Chris Lighty creates Hip-Hop Brands!

Insight from B. Brown (BREG)

For those that have never heard of Chris Lighty, he is the Premier Artist Brand Manager that has literally helped a lot of artists you know become "Household Names".

Checkout the article below!

By: Tennille M. Robinson (blackenterprise.com; January 2011; pg. 78)

When entertainers want to turn themselves into household names, they entrust industry veteran Chris Lighty to implement his "360-degree business model," focusing on three P's that work in tandem: the plan, the person, and the people.

"You could have the best plan of attack, but if you don't have the best artists, executors, and the right team, nothing is going to come to fruition," he explains. Lighty has made his name identifying business opportunities to align with celebrities, leveraging their star power and personality.

"It's definitely comforting to have someone around that can correct you when you're wrong," says Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Lighty has successfully parlayed the 35-year-old's rap career into a thriving empire.

Currently at the helm of his New York City-based artist management firm, Violator, Lighty's career began in 1989 at Rush Management and later Def Jam where he worked with Russell Simmons on taking hip-hop mainstream.

"I was able to be part of the blueprint and architecture of what I feel is the commercialization of hip-hop," recalls Lighty. He later signed deals with LL Cool J, De La Soul, and negotiated a Sprite commercial for A Tribe Called Quest that paid them a quarter of a million dollars. "I learned [that] if you didn't learn your business and have different revenue streams, you could quickly go out of business."

Besides Jackson and LL Cool J, Lighty works with Mariah Carey, Sean Combs and Soulja Boy.

"An Artist can't be around Chris and not pick up something that's going to be helpful to their career," says Demitria Lewis, a New York City-based culture and social media strategist. "You're getting real life lessons working with him."