“You don’t need a lot of brains in this business…what you do need is emotional stability”
Warren Buffett
To commemorate their special “400 Richest People in America” issue, Forbes magazine organized a memorable sitdown between two contrasting moguls in billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and Hip-Hop superstar Jay-Z.
Their extensive discussion first centered on the mentors that sparked their professional ambitions. Both cited teachers. Jay-Z referenced his sixth grade instructor for helping to develop his love of words. Buffett’s inspiration came when he attended Columbia University and studied under the influential Ben Graham, who is recognized as the co-founder of the value investing system.
“He got me to not think of a stock as a ticker swinging around, but as a business, and that was vital,” Buffett said. “He taught me not to pay attention to stock market fluctuations except when they were working in my favor. Not to get elated because something had went up or depressed because it went down. If I knew the facts on something and it went down, I brought more of it, because I looked at it as a business.”
Although not well-versed in Buffett’s field, Jay-Z saw common ground in Buffett’s philosophy. Instead of using stocks, Jay proposed that his challenge as an emcee is to look beyond the surface level of the industry. By doing so, the Roc Nation CEO is attempting to locate the “universal truths” that will make his art meaningful.
“I hear the similarities in all that. Because if you’re not looking at it as tickers, you’re really searching for the truth within that,” he concurred, building on Buffett’s comments. “That’s the key to being a recording artist; you’re telling your story or trying to find your truth at that moment…My first album didn’t come out until I was 26, so I had a bit more maturity. My first album had all these emotions, complexities, and layers to it that a typical [debut] Hip-Hop album didn’t have, because we were making them at 16 and 17 years old.”
In recent years, Hip-Hop has been dominated by synth-heavy arrangements and autotune-inspired melodies. According to Jay, many artists have made the unwise decision to saturate the market with unoriginal content, instead of maintaining their own style and individuality. He sees Hip-Hop culture in a period of unprecedented growth, since for the first time emcees well over the age of 30 are still dominating the market. As a result, the music has a chance to become more mature in content.
“The discipline of not getting caught up in the moment. Music is like stocks too,” he detailed. “There’s this hot electro sound or the autotune voice…whatevers new and exciting. And people tend to make emotional decisions based on that. They don’t stick with what they know. If I go into a studio and find my truth of the moment, there’s a number of people in the world who can relate to what I’m saying…Not because its the new thing of the moment, but because it’s my genuine emotions…how I articulate the world.”
“Hip-Hop is still a fairly young genre of music. We’ve never seen the maturation of the music happen before. People would get to a certain age and still try to pinpoint this young demographic because Hip-Hop was a young man’s sport. People who like Hip-Hop when they’re 18 are still going to like it at 28, it’s just that the voices in Hip-Hop weren’t speaking to them anymore…I wasn’t going to do that.”
Another first for the music industry is artists having unprecedented control over their music. Jay-Z, who earned $63 million in the last year, believes artistic integrity does not have to be at odds with financial success. Jay advises his peers to keep the business strategies like marketing and radio appeal out of their creative process.
“That was the greatest trick ever pulled off, to convince artists that you couldn’t be an artist and make money,” he stated. “It was almost shameful, especially in rock n’ roll. You had these millionaire guys [acting] as if they weren’t successful at all…Hip-Hop from the very beginning has always been very aspirational…It has to be real when they touch it, when they listen to it…As long as you’re an artist in the studio, and after you finish you market it to the world, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
When asked to give Jay-Z advice going forward, the 80-year-old Buffett simply advised him to continue relying on his talent. Through it, he would be able to do what is known in business as creating “moats,” which are barriers to keep competitors at bay.
“He’s building moats all the time, that’s why he’s succeeding even though he moved beyond the age you normally associate his field with,” Buffett praised. “The best moat you can have is your own talent; they can’t take it away from you. Inflation can’t take it from you, [and] taxes can’t take it from you.”
The Warren Buffett/Jay-Z Forbes issue is available now. The full 52 minute interview is available below.
**********************************************************************
I thoroughly enjoyed the entire interview with these two. As a young businessman myself, it’s always inspirational to see others from similar backgrounds manifest their dreams through non-stop hard work and dedication.
I’m in total agreement with what Jay-Z said about the Hip-Hop’s maturity. This is the first era where nearly all the top emcees are well over 30. In previous generations, the younger emcees would come in and push out the older guard. Guys Run DMC and Kool Moe Dee replaced Melle Mel and Busy Bee. Nas and B.I.G. took over from Rakim and Big Daddy Kane. But today, the younger emcees are existing alongside the older guard, not replacing them. It’s a great development, because it can lead to an unprecedented balance in Hip-Hop history.
We can’t claim Hip-Hop is something you live and then state it’s “a young man’s game.” It’s a culture, not a sport. And a culture develops and sustains itself through continued pursuit of knowledge in all its societal variations. And if Hip-Hop is to continue to grow, it’s greatest talents must remain a part of it well past their 20s.
It’s a brave new world ahead for Hip-Hop, and I’m confident many of us are ready to meet it.
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 