 Posted: Wed 13:37, 28 Aug 2013 Post subject: Dash for cash Nike Blazer zqpv |
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| Dash for cash
Dash for cashHe's the ?00m boss of bling! A Harlem-born, hip-hop entrepreneur on a mission to sell his roc-a-fella lifestyle to the world. John Arlidge joins the diamond-studded Damon Dash on a 48-hour,merrell shoes shop, champagne-fuelled promotional tour to London to hear about brands, bands and 'that business with Victoria Beckham' John Arlidge The chairman of the board picks out his suit for the day. 'The charcoal grey pinstripe Dolce Gabbana should do it,' he tells his PA, Sophia, 'with the Thomas Pink gingham shirt, the black shoes from Barneys New York and the gold Rolex.' He has an important presentation to make and needs to look his best. He walks out of his home in Chelsea, checks he has his BlackBerry personal emailer and Motorola mobile phone with a spare battery, before climbing into his chauffeur-driven Mercedes limousine. It is a short ride to his office in the West End. He greets his colleagues from the marketing and press department over a glass of champagne and walks to the stage to deliver his presentation to an audience which has queued for hours to hear him. 'All you London niggers make some noise! I'm getting animal on you!' he shrieks, picking up a bottle of Bollinger champagne and swigging from it. 'UK, what's good? I made a commitment to the UK a year ago and now I'm here. So turn it up, baby boy. Turn up my new English band SAS, my new R star Nicole Wray and my soul act, Allen Anthony. It's Roc-A-Fella for life!' The chairman of the board is Damon Dash, boss of the New York-based Roc-A-Fella record label. The concert which took place at Rouge nightclub on London's Charing Cross Road last month was the highlight of his latest UK tour. Dash was in town at the height of the Posh'n'Becks marriage scandal. To most observers, he spent most of his time partying day and night while denying claims that he had had an affair with Victoria Beckham,http://parajumpersonline.webmium.com/, whose flagging music career he tried to revive last year. But Dash was here for a bigger, but less predictable reason - business. Dash might look like just another ghetto-fabulous rap producer who grew up on the streets of Harlem. The man behind the multi-platinum selling rapper Jay-Z wears heavily branded, fashionably oversized sportswear and jewellery, drinks Cristal champagne, drives the most extravagant 'tricked out' cars and swears a lot. But he is much more than a showman. Dash is the head of a ?00m hip-hop lifestyle brand. He has leveraged his culture and his personal image into a global business, incorporating music, clothing, shoes, magazine publishing, drinks, watches and - coming soon - food, cigars, cafes and restaurants. Dash, whose personal wealth exceeds ?00m, is a one-man multinational company who employs more than 500 people and has turned the hip-hop refrain 'taking care of business' into lucrative reality. A recent US survey of the most powerful men in America under 40 put him 15th. Dash's business style looks relaxed. When I first meet him it is 10am on a Tuesday and he is sitting in the Jacuzzi of his ?m mansion in Chelsea. Although he is stressed - 'I flew in this morning commercial, not on the private jet' - the chairman of the board (the title is his own private joke, as well as a homage to Frank Sinatra), is busy sorting out his schedule with his PA, Sophia Rossi, a raven-haired 22-year-old from Beverly Hills, and his fast-talking director of communications, Bridget Russo. 'Who's coming to tonight's dinner?' he asks. 'We've got fashion buyers,' Sophia replies. 'We've got a drinks firm, we've got DeBeers diamonds, we've got media, socialites and restaurateurs.' What's the next 24 hours looking like?' 'We're doing media, launching America magazine, shooting a movie and a video and showcasing Allen Anthony, Nicole Wray and SAS. Naomi Campbell is in town. We're expecting Tyra Banks. Oh, and Puff called.'Dash draws long on his cigar and runs his hand through the foaming water in the hot tub. 'And I bet you thought I was relaxing,' he smiles as he extends a wet fist to greet me. 'It might look like madness but, as I sit in this tub, I have eight companies running at a very high level. I may be a cool motherfucker, but I'm a cool motherfucker doing business.'As we talk, his phone and BlackBerry trill constantly. An assistant takes each call and only hands him the phone if it is serious, or if it is Damon's son, Boogie, 12,Roger vivier outlet, or four-year-old daughter Ava, who live with him in New York. Right now, it's serious. An associate has booked a series of concerts at US colleges during spring break, when students are away - which means no audiences. 'What did I tell you? To succeed in this business, you've got to work hard. Work, work, work at all times.' It is time for Dash himself to get back to the grindstone. He has press interviews all day. 'Stay. Take a look around,woolrich clothing,' he tells me as he climbs out of the Jacuzzi. 'See how hard I work my people.' Upstairs, Bridget Russo is bookmarking the first crop of stories about Dash's UK tour. Johnny Nunez, Dash's private photographer, is downloading the images of Dash's arrival in London to post on his US website for that night's US newspapers and magazines to use. Kareem 'Biggs' Burke, Dash's business partner is telephoning executives from William Grant Sons distillers to set up a meeting to discuss distributing Dash's spirits brand, Armadale vodka, across Europe. His new acts, Allen Anthony and Nicole Wray, are arranging rehearsals for their show at Rouge with Kenny Burns, the manager of Dash's new R label, Roc Music. Sophia Rossi is calling Exposure, Dash's UK marketing and PR agency, while Beth Mellilo, his head of TV and film, checks that the actor playing the policeman in Thursday's video shoot 'has one of the old-fashioned bobby on the beat hats'. All the while, Zara Miranda, the housekeeper, and Ashley Nichols,PJS Jackets Shop, Dash's gangly right-hand man,cheap indoor soccer shoes online, are taking care of the business of being Damon, which today means stocking his bedroom with the essentials - 200 fresh towels, 20 box-fresh trainers, hundreds of pairs of Rocawear boxer shorts, shirts and jackets. Dash refuses to wear anything twice. Later that afternoon, after five hours of back-to-back press interviews, Dash reappears, goes to his bedroom, 'pops a tag' on a new pair of crisp, white Nike trainers and changes into a Rocawear shirt for a magazine photo-shoot. 'I've got to have fresh clothes at all times. I've gotta look fresh to death.'There is no hint of irony in his voice. For the 32-year-old, his life is his work. Literally. 'I am the brand. I wear it, drink it, listen to it, package it and sell it. I want to make money off any and everything concerning urban culture, because there is no one else who can tell the hip-hop story better than me.' Dash's business builds on a model established by pioneering hip-hop entrepreneurs Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs and Russell Simmons. The two New York record producers invented bling! bling! business a decade ago, when they noticed that sales of the aspirational brands their rap artists name-checked in their songs - Bentley cars, Courvoisier cognac, Adidas sportswear - were soaring, thanks to the hip-hop endorsement. Instead of making other people rich, they decided to create their own clothing lines, open restaurants and get their artists to endorse them. Dash's business plan is simple. 'If I and my people like something, I'll make it and sell it. I can market anything. It's gangsta business in the truest sense of the word. A gangster is someone who does what he has to do, who makes himself the best, no matter what. That's what I do. My dream is to release a record by one of my artists and every brand endorsed on the record I will produce and control. That way The Roc will use hip-hop to take over the world.' He pauses before delivering his favourite punchline. 'Roc-A-Fella will be the new Rockefeller.' To most British ears, it sounds like an idle boast. Most people on this side of the Atlantic first heard of Dash last year, when he signed Victoria Beckham and made a record that still has not been released. But the boss of bling has been working for 15 years in the US to make The Roc America's biggest black-run business. 'Nothing about my success was easy or overnight. It took me a long time to get to know how to run a business. I just had to pick it up as I went along. On the way I've felt every kind of success and every kind of failure.'Damon Dash was born in New York's east Harlem on 3 May 1971 and was brought up by his mother, Carol, who worked as a secretary. Dash won a scholarship to Dwight, a private prep school in downtown Manhattan and although he was expelled, he later won a place at South Kent boarding school in Connecticut. There, he got a taste for the high life and was 'amused to see how rich folks were intrigued by what was going on in the streets.' He realised that both rich and poor were fascinated by street styles and hatched a plot 'to market the streets' to both. After hosting parties at the Cotton Club in Harlem with his 'Best Out' crew in the Eighties, he entered the music business with the help of his cousin, Darien Dash, whose stepfather worked for Casablanca Records. Dash began as a manager and went on to set up his own record label, Dash Entertainment. At first, the business bombed, but then Dash got lucky. Very lucky. A DJ friend, Clark Kent, introduced him to a tall, ungainly young Brooklyn drug dealer turned rapper called Shawn Corey Carter. Carter could not get a record deal,discount Woolrich Jackets, so Dash signed him and used the money he made hosting parties to release his first record under the name Jay-Z. 'We were so broke we distributed it ourselves out of the back of a car.' The rest is the stuff of hip-hop legend. Jay-Z went on to become one of the highest-earning and charismatic rappers. Six of his albums have gone platinum. Flushed with success and, for the first time, cash, Dash set up Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 with his old friend 'Biggs' Burke, in a 50-50 deal with Island Def Jam, which manufactures and distributes the records. Two years later, Jay-Z, Burke and Dash set up The Roc and began to diversify to build the hip-hop lifestyle brand. To be the Coca-Cola of the music world - the number one lifestyle brand in a ?bn global market - requires sales savvy. When Dash and I meet again after a Daily Mail photo-shoot I ask whether he is a businessman or a musician: 'Hip-hop is my roots, but above and beyond that I am a businessman. I'm a lifestyle entrepreneur. I sell all the time. Whether it's music or sneakers,Giuseppe Zanotti Sneakers sale, it's all marketing, marketing, marketing, 24 hours a day. My whole life is a commercial. I can't stop.' Not even, it turns out, over dinner. Dash insists his team eat together, no matter where they are in the world. 'We break bread every day. You gotta break bread,2013 PJS Jackets Shop Sale Kodiak Jackets Online PARAJUMPERS,' Dash says as he summons his 12-strong team to sit down in the sunken lounge of his Chelsea 'crib'. It is 7.30pm. On the agenda this evening is signing a new singer. 'What do we think of Tyra Banks? Is she too middle America?' Supermodel Banks is currently enjoying ratings success with the reality television show she fronts, America's Next Top Model. She has cut her first single and wants Dash to manage her career. The team is cautious. 'The Roc is not middle America,' cautions Kenny Burns, boss of Roc Music. Dash nods, before adding: 'But if it's good music marketed right it won't hurt us. Let's get her.'Sophia Rossi hands Dash his phone. 'Tyra, it's Dame Dash. It's been hard to get you, but you busy. That's cool. The marketing for your record is important. Do you want to Mary J Blige it,jordans shoes, to pop it, to Beyonc it? If you really want some edge, we could even put you out there with Beanie Sigel who is on trial for attempted murder. We've got to get it right, but when we do, trust me, we're going to saturate the market. We're going to go gorilla.' Dash hangs up with the smile of a man who has just edged his brand a little more into the mainstream, where the real money is. It is 9pm, dinner is over and Dash is heading for a party at Les Trois Gar restaurant in Hoxton, east London. The ride is a chance to make calls and catch up with Raoul Shah from Exposure, the London agency which handles Dash's London promotional work. 'We need to get you in front of the right people,' says Shah,Woolrich jacket, handing Dash the guest list for the night. Apart from a DJ and a Radio 1 executive, there is not a single music person on the list. There are upmarket party organisers, notably Mourad Mazouz, the man behind Sketch, London's most fashionable and expensive restaurant. Savile Row tailor Nick Hart, of Spencer Hart, will be there, along with buyers from Selfridges and House of Fraser. Pride of place goes to power couple Michael Keech, of London-based spirits giant Diageo, and his girlfriend, Helene Kratzsch,http://kevindurantshoesforsale.blogspot.com/, of diamond giant DeBeers. Dash needs diamonds for his Tiret watch line and is working on a new spirits line. Dash arrives and immediately starts working the room, handing out bottles of Armadale vodka to everyone he meets. Keech says what everyone is thinking but won't say. 'Dame partied after he got back. He's tired. He won't be up till near lunch time. Have something to eat,' says Bridget Russo, as she leafs through The New York Times and nibbles melon. I sit down and notice that on the kitchen table next to her are two documents with intriguing titles. One is a blueprint of how to run a Damon Dash tour. The other details The Roc's PR strategy. When Russo gets up and heads out, I take a peek. The details reveal the logistics and money behind Dash enterprises - from a single day in the life of the chairman of the board to the brand's strategy for the next few months. The first document lists 'the rules' for a Damon Day. They are neatly divided into times and places, such as 'Before we leave the house for work', 'To have in car', and 'When Leaving Car'. Rule number one is: 'Must have promo items for all companies at all times.' The PR strategy document reveals the business machine behind the bling. Peppered with references to the 'mother brand', 'brand equity' and 'product seeding', it could have come straight off the printer at any multinational. The Roc's key aims for this year are 'to elevate The Roc brands to bridge all boundaries, whilst still remaining true to the streets/roots', 'to build brand equity overseas' and to 'identify poster children for each brand'. He is talking to his son in New York on his mobile phone. 'Hey, Boogie. I got a party tomorrow in New York but I can't go, so you've got to represent me. Don't be scared. You walk the press lines and tell everyone you're my son and you'll do good. OK,Giuseppe Zanotti shoes outlet, I'm sending a bodyguard, but go and be cool. Go to school. I love you.' Dash has an hour before his next round of interviews and meetings. This afternoon he has to meet his new British rap group, SAS, to talk to a dozen magazines and radio stations and to set up tonight's showcase. As his staff clear up the empty Dom P bottles from the night before and restock Dash's travel humidor with cigars, I ask him how he can continue to run a successful 'street' label when his life is anything but street any more? 'I came from the street and that's where my head and heart are. I know my consumer is normal, so no matter how much money I spend, I try to stay normal. I'm always on the streets,Giuseppe Zanotti Sneakers 2013, always in the clubs - and with none of those bodyguards Victoria uses.' I'm glad he's brought up the Beckham question, I tell him, because it's the only question he has been asked all week. Is he getting fed up of being asked whether he had an affair with her and why, as a hip-hop producer, he agreed to work with a failing pop artist in the first place? Reading between the lines of his answer, it's clear why the two hit it off and what the true nature of their relationship is. He recognised in her the same talent for self-promotion that he has. He needed her to become better known in Europe and she needed him to inject edge into her flagging music career. He offered to make a record for her, if she promised to wear Rocawear and publicise Roc brands. 'The timing was right and I did what I had to do. I took Rocawear to another point of awareness,' Dash says diplomatically. But isn't he embarrassed that Beckham's record still hasn't been released? 'That's Simon Fuller's fault,' he replies, referring to Beckham's UK manager. 'I call him Simon Fullershit.'OK, so it might all be business, but is it just about making money? 'I do want to be filthy rich,http://woolrichjacket.webmium.com/,' Dash says. 'But there is more to it than just money. I want to change perceptions of hip-hop. I am an ambassador for my culture. I'm tired of people looking at us like thugs and crooks. I also like to provide jobs for the people around me, who deserve it but don't normally get the opportunity. I've got cats running things who were either falsely accused or actually did time in jail.'It is now 3pm on his second day in London and he is hours late for his meeting in Soho. As he and Burke climb into the Mercedes, he shouts: 'Meet me tonight at Rouge. See my new businesses - my new franchises - in action.' The chairman of the board arrives at Rouge on Charing Cross Road fashionably late. It is 2.30am. After drinks in the VIP section upstairs, Dash, without bodyguards, forces his way through the crowds, pressed hard to the wall, and climbs on stage swigging Bollinger from the bottle. He raps, dances and sells his acts - SAS, Nicole Wray and Allen Anthony - as they perform. When the half-hour set is over Dash declares the marketing offensive a success. 'In the UK market you gotta walk it like you talk it. You can't just pop shit and not deliver. And tonight we delivered. Look at Allen Anthony. In the midst of all those dusty motherfuckers, he's got his glasses and his suit and tie on. He was killin' the joint.'It is now 4am Thursday morning and time to head home. Dash has to be in Notting Hill Gate by 9am to shoot a video for SAS and film a kidnapping scene for his latest movie, State Property II, before being interviewed by i-D magazine and meeting the men from William Grant Sons. Then he's heading back to New York. My 48 hours with the boss of bling are over. Performing gigs and meeting everyone from whisky distillers to gem dealers has been a thrilling - but odd - ride. As he climbs back into his Mercedes to go home to Chelsea, I ask whether his life ever seems weird? He smiles and runs his fingers along his gold, diamond-studded, Roc-A-Fella chain. 'It's not weird,' he says. 'It's business.' 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