Founder and chief executive of Violator Records/Management, Chris Lighty has been a mogul for quite some time, as he runs a multi-million dollar company and manages some of the top names in the entertainment business.
Since 1989, his company has evolved into a record label, marketing group and multi-media entertainment that specializes in creating strategic multi-million dollar opportunities for its hip-hop and R&B artists such as 50 Cent, Missy Elliott, Three 6 Mafia, LL Cool J, Diddy, Missy Elliot, A Tribe Called Quest, Q-Tip and Mariah Carey to name a few.
But things weren’t always fun and games for the millionaire mogul.
Born in the grisly streets of the notorious South Bronx and raised by a single mother of six, Chris Lighty had to develop management skills at an early age. But everything changed in 1988 when he joined Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen at Rush Management. As a result, Lighty started the indie label Violator signing Fat Joe and Beatnuts and the rest is history.
With no college or business school degree, Lighty beat all the odds and emerged as one of the industry’s most influential talent managers and business masterminds of our generation.
Twenty two years after creating his company, Chris sat down with GlobalGrind to talk about the beginning of his career, his amazing new website, PleaseListenToMyDemo.com and how he has left a mark in the evolution of entertainment business.
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GlobalGrind: Can we go back to Fat Joes and Beatnut days?
Christ Lighty: Fat Joe’s demo was Flow Joe…Flow Joe was his demo….Flow Joe and Red Alert, and I was like that record was dope, so I sat and talked to Joe and he played me a couple of records. I already knew them, but I didn’t know they were rapping until Flow Joe and Diamond D had produced a bulk of records on them. I said this would be interesting to do, so we got together and did it and we did it independent. It’s crazy because I was at Def Jam at Rush at the time and I did an independent deal to Relativity and I got in huge trouble with Lyorr for taking it outside the house.
Because Joe was signed to Relativity?
Yeah, we did it through Violator and Relativity and after signing Joe, the Beatnuts did some things with him. They worked with A Tribe Called Quest and the first project I put out independently until I decided to sign them up as an act.
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Now with the new site, PleaseListenToMyDemo and looking back at the days with Flow Joe demos, what’s changed the most and how do you feel that what you have created fills that void that’s been lacking?
I think we are changing the most, way more kids are being creative in the field whether it’s just hip-hop or music in general because of technology. Just look at your Mac computers, almost everyone has Garage Band, whether you use it or not. I feel the Internet opened up the game to having more and more creative kids whereas before, it was definitely throw in the cassette. I still have the very first cassette from Flow Joe I listened to and it’s from the Red Alert show and I got to think of the CDs I have today from the “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” album, or A Tribe Called Quest album, or a Foxy Brown album with Jay-Z vocals on the record he wrote for her.
It changes drastically because now you have an MP3. It’s funny because until we created the site, there was no site where you could send your demo because the record companies were still a business trying to evolve. The most important thing to take care of is the A&R process, to make it easier to cast a wider web or better net to catch more talent. For me, PleaseListenToMyDemo.comwas easier for kids to upload their CD to the site and we’ll give you constructive feedback to encourage you to further your dreams. Well, not further, because everyone isn’t going to be a superstar, maybe a dynamic producer will be found in there or a writer.
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You guys seem to be a place, if you’re from Little Rock, Arkansas or Oklahoma City and don’t have any connections with the big cities where the record labels are from, you could have a chance. If you have a hot record, do you have a chance to really make it?
Well, we got five or six records we like right now and we’re in the process of setting up meetings now. Whether it’s Skype or going back and forth to how they can make the record more dynamic, we promise that we can get you in front of people. We can bring people to the water, but we can’t make them drink it. If they don’t drink it, the next formula would probably be for us to figure out other ways to get the music out there. At least the site is bringing them to individuals they might not have been able to reach and get feedback.
Do you guys look back? Do you ever pinch yourself and say, ‘damn I’ve been in a lot of records, a lot of amazing moments for not just my artists but for my fans’?
I usually play an internal game when I’m at the club I see how many hit records we are in. It definitely drives me because I love to be able to be associated with, or bringing out someone’s gift and talent to the world or making someone happy. Music is one of the few things that marks time with people and usually it makes time in a good way. So it’s always a pleasure to be a part of that movement.
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You obviously expanded your empire with Violator. You have left a mark with management record labels, but now with brand assets and Please Listen to my Demo, how excited are you with these new challenges?
I’m very excited! It’s the evolution of the business, as music men and women we can’t just be one person, one sided, we have to be multi-faceted. I just look at this as a way to move the music forward and the marketing company whether some of the projects we market are totally music but when we are able to move the music forward like get Drake in a Sprite commercial or do a Vitamin Water deal with 50. Those things move the culture forward. I’m just happy to have this job, I thank Lyor and Red Alert everyday for letting me be in their space. Russell didn’t have to let me in, in 1989, into Rush and Lyor was being very aggressive to get me into there. Red Alert didn’t have to let me carry his carts in ’84 and ’85 or behind the roofs. All those places led up to me to have Please Listen to my Demo and Violator, I think the music man has to be 360, like those deals, so he’ll know how to facilitate it.
