Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | April 1, 2008 |
Founder | Jay-Z |
Headquarters | |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
|
Owner | Shawn Carter |
Divisions |
|
Website | www |
Roc Nation is an American entertainment company founded by Jay-Z in 2008. Headquartered in New York City, the company is a successor to his previous Roc-A-Fella Records label, with additional offices in Los Angeles and London. It serves as a record label, talent agency, media production firm, and clothing line with educational and philanthropic programs.
In 2008, Roc Nation was founded by Jay-Z with the intent of signing pop and hip hop artists, succeeding his previous label, Roc-A-Fella Records. Unlike Roc-A-Fella, Jay-Z served as the company's sole proprietor. In February 2009, Roc Nation signed its first artist, rapper J. Cole.
In April 2013, Roc Nation supporting ally and close family member to its founder Jay-Z , A.G. Fahrenheit assisted Roc Nation in forming a new sports management division, Roc Nation Sports, a subsidiary dedicated to sports representation for professional athletes. [2] Shortly thereafter, Roc Nation Sports also launched a boxing promotion division. [3] After the Sony Music deal expired, in April 2013, Roc Nation signed a multi-year partnership with Universal Music. [4]
In February 2015, Roc Nation And Three Six Zero Group announced the formation of Three Six Zero Entertainment, a management division for representing clients in film, television, and the literary arts. [5]
In 2016, Roc Nation supported Arliss Network for a short time. It is a service that does similar things, and later released the app, www.arlissnetwork.net.[ citation needed ]
In July 2017, Roc Nation collaborated with art collective MSFTSrep.[ citation needed ]
In August 2019, Roc Nation announced a long-term partnership with the National Football League. The company will be the live-music entertainment strategist for the league, as well as augment social justice efforts through the Inspire Change initiative. [6]
In 2020, Roc Nation partnered with Long Island University in Brooklyn to begin a program called the Roc Nation School for Music, Sports, and Entertainment. [7] [8] In December 2020, it was announced that Roc Nation and Random House had teamed up to launch a new publishing imprint, Roc Lit 101. [9]
In 2021, Roc Nation teamed up with American Greetings to create custom greeting cards. [10] Roc Nation also announced plans to launch a new brand and multimedia platform named EDITION in partnership with Modern Luxury Media. [11]
Roc Nation also operates an in-house venture capital arm called Arrive, which is led by Neil Sirni, the group's co-founder and president. [64] As of May 2021, the company had reportedly made 29 investments in fintech, insurtech, edtech, health and wellness, social media, and gaming. [64]
In 2018, Roc Nation launched an independent label named Equity Distribution. The first artist to release a project under the independent label was Jay-Z's mentor, Jaz-O. [65] In 2019, Equity also acquired the rights to Jay-Z's 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt for release on digital and streaming platforms. [66]
Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper and entrepreneur. Born and raised in New York City, he was named the greatest rapper of all time by Billboard and Vibe in 2023. He served as the president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007 before founding the entertainment company Roc Nation the following year.
Roc-A-Fella Records was an American hip hop record label and music management company founded by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke in 1994. Carter issued his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996) as the label's first release, in a joint venture with Priority Records. The label has signed and released albums for acts including Kanye West, Cam'ron, Beanie Sigel, Memphis Bleek, Juelz Santana, Freeway, Jadakiss, Teairra Marí, State Property, and The Diplomats before its dissolution in 2013.
Rocawear is an American clothing brand founded in 1999 by Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Damon Dash and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter. The brand has had annual sales of $700 million. Rocawear expanded through licensing to sell affordable clothes for children and juniors; socks and sandals; leather, suede, and fur outerwear; handbags and belts; lounge wear; big and tall; headwear; jewelry; and sunglasses; as well as co-branded product with Pro-Keds, State Property, and Team Roc.
Def Jam Recordings is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop.
Diplomat Records is an American hip hop record label co-founded by Harlem rappers Jim Jones and Cam'ron.
Live Nation is an American events promoter and venue operator based in Beverly Hills, California. Founded in 1996 by Robert F. X. Sillerman as SFX Entertainment, the company's business was built around consolidating concert promoters into a national entity to counter the oversized influence of ticket behemoth Ticketmaster. In 2000, the company was sold to Clear Channel Communications for $4.4 billion and operated as Clear Channel Entertainment until 2005, when it was spun off as Live Nation. In 2010, Live Nation merged with the ticketing firm Ticketmaster to form a larger conglomerate named Live Nation Entertainment.
All Money Is Legal, also known as A.M.I.L.: , is the only studio album by American rapper Amil. It was released on August 29, 2000, through Roc-A-Fella, Columbia, and Sony Music. Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Amil served as executive producer with a team of producers that included Just Blaze. Before the album's release, Amil was best known for her feature on Jay-Z's 1998 single "Can I Get A...". She was one of several up-and-coming artists signed to Roc-A-Fella, alongside Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel, who released an album in 2000. Although it was her only album on Roc-A-Fella, Amil had been closely associated with the label and its co-founder Jay-Z, earning the moniker "First Lady of Roc-A-Fella".
StarRoc was an American entertainment company. The company operated a full service record label and music publishing house. It was founded in 2008 by American rapper Jay-Z and Norwegian record production team Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen of the production duo Stargate. The label was a 50/50 partnership between Stargate and Jay-Z's Roc Nation entertainment company, which he signed in the same year to Live Nation. StarRoc, during its time, was headquartered at Jay-Z's recording studio, Roc the Mic, in Manhattan, New York City, United States.
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American multinational entertainment company that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It promotes, operates and manages ticket sales for live entertainment internationally. It also owns and operates entertainment venues and manages the careers of music artists.
Rita Sahatçiu Ora is a British singer, songwriter, television personality, and actress. Born in Pristina, modern-day Kosovo, she rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single, "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut studio album, Ora (2012), debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and contained the UK number-one singles, "R.I.P." and "How We Do (Party)". She had the most number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart in 2012, with three singles reaching number-one.
Robert Rihmeek Williams, known professionally as Meek Mill, is an American rapper. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he embarked on his music career as a battle rapper, and later formed a short-lived rap group, The Bloodhoundz. He signed with T.I.'s Grand Hustle Records as a solo act in 2008, although he departed by 2011 and released no albums with the label. He then signed with Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group (MMG) that same year, and rose to mainstream recognition following his performances on the label's Self Made Vol. 1 (2011) compilation album; his song "Tupac Back" served as the album's lead single, while its follow-up, "Ima Boss" entered the Billboard Hot 100.
Kyle Jason Thousand is an American sports agent and the head of the baseball division at Roc Nation Sports.
Takeover Roc Nation was an American-British entertainment company, which acts as a co-owned subsidiary of Takeover Entertainment and Roc Nation. It was founded in June 2010 by American rapper and entrepreneur Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and English rapper and entrepreneur Kwasi "Tinchy Stryder" Danquah III of the company, Takeover Entertainment Limited. The partnership was dissolved in 2013 with the shutdown of Takeover Entertainment.
Marlanna Evans, better known by her stage name Rapsody, is an American rapper. After signing with music producer 9th Wonder's music label It's a Wonderful World Music Group, she released a series of mixtapes and collaborated with Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli. Soon afterwards Rapsody released her debut album The Idea of Beautiful (2012). She would attain further prominence when she was featured on Kendrick Lamar's 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, on the track "Complexion ".
Tiwatope Omolara Savage, known professionally as Tiwa Savage, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and actress. Savage sings in English and Yoruba; her music is a blend of afrobeats, R&B, afropop, pop and hip-hop. Savage's contributions to the Nigerian music industry have earned her several achievements.
Dream Chasers Records is an American record label founded by American rapper Meek Mill. The label is a former joint venture with Roc Nation. The name was taken from his well-received mixtape series Dreamchasers.
Roc Nation Sports is the sports management division of Roc Nation.
Yellow Claw is a Dutch DJ and record production duo from Amsterdam consisting of Jim Taihuttu, based in Bali, and Nils Rondhuis, based in Amsterdam. The duo's music is a mix of a wide range of genres and often incorporates elements from trap, hip hop, dubstep, hardstyle and moombahton.
Kareem "Biggs" Burke is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and producer. He is best known as the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records along with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Damon "Dame" Dash.
Milandou Badila, known professionally as Young Paris, is a Congolese singer-songwriter, born in Paris and raised in New York. He signed to Jay-Z's Roc Nation in 2016.