing. Jay-Z is, after all, a former drug dealer who shot his own brother after he caught him wearing his jewelry. He's also a music impresario who was accused of sticking a five-inch knife into the stomach of a rival record producer, and an executive who's so competitive that he stacked his playground basketball team with NBA stars.
  lavishes praise on the mogul who once famously rapped: "I'm not a businessman—I'm a business, man."

  Book Review: Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office by Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  March 24, 2011, 4:00 PM CDT

  (Corrects spelling of Zack O'Malley Greenburg's name.)

  Empire State of Mind:
  How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office
  By Zack O'Malley Greenburg
  Portfolio; 240 pp; $25.95

  Shawn Carter overcame a dirt-poor childhood in a Brooklyn housing project to transform himself into a world-famous rapper, marry Beyoncé, and build a sprawling business. In theory this rise should be inspiring. In practice it's quite disturbing. Jay-Z is, after all, a former drug dealer who shot his own brother after he caught him wearing his jewelry. He's also a music impresario who was accused of sticking a five-inch knife into the stomach of a rival record producer, and an executive who's so competitive that he stacked his playground basketball team with NBA stars.

  Empire State of Mind, the new biography by Forbes writer Zack O'Malley Greenburg, lavishes praise on the mogul who once famously rapped: "I'm not a businessman—I'm a business, man." It also depicts a businessman with Antarctica for a heart. "His loyalty is to his money," says Jaz-O, the man who taught Jay-Z to rhyme in the mid-1980s before being ditched by the younger entertainer. Greenburg's breathless account of Jay-Z's ascent makes it hard not to be impressed by his will to win. It's even harder, though, to develop any affection for him. Is being a thug really the best way to build a business?

  Not according to many of his former associates. Jay-Z quit high school to deal drugs and regarded music as merely a sideline until an ambush by rival dealers scared him into a straighter line of work. His lucky break came when he met entrepreneur Damon Dash and the two launched Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996, the same year as the release of Jay-Z's debut album. As Dash explains to Greenburg, he imparted two principles to his partner: "We shouldn't let other people make money off us, and we shouldn't give free advertising with our lifestyle." In other words: Own the rights to your music, and make companies pay for the shout-outs to liquor and designer clothing companies. They were prescient strategies, and Jay-Z mastered both—before splitting from Dash in 2004.

  The rapper hasn't grown any more generous with age. When Greenburg approaches Jay-Z's top lieutenant with the news he's planning to write a book about the star, the underling's response is rather myopic: "What's in it for us?" Without any financial incentive to dangle, Greenburg is denied access. Perhaps more tellingly, Jay-Z beats him to market with his own book, the 2010 best-seller Decoded. The rejection doesn't deter Greenburg, nor does it dim his opinion of his subject. "As much as Martha Stewart or Oprah, [Jay-Z] has turned himself into a lifestyle," Greenburg gushes. "You can wake up to the local radio station playing Jay-Z's latest hit, spritz yourself with his 9IX cologne, slip on a pair of his Rocawear jeans, lace up your Reebok S. Carter sneakers, catch a Nets basketball game in the afternoon and grab dinner at The Spotted Pig"—Jay-Z has a minority stake in both the team and the Manhattan restaurant—"before heading to an evening performance of the Jay-Z-backed Broadway musical Fela! and a nightcap at his 40/40 Club."

  Much as this virtual life might appeal to some, Greenburg offers no detailed analysis of the House of Jay-Z. He also seems unbothered by the fact that many of his partners aren't exactly market leaders. The Nets? Reebok? Aren't they what you settle for when you can't land the New York Knicks and Nike (NKE)? Greenburg estimates the rapper's fortune at half a billion dollars, yet provides no foundation for that figure, which seems high considering that several of Jay-Z's endeavors appear to be little more than marketing deals. Take the New Jersey Nets: According to reports cited by Greenburg, Jay-Z invested $1 million in the NBA team and received a stake worth $4.5 million because of his ability to generate buzz. It's a good deal for a rapper, but it's not Warren Buffett territory.

  Missing from Empire State of Mind is any insight into the industry that's grown up around hip-hop. Fifteen years after the killing of Tupac Shakur, rap has evolved from an authentic expression of street-level anger into a business that manufactures faux alienation for marketers who want to layer their products with a frisson of sex and danger. When fortysomething married multimillionaires still play gangsta, they risk playing their audience for fools. In 2006, Jay-Z abruptly dropped references to Cristal champagne from his raps and started littering his videos and lyrics with shout-outs to Armand de Brignac, an obscure champagne considered mediocre by wine snobs. While Greenburg discovers that Jay-Z quietly receives a generous retainer for promoting the brand, the entertainer does deserve his due. As one liquor expert tells Greenburg: "What an amazing job to take a piece of s--t wine and turn it into a $300 bottle of wine overnight."

  So, yes, Jay-Z is a great pitchman. Though it's still not clear that he's capable of building an enduring success. There's no certainty that the fans who plunk down a few hundred dollars for a bottle of Armand de Brignac will be rushing back to buy more Jay-Z-approved merchandise. He could also use some management pointers—at least judging from a 1999 incident in which he was accused of stabbing a music executive for allegedly bootlegging his CDs. (Jay-Z pled guilty to a reduced charge and received three years' probation.) Many chief executives have, at least metaphorically, wanted to stick a knife in a rival. Most, though, know it's not smart to wield the weapon yourself. That's what VPs are for.

  On the other hand, the knifing incident merely solidified his street cred—rap's version of what's often referred to in sports as "the intangibles." Since then, Jay-Z has continued to find lucrative paydays in shilling for, among others, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Budweiser (BUD). Still, his marketing range has its limits. When he tried to strike a deal with Chrysler to offer a special Jay-Z Jeep gussied up in a color known as Jay-Z Blue, the carmaker balked. Greenburg is surprised, but perhaps even Jay-Z is unable to boost the U.S. auto industry.

• New York Journal of Books
  https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/empire-state-mind-how-jay-z-went-street-corner-corner-office
  Word count: 3569

  QUOTE:
  Greenburg struggles through multiple interviews to firmly establish whether Jay-Z is a ruthless, no holds-barred businessman—or a really nice guy?
  Greenburg is a respected writer for Forbes. Yet overall, this book is unfortunately uneven. It is interesting, but not entirely engaging.

  new york journal of books

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  Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office
  Reviewed by:
  Daniel Feiman

  “I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man” is the reoccurring theme of this book.

  For those who may not know Shawn Corey Carter (aka Jay-Z), he is a former street-level drug dealer turned hip-hop artist turned mogul turned icon. Or should I say the mogul turned icon? He is, effectively today, a brand unto himself.

  “In November of 2009, Newsweek declared Jay-Z the fourth most important newly minted tycoon of the decade. . . .” That is powerful stuff. He is a powerful guy and perhaps the second richest hip-hop star, behind Sean “Diddy” Combs.

  If this “. . . . business, man” declaration is accurate it leaves the author trying to answer “on what basis?”

  This question persists throughout the book. Mr. Greenburg struggles through multiple interviews to firmly establish whether Jay-Z is a ruthless, no holds-barred businessman—or a really nice guy?

  The first six chapters of Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s book take us comfortably through the story of Jay-Z’s background, hard start, challenges, opportunities, talents, success, and choices. This is an easy and comfortable read to this point. Jay-Z’s initial success comes because he is both rhymester and a wordsmith, according to the author.

  Then the volume takes an odd turn in Chapter 7. Here the author morphs from a straightforward storyteller into an investigative reporter. He spends the entire chapter trying to prove there is a financial arrangement between our protagonist (Jay-Z was unwilling to be interviewed for the book) and the manufacturer of his now favorite champagne, Armand de Brignac. Is there or isn’t there a financial connection? Why is this even important? Apparently to answer the earlier question of ”Who is Jay-Z?”

  The eventual conclusion our author draws from what is—and isn’t—said in numerous interviews is that Jay-Z does, or must, have a financial arrangement that benefits him. The chapter ends with, “if he’s not getting a cut, or if he doesn’t own a piece, then he’s not a good business man,” adds Fass. “And we all know Jay-Z is a good businessman.” This might have been an interesting way to begin the book: establishing Jay-Z’s all-encompassing focus on the money. However, at this point in the book it is an unfortunate 22-page distraction.

  Jay-Z has taken the opportunities handed him and done quite well, thank you very much. Yet we still don’t know: Is he just the nicest guy in the world, as his employees reiterate time and time again, or the most materialistic, almost ruthless, businessman, always focusing on “What’s in it for me?” You might start to draw your own conclusions from one point that pops up repeatedly throughout the book: that Jay-Z learns from a mentor, surpasses him or her, and then tosses them aside for the next one.

  Back to the main question: Is he or isn’t he? We read that he shows sincere empathy for the little guy, he wants to learn, and he is easy to work with. And “what impressed [Russell] Simmons even more than Jay-Z’s ability to lighten the boardroom mood was his command of the situation at hand.”

  Yet, “The same impulse that led him into that line of work—an unquenchable thirst for wealth and a flair for deal-making—drew Jay-Z into the business of basketball.”

  “Through it all, Jay-Z maneuvered himself into a position to both bring NBA basketball to his hometown and squeeze every dollar he could out of the equation.”

  “. . . and failing to take advantage of an option like that just doesn’t fit with Jay-Z’s ruthless business instincts.”

  Jay-Z may be a masterful dealmaker, and he certainly has helped all things hip-hop rise in commercial success and social acceptance; however, does he really have the clout to influence the creation of governments? Apparently some think so. After establishing that Jay-Z is the rap master one interview comes out with the quote, “without hip-hop there is no Barack Obama” [Simmons].

  Beyoncé Knowles is a superstar and former member of Destiny’s Child. She is also married to Jay-Z. They are, without a doubt, a true power couple. Chapter 8 delves into this chemistry and states that each has developed their own brand very well. In fact, media buyer Ryan Schinman is quoted as saying, “it’s a case of one plus one equals ten.” So why then, once he establishes Beyoncé is the Beyoncé, does the author feel compelled to use her last name again later in the book?

  Mr. Greenburg is a respected writer for Forbes. Yet overall, this book is unfortunately uneven. It is interesting, but not entirely engaging. From the Introduction where the author seems to be in awe of the subject, to the first six chapters tracing Jay-Z’s history, followed by the oddly placed Chapter 7, the author seems to be searching for the right rhythm.
  Long Description:

  “I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man” is the reoccurring theme of this book.

  For those who may not know Shawn Corey Carter (aka Jay-Z), he is a former street-level drug dealer turned hip-hop artist turned mogul turned icon. Or should I say the mogul turned icon? He is, effectively today, a brand unto himself.

  “In November of 2009, Newsweek declared Jay-Z the fourth most important newly minted tycoon of the decade. . . .” That is powerful stuff. He is a powerful guy and perhaps the second richest hip-hop star, behind Sean “Diddy” Combs.

  If this “. . . . business, man” declaration is accurate it leaves the author trying to answer “on what basis?”

  This question persists throughout the book. Mr. Greenburg struggles through multiple interviews to firmly establish whether Jay-Z is a ruthless, no holds-barred businessman—or a really nice guy?

  The first six chapters of Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s book take us comfortably through the story of Jay-Z’s background, hard start, challenges, opportunities, talents, success, and choices. This is an easy and comfortable read to this point. Jay-Z’s initial success comes because he is both rhymester and a wordsmith, according to the author.

  Then the volume takes an odd turn in Chapter 7. Here the author morphs from a straightforward storyteller into an investigative reporter. He spends the entire chapter trying to prove there is a financial arrangement between our protagonist (Jay-Z was unwilling to be interviewed for the book) and the manufacturer of his now favorite champagne, Armand de Brignac. Is there or isn’t there a financial connection? Why is this even important? Apparently to answer the earlier question of ”Who is Jay-Z?”

  The eventual conclusion our author draws from what is—and isn’t—said in numerous interviews is that Jay-Z does, or must, have a financial arrangement that benefits him. The chapter ends with, “if he’s not getting a cut, or if he doesn’t own a piece, then he’s not a good business man,” adds Fass. “And we all know Jay-Z is a good businessman.” This might have been an interesting way to begin the book: establishing Jay-Z’s all-encompassing focus on the money. However, at this point in the book it is an unfortunate 22-page distraction.

  Jay-Z has taken the opportunities handed him and done quite well, thank you very much. Yet we still don’t know: Is he just the nicest guy in the world, as his employees reiterate time and time again, or the most materialistic, almost ruthless, businessman, always focusing on “What’s in it for me?” You might start to draw your own conclusions from one point that pops up repeatedly throughout the book: that Jay-Z learns from a mentor, surpasses him or her, and then tosses them aside for the next one.

  Back to the main question: Is he or isn’t he? We read that he shows sincere empathy for the little guy, he wants to learn, and he is easy to work with. And “what impressed [Russell] Simmons even more than Jay-Z’s ability to lighten the boardroom mood was his command of the situation at hand.”

  Yet, “The same impulse that led him into that line of work—an unquenchable thirst for wealth and a flair for deal-making—drew Jay-Z into the business of basketball.”

  “Through it all, Jay-Z maneuvered himself into a position to both bring NBA basketball to his hometown and squeeze every dollar he could out of the equation.”

  “. . . and failing to take advantage of an option like that just doesn’t fit with Jay-Z’s ruthless business instincts.”

  Jay-Z may be a masterful dealmaker, and he certainly has helped all things hip-hop rise in commercial success and social acceptance; however, does he really have the clout to influence the creation of governments? Apparently some think so. After establishing that Jay-Z is the rap master one interview comes out with the quote, “without hip-hop there is no Barack Obama” [Simmons].

  Beyoncé Knowles is a superstar and former member of Destiny’s Child. She is also married to Jay-Z. They are, without a doubt, a true power couple. Chapter 8 delves into this chemistry and states that each has developed their own brand very well. In fact, media buyer Ryan Schinman is quoted as saying, “it’s a case of one plus one equals ten.” So why then, once he establishes Beyoncé is the Beyoncé, does the author feel compelled to use her last name again later in the book?

  Mr. Greenburg is a respected writer for Forbes. Yet overall, this book is unfortunately uneven. It is interesting, but not entirely engaging. From the Introduction where the author seems to be in awe of the subject, to the first six chapters tracing Jay-Z’s history, followed by the oddly placed Chapter 7, the author seems to be searching for the right rhythm.
  Byline:
  Daniel S. Feiman business + 2011 book
  Reviewed by:
  Daniel Feiman

  “I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man” is the reoccurring theme of this book.

  For those who may not know Shawn Corey Carter (aka Jay-Z), he is a former street-level drug dealer turned hip-hop artist turned mogul turned icon. Or should I say the mogul turned icon? He is, effectively today, a brand unto himself.

  “In November of 2009, Newsweek declared Jay-Z the fourth most important newly minted tycoon of the decade. . . .” That is powerful stuff. He is a powerful guy and perhaps the second richest hip-hop star, behind Sean “Diddy” Combs.

  If this “. . . . business, man” declaration is accurate it leaves the author trying to answer “on what basis?”

  This question persists throughout the book. Mr. Greenburg struggles through multiple interviews to firmly establish whether Jay-Z is a ruthless, no holds-barred businessman—or a really nice guy?

  The first six chapters of Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s book take us comfortably through the story of Jay-Z’s background, hard start, challenges, opportunities, talents, success, and choices. This is an easy and comfortable read to this point. Jay-Z’s initial success comes because he is both rhymester and a wordsmith, according to the author.

  Then the volume takes an odd turn in Chapter 7. Here the author morphs from a straightforward storyteller into an investigative reporter. He spends the entire chapter trying to prove there is a financial arrangement between our protagonist (Jay-Z was unwilling to be interviewed for the book) and the manufacturer of his now favorite champagne, Armand de Brignac. Is there or isn’t there a financial connection? Why is this even important? Apparently to answer the earlier question of ”Who is Jay-Z?”

  The eventual conclusion our author draws from what is—and isn’t—said in numerous interviews is that Jay-Z does, or must, have a financial arrangement that benefits him. The chapter ends with, “if he’s not getting a cut, or if he doesn’t own a piece, then he’s not a good business man,” adds Fass. “And we all know Jay-Z is a good businessman.” This might have been an interesting way to begin the book: establishing Jay-Z’s all-encompassing focus on the money. However, at this point in the book it is an unfortunate 22-page distraction.

  Jay-Z has taken the opportunities handed him and done quite well, thank you very much. Yet we still don’t know: Is he just the nicest guy in the world, as his employees reiterate time and time again, or the most materialistic, almost ruthless, businessman, always focusing on “What’s in it for me?” You might start to draw your own conclusions from one point that pops up repeatedly throughout the book: that Jay-Z learns from a mentor, surpasses him or her, and then tosses them aside for the next one.

  Back to the main question: Is he or isn’t he? We read that he shows sincere empathy for the little guy, he wants to learn, and he is easy to work with. And “what impressed [Russell] Simmons even more than Jay-Z’s ability to lighten the boardroom mood was his command of the situation at hand.”

  Yet, “The same impulse that led him into that line of work—an unquenchable thirst for wealth and a flair for deal-making—drew Jay-Z into the business of basketball.”

  “Through it all, Jay-Z maneuvered himself into a position to both bring NBA basketball to his hometown and squeeze every dollar he could out of the equation.”

  “. . . and failing to take advantage of an option like that just doesn’t fit with Jay-Z’s ruthless business instincts.”

  Jay-Z may be a masterful dealmaker, and he certainly has helped all things hip-hop rise in commercial success and social acceptance; however, does he really have the clout to influence the creation of governments? Apparently some think so. After establishing that Jay-Z is the rap master one interview comes out with the quote, “without hip-hop there is no Barack Obama” [Simmons].

  Beyoncé Knowles is a superstar and former member of Destiny’s Child. She is also married to Jay-Z. They are, without a doubt, a true power couple. Chapter 8 delves into this chemistry and states that each has developed their own brand very well. In fact, media buyer Ryan Schinman is quoted as saying, “it’s a case of one plus one equals ten.” So why then, once he establishes Beyoncé is the Beyoncé, does the author feel compelled to use her last name again later in the book?

  Mr. Greenburg is a respected writer for Forbes. Yet overall, this book is unfortunately uneven. It is interesting, but not entirely engaging. From the Introduction where the author seems to be in awe of the subject, to the first six chapters tracing Jay-Z’s history, followed by the oddly placed Chapter 7, the author seems to be searching for the right rhythm.

  Daniel Feiman, MBA, CMC®, Visiting Professor is Managing Director of Build It Backwards: consultants and trainers in strategy, finance, and business process. His book, The Book on . . . Business From A to Z; The 260 Most Important Answers You Need to Know was published in 2011.
  Long Description:

  “I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man” is the reoccurring theme of this book.

  For those who may not know Shawn Corey Carter (aka Jay-Z), he is a former street-level drug dealer turned hip-hop artist turned mogul turned icon. Or should I say the mogul turned icon? He is, effectively today, a brand unto himself.

  “In November of 2009, Newsweek declared Jay-Z the fourth most important newly minted tycoon of the decade. . . .” That is powerful stuff. He is a powerful guy and perhaps the second richest hip-hop star, behind Sean “Diddy” Combs.

  If this “. . . . business, man” declaration is accurate it leaves the author trying to answer “on what basis?”

  This question persists throughout the book. Mr. Greenburg struggles through multiple interviews to firmly establish whether Jay-Z is a ruthless, no holds-barred businessman—or a really nice guy?

  The first six chapters of Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s book take us comfortably through the story of Jay-Z’s background, hard start, challenges, opportunities, talents, success, and choices. This is an easy and comfortable read to this point. Jay-Z’s initial success comes because he is both rhymester and a wordsmith, according to the author.

  Then the volume takes an odd turn in Chapter 7. Here the author morphs from a straightforward storyteller into an investigative reporter. He spends the entire chapter trying to prove there is a financial arrangement between our protagonist (Jay-Z was unwilling to be interviewed for the book) and the manufacturer of his now favorite champagne, Armand de Brignac. Is there or isn’t there a financial connection? Why is this even important? Apparently to answer the earlier question of ”Who is Jay-Z?”

  The eventual conclusion our author draws from what is—and isn’t—said in numerous interviews is that Jay-Z does, or must, have a financial arrangement that benefits him. The chapter ends with, “if he’s not getting a cut, or if he doesn’t own a piece, then he’s not a good business man,” adds Fass. “And we all know Jay-Z is a good businessman.” This might have been an interesting way to begin the book: establishing Jay-Z’s all-encompassing focus on the money. However, at this point in the book it is an unfortunate 22-page distraction.

  Jay-Z has taken the opportunities handed him and done quite well, thank you very much. Yet we still don’t know: Is he just the nicest guy in the world, as his employees reiterate time and time again, or the most materialistic, almost ruthless, businessman, always focusing on “What’s in it for me?” You might start to draw your own conclusions from one point that pops up repeatedly throughout the book: that Jay-Z learns from a mentor, surpasses him or her, and then tosses them aside for the next one.

  Back to the main question: Is he or isn’t he? We read that he shows sincere empathy for the little guy, he wants to learn, and he is easy to work with. And “what impressed [Russell] Simmons even more than Jay-Z’s ability to lighten the boardroom mood was his command of the situation at hand.”

  Yet, “The same impulse that led him into that line of work—an unquenchable thirst for wealth and a flair for deal-making—drew Jay-Z into the business of basketball.”

  “Through it all, Jay-Z maneuvered himself into a position to both bring NBA basketball to his hometown and squeeze every dollar he could out of the equation.”

  “. . . and failing to take advantage of an option like that just doesn’t fit with Jay-Z’s ruthless business instincts.”

  Jay-Z may be a masterful dealmaker, and he certainly has helped all things hip-hop rise in commercial success and social acceptance; however, does he really have the clout to influence the creation of governments? Apparently some think so. After establishing that Jay-Z is the rap master one interview comes out with the quote, “without hip-hop there is no Barack Obama” [Simmons].

  Beyoncé Knowles is a superstar and former member of Destiny’s Child. She is also married to Jay-Z. They are, without a doubt, a true power couple. Chapter 8 delves into this chemistry and states that each has developed their own brand very well. In fact, media buyer Ryan Schinman is quoted as saying, “it’s a case of one plus one equals ten.” So why then, once he establishes Beyoncé is the Beyoncé, does the author feel compelled to use her last name again later in the book?

  Mr. Greenburg is a respected writer for Forbes. Yet overall, this book is unfortunately uneven. It is interesting, but not entirely engaging. From the Introduction where the author seems to be in awe of the subject, to the first six chapters tracing Jay-Z’s history, followed by the oddly placed Chapter 7, the author seems to be searching for the right rhythm.
  Byline:
  Daniel S. Feiman business + 2011 book
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• Black Enterprise
  http://www.blackenterprise.com/zack-omalley-greenburg-jay-z-biographer/
  Word count: 2552

  Q&A With Jay-Z, Michael Jackson Biographer Zack O’Malley Greenburg
  Darren Sands
  by
  Darren Sands

  December 13, 2012
  Q&A With Jay-Z, Michael Jackson Biographer Zack O’Malley Greenburg
  Zack O'Malley Greenburg

  Page: 1 2 3
  Zack O'Malley Greenburg jay-z book empire state of mind

  Zack O'Malley Greenburg

  So, here’s the short of it: When we found out that the twenty-something Forbes writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg was writing a business-focused biography on Michael Jackson, we knew we wanted to talk to him.

  He’d broken the news that Michael’s personal debts had been paid up and so we thought he’d be free to chat. He was. We met for lunch (Forbes’ offices are a short walk away from our office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan). Here’s what transpired. Warning, the stuff we talked about concerning Michael (mostly under Zack’s personal embargo) is at the end. Dope insights all around, as you’ll see. We chatted mostly about his his business-centered biography on Jay-Z titled, Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office, newly out in paperback. Hova’s review? “Horrible.” You’ll see that story, later.

  One more thing: Dec. 4 is Jay-Z’s birthday. As part of the celebrations, Empire State of Mind’s chapter on Chrysler’s failed “Jay-Z Jeep” will be excerpted on the great Rap Genius.

  BlackEnterprise.com: You’ve mentioned repeatedly that you did some big-name interviews with sources that didn’t want to be included in the book once they found out that Jay-Z wasn’t going to be a part of the project. As a journalist, you certainly didn’t have any obligation to honor their wishes. Why did you?

  Zack O’Malley Greenburg: That’s a good question. I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have. If something’s not off the record, it’s on the record. You can’t really take something back. That’s the journalist code, anyway. I just felt as though that may be true, morally I felt a bit uncomfortable because in the beginning when I interviewed some of these people I had been pretty optimistic that Jay-Z would be on board. I didn’t want to have mislead them, and I didn’t want to burn bridges in the future with people who had been good sources.

  The insights that I got, I was still able to weave into the book one way or the other, just not with a name attached to it. Although some of the names were big names and it would have been nice to say so-and-so was included in the book, would it have added that much more to the actual content? It’s debatable. But I think one of the great things about it being unauthorized in the end was that it forced me to really have to dig around and find some of these stories that ended up being the best chapters in the book.

  You tell this story about how you ran into Jay-Z at Made in America — can you tell our readers what happened, and what do you think is so sensitive about the business aspect of his life that made him react the way he did?

  I was doing work in the media tent doing interviews. It was the afternoon of the last day and I took a break and went to the porta-potties. The way it was situated, it was the same one on the border of the VIP area and the media area. So you couldn’t go from the media tent to the VIP area. But the porta potty bank served both tents. So I walk out of the porta potty and standing 15 feet away from me are Jay-Z, Beyonce and a whole gaggle of people. And there’s nobody between me and him. I had a few brushes with him, but there was always something — I was, like, well this is my chance. As I did, he turned around and our eyes met. He was walking past me and I say, “Jay, I’m the guy who wrote the book about you. And he kept walking for about ten feet — and I knew he’d heard me, because he was two feet away from me — and as he was about to turn the corner he looked over his shoulder and said, “That book was horrible!” [Laughs.] And then he walked off.

  I was elated, because this kind of closed the loop. I didn’t really care what he was going to say, I was just curious to see what he was going to say. What the interaction told me was that obviously he’d read the book, but more importantly that it had gotten to him on some level, because that was not the typical Jay-Z reaction would be to ignore me.

  That’s interesting, and I think about that review of Guy Fieri’s restaurant in the Times. Isn’t the worst thing that could have happened to that place is a lukewarm review in the New York Times? It says something that the institution — the writer — felt so strongly about it.

  Well, I totally agree. Jay-Z’s typical reaction to things out of his control is to completely ignore them. The fact that he kind of broke character and made kind of an off-handed remark that was not particularly well thought out or incisive suggests to me that it got to him in some way. I wasn’t writing it as a take down piece, if anything it’s a pretty positive book. But there were a few chapters in there where I revealed things that hadn’t been revealed about deals that he didn’t want publicized. He’s been able to maintain this pretty invincible aura and it’s been one of the things that’s been central to his whole persona. And in order to do so he’s done a pretty magnificent job at sweeping things under the rug that don’t fit with that image. Remember the Farmville game on Facebook? Remember Armadale Vodka? I think the deals that don’t work certainly give you valuable insight, especially in the case of the Jay-Z Jeep, how he was able to extract something positive from a deal that had gone sour. That’s the part that’s being excerpted on Rap Genius on Dec. 4.

  There are these business deals that you write about that go awry, right, and that’s well done and well documented. But what about his music? His albums are a different proposition that’s subject to scrutiny, and so I’m curious about what you found in your character analysis that gives us an idea about music that’s not well received?

  I think the only album he said that he’d do over is Volume 1. I would agree with him on that. That was a function of it being early in his career and he was coming off Reasonable Doubt, which even at the time was being hailed as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. He was deciding to chase the larger pop prize. He slowed down his rhymes … it was just not good. But it still sold better than Reasonable Doubt! And I think it wasn’t until Hard Knock Life that he really perfected the perfect balance. But he argues that Blueprint 2 and Kingdom Come were ahead of their time. Kingdom Come’s theme was, like, “I’m so wealthy, the things I like you haven’t even heard of.” And he got a lot of flack for that, but that’s also a central theme to Watch the Throne, which was enormously well received.

  Where did it turn for Jay-Z? When did he become who he is today, this huge, other-worldly mogul who can seemingly do no wrong?

  I think he was hoping that moment would come when Kingdom Come was released. I don’t think everyone was quite ready for this notion of Jay-Z, the tastemaking mogul. But 2008 was a big year for him. He made American Gangster, signed the Live Nation deal, married Beyonce, and suddenly you see this guy who’s secretly getting married to the biggest pop star in the world on the top floor of his TriBeca rooftop and that’s when I think it started to be universally understood that he was this trendsetter and mogul. Looking back, it feels like everyone’s always thought of him this way, but I would link it back to 2008.

  What did you learn about his business acumen from his lyrics?

  As I was researching the book, people would tell me stuff, and I’d think back to lyrics and a name or reference would slap into place. He says, “I gave Doug a grip I lost a flip for five stacks, yeah I’m talking five comma, six zeroes, dot zero, here Doug.” That was when he flipped a coin with Universal CEO Doug Morris to get out of his deal and start the Roc Nation label. He lost the flip for $5 million. That was the negotiation and he lost. So he really tends to leave these little Easter eggs all over the place and you have to unpack them.
  What did you find are some of the business implications to his marriage to Beyonce?

  People I talked to that know them thinks they have a normal, loving marriage. With that said, it’s also a pretty good business arrangement for both of them. For example, they’re probably always going to be in the front row of any awards show that they go to together, regardless of whether or not one of them has a big hit out. It’s become virtually impossible for either one of them to become irrelevant … they would both have to become irrelevant.

  From a business perspective, they don’t do endorsements together. But if one of them does an endorsement, there’s kind of this implicit sign-off from the other one. You know that Jay-Z is not going to endorse Budweiser or Hublot if Beyonce doesn’t like it or disapproves of it. You don’t really get two for the price of one, but you definitely get more than one.

  And what about the baby?

  I think he sees the business in everything, and when it comes to Blue Ivy he can’t not see some business potential there. They tried to trademark the name and I don’t think they were able to do all they wanted to … but they haven’t really tried to exploit it. If you ever notice when they’re out in public he covers her face so that there are no unauthorized pictures. The only ones I’ve seen have been the ones they released. That totally fits with his M.O. of, “I’m not letting somebody else profit off of something that I could be profiting off.”

  Some people I talked to say they actually named her Blue Ivy because it was the kind of name that you could trademark. If her name were, like, Mary Carter, you couldn’t trademark that. But who knows what the motivation was? My guess is he felt it would be wise to leave the door open to profit off his child’s name … and it could be that he wanted her to be able to profit off her own name. Imagine in twenty years, Blue Ivy is going to the Tisch School and designing her own clothing line. That’s kind of a cool name for a clothing line.

  I hope we can talk a little bit about your Michael Jackson book.

  Sure.

  Did you go to Simon and Schuster or did they go to you?

  I pitched the book. If you told me three years ago my next book would be about Michael Jackson I wouldn’t believe you because I thought that everything that had been written was it. But in the past few years covering the business of his estate and immersing myself more in that and his life, I realized that there was a story here that nobody had written. And we all know that he was successful, but what a lot of people don’t realize was that it was his own business savvy that in many ways drove much of his success. That’s what gradually dawned on me organically. I thought, here was a counter-intuitive hypothesis on the most famous person since Jesus Christ, and I have to tell this story. I had amassed a pretty good collection of sources already telling me things that were really resourceful, and so I had enough to get started.

  What are you finding most interesting about Michael over the course of your research?

  Aww, man. Where to begin? [Laughs.] Interestingly, one of the main traits that made him successful as a businessman is one that made Jay-Z successful, and that’s their thirst for knowledge. Everybody I talk to tells me that he was a voracious reader. He studied the greats in music, art and history, and read biographies on everyone from Thomas Edison to Elvis. He wanted to study the greats of every profession and take ideas and make them into his own; and fit into his way of operating. I think maybe a lot of people heard of his acquisition of the ATV catalogue in 1985. But all of the different deals he pursued and how he was able to succeed in doing some things … I don’t want to give it away; but let’s just say that there are a lot of things over the past 10-15 years, guys like Jay-Z and Diddy have been lauded for, that Michael was into in the eighties. He was so far ahead of his time, and it’s been cool to dig into some of those deals and talk to the people who worked with him on it.

  It seemed like he just came of age in the perfect environment at exactly the right time.

  Well just as Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are the first true superstars born of the social media age, you could say that Michael was the first of the 24-hour news cycle and MTV era. It wasn’t easy, because MTV only wanted to play stuff by white people until Michael Jackson came along and basically forced them to play his stuff. Not only did he have a role in developing MTV as a medium but he’d opened it to all genres and races. Before it was just rock. He wouldn’t call them videos — he would call them short films. In the process, he really revolutionized the music video as an art form.

  This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

  Page: 1 2 3

• Entertainment Weekly
  http://ew.com/article/2016/04/01/three-kings-zack-omalley-greenburg/
  Word count: 203

  'Three Kings' by Zack O'Malley Greenburg due out in 2017
  Photo by Michael Letterlough, Jr., courtesy of the author
  Isabella Biedenharn April 01, 2016 at 03:44 PM EDT

  Hip-hop business and the rise of moguls Jay Z, Dr. Dre, and Diddy will be the focus of Three Kings, a forthcoming non-fiction book by Forbes senior editor Zack O’Malley Greenburg, EW can announce exclusively. Little, Brown expects to publish Three Kings in 2017.

  “I’ve been covering these three moguls my entire career and realized there’s never been a sort of great-minds history of hip-hop — a book in the vein of The Innovators for the genre — and that it was about time for one,” Greenburg tells EW. “I’ve already started the reporting and writing process, and I couldn’t be more excited about the project.”

  According to the publisher, Three Kings will be a “candid narrative on the business of hip-hop, following the rise of Jay Z, Dr. Dre, and Diddy as they transformed a genre spawned in poverty into a global multi-billion dollar industry.” Greenburg’s previous works include Empire State of Mind, a biography of Jay Z, and Michael Jackson, Inc., a business biography.

• Fox 5 NY
  http://www.fox5ny.com/news/3-kings-hip-hop
  Word count: 394

  Author profiles '3 Kings' of hip-hop: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z
  By: ALISON MORRIS

  Posted: Mar 16 2018 05:41PM EDT

  Video Posted: Mar 16 2018 05:39PM EDT

  Updated: Mar 16 2018 07:02PM EDT

  NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - The Forbes editor who launched the Hip-Hop Cash Kings list is out with a new book on the biggest moneymakers in the game.

  3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise by Zack O'Malley Greenburg is three things: a history of the business of hip-hop, a triple biography of Jay-Z, Diddy, and Dr. Dre, and a blueprint of how those guys became entrepreneurs.

  In the summer of 1973 at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, legend has it, hip-hop got its start. That's just part of the rich New York City hip-hop history in Zack's book, which also compares the three kings' business styles to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  Image Gallery
  2 PHOTOS

  _3_Kings__of_hip_hop_0_20180316213940
  TWITTER EP 17 zack _1521241105632.png.jpg

  Zack says Dr. Dre is definitely Donatello, the one tinkering in the workshop, on a new headphones line, or maybe a song. He's the perfectionist.

  Zack thinks Diddy is most like Michelangelo, the cowabunga party dude who is 100 percent on all the time.

  He likens Jay-Z to Raphael, the witty one hanging in the back.

  Zack looks at each of the three kings' business accomplishments.

  Dre uniquely marketed Beats headphones before selling them to Apple for $3 billion, by targeting Air Jordans as the competition, not other headphones brands.

  Diddy has a diverse range of investments, which reportedly includes a stake in Spotify, plus his cable channel Revolt, Ciroc Vodka with Diageo, his own tequila line, and clothing.

  Jay-Z is able to build a brand-new door every time one is slammed in his face, boycotting Cristal Champagne for its attitude against hip-hop stars, and investing in his own Champagne: Armand de Brignac.

  This is the story of how three hip-hop kids became kings and how the music they make is here to stay.

  As Zack says, hip-hop isn't going anywhere.

  Listen to much more about the business of hip-hop with Zack O'Malley Greenburg and Alison Morris on the Morris on Money podcast.

• Wall Street Journal
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/3-kings-review-from-rap-to-riches-1522364548
  Word count: 1183

  QUOTE:
  Greenburg does an admirable job uncovering details about each man’s finances. His interviews with the kings’ acquaintances and business partners are usually insightful and often amusing. Some of his reporting on how the major deals went down will be of interest to business-oriented readers,

  ‘3 Kings’ Review: From Rap to Riches
  Hip-hop’s richest artist is almost a billionaire, but he didn’t make his money just by cutting hit records. Adam O’Neal reviews “3 Kings” by Zack O’Malley Greenburg.
  Jay-Z and Diddy in January.
  Jay-Z and Diddy in January. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
  By Adam O’Neal
  March 29, 2018 7:02 p.m. ET
  2 COMMENTS

  Donald Trump was once a prominent feature on the hip-hop landscape, where his penchant for ostentatious displays of wealth paired well with hip-hop’s embrace of conspicuous consumption. But lately his politics have made him toxic. In only a few years, he has evolved from hero to heel. Who will replace him as hip-hop’s favorite billionaire businessman? Expect an internal hire.

  Earlier this month, Forbes updated its list of hip-hop’s wealthiest artists. The three men at the top have something in common: They earned substantial wealth and fame through music but eventually transformed themselves into even wealthier business executives. In “3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop’s Multibillion-Dollar Rise,” Zack O’Malley Greenburg—who compiles the Forbes hip-hop wealth list—provides a quick chronicle of how each man did it.

  Hip-hop in the 1980s was a nascent but fast-growing music genre. Def Jam Recordings, the label that signed such pioneers as LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, was started out of a New York University dorm room in 1984. Between that year and 1987 only 10 hip-hop albums sold one million copies; from 1988 to 1993 about 10 albums achieved this feat every year. As the fan base grew, artists quickly discovered that they had a burgeoning image to leverage into brand endorsements. In 1986, the members of Run-D.M.C. could be seen stomping their Adidas shell-toe shoes to the tune of $1 million—“hip-hop’s first seven-figure branding pact,” Mr. Greenburg notes—a deal brokered by Def Jam’s co-founder Russell Simmons.

  This was the scene onto which the first of Mr. Greenburg’s kings, Sean “Diddy” Combs, arrived in the late 1980s, dropping out of Howard University to work at Uptown Records. There, Mr. Greenburg tells us, Mr. Combs “applied his brand of urban panache to acts on Uptown’s roster,” blending hip-hop and R&B and making sure that his performers maintained enviable lifestyles. After being fired from Uptown, Mr. Combs started his own label, Bad Boy Records—featuring, most significantly, the Notorious B.I.G. Mr. Combs reinvented himself as a rapper, selling millions of records and again conveying, with flashy images of success and riches, an aspirational message. He also invested in the Sean John clothing label, Revolt TV and any other product that reflected his way of life, to cash in on the brand and his endorsement. “Whatever was in the realm of entertainment or lifestyle, or curator of cool, that’s what I do,” Mr. Combs once said. His earnings from an interest in Cîroc vodka topped $60 million in 2014, according to Mr. Greenburg.
  Dr. Dre in 2011.
  Dr. Dre in 2011. Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images
  ‘3 Kings’ Review: From Rap to Riches
  Photo: WSJ
  3 Kings

  By Zack O’Malley Greenburg
  Little, Brown, 307 pages, $28

  Forbes estimates Mr. Combs’s net worth at $825 million, and for years he sat atop the list of hip-hop’s richest artists. This year he was overtaken by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. Mr. Carter took a more circuitous route to the top, learning his earliest business lessons selling crack cocaine in Brooklyn, N.Y. One of Mr. Greenburg’s sources estimates that by the early 1990s Mr. Carter was moving about a kilogram of cocaine a week, a business so lucrative he almost gave up his music career. Eventually, though, he committed himself to hip-hop full-time, co-founding Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 to release his first album. From there he would co-found Rocawear clothing in 1999 and become president of Def Jam in 2004. Along the way, according to Mr. Greenburg, Mr. Carter would persuade multibillion-dollar companies “to cough up a nine-figure sum for a generic product upon which he’d sprinkled his stardust.” But he also developed a knack for monetizing his career in innovative ways. Samsung paid the rapper $5 million for a million copies of his 2013 album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” which the company’s Galaxy smartphone users could then download early. Last year Mr. Carter signed a $200 million, 10-year concert deal with the events promoter Live Nation. Today Mr. Carter is close to becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire, with an estimated net worth of $900 million.

  Andre “Dr. Dre” Young is the last of Mr. Greenburg’s kings. Now worth an estimated $770 million, he first gained fame in the late 1980s as a member of the West Coast hip-hop group N.W.A. But Mr. Young recognized that he needed to tone down his rough public persona if he was to gain mainstream acceptance. He later admitted that “making money is more important to me than talking about killing police.” He took himself out of the spotlight and spent years focused on being a music producer and the founder of the Aftermath record label, signing such major hip-hop names as 50 Cent, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. More so than in the case of Messrs. Carter and Combs, Mr. Young’s sonic taste and obsession with perfection is the central part of his appeal. It helped him build Beats, the headphones and music-streaming brand that Apple bought in 2014 for $3 billion in a deal that also saw Mr. Young join the tech company as an executive. Mr. Greenburg estimated in 2015 that the deal brought Mr. Young a $500 million payout.

  Mr. Greenburg does an admirable job uncovering details about each man’s finances. His interviews with the kings’ acquaintances and business partners are usually insightful and often amusing. Some of his reporting on how the major deals went down will be of interest to business-oriented readers, particularly his dissection of Mr. Young’s former partnership—and falling out—with audio-equipment executive Noel Lee. Yet we never get a full sense of the three kings—their personal lives, family relations, cultural views—apart from their deal making and commercial success. Mr. Greenburg sometimes substitutes such insight with awkward and broad descriptions: “If anyone who knew the trio well had to cast them as Marvel superheroes, or Disney princesses, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all three would inevitably end up in disparate roles.” Even so, the book’s primary observation is well-taken: Hip-hop is not becoming more corporate. If anything, corporations are becoming more hip-hop.

  Mr. O’Neal is an assistant editorial features editor at the Journal.

  Appeared in the March 30, 2018, print edition as 'From Rap To Riches.'

• Somerset County Library System of New Jerse
  https://sclsnj.org/3-kings-diddy-dr-dre-jay-z-hip-hops-multibillion-dollar-rise-zack-omalley-greenburg/
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  3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Hip Hop’s Multibillion-Dollar Rise (This link opens in a new tab) by Zack O’Malley Greenburg

  Reviewed by Laura, Collection Development Librarian

  An intriguing look at the the rise of three music superstars who have become wildly successful entrepreneurs. Greenburg, a Forbes editor, examines the growth of hip hop and its influence on fashion, drink, sports, electronics, film and more. Greenburg traces Diddy, Dre and Jay-Z’s start in the music industry and how each was able to parlay it into other deals and the development of their own brands. He profiles other hip hop influencers like Russell Simmons and 50 Cent. Fans of hip hop, the entrepreneurial spirit and pop culture will find a great story here.

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