American music executive Lyor Cohen is worth an estimated $150 million. In the ’80s, Lyor Cohen got his start in the music industry as the manager of rappers at Rush Productions. His label, Def Jam, was a major force in the music industry during the ’90s.
Following his 2004 departure from Def Jam, Lyor has been serving as chairman and chief executive officer of Warner Music Group.
A year later, in 2012, he established the indie label 300 Entertainment. While still at 300 Entertainment, he left in September 2016 to take the position of Global Head of Music at YouTube.
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Lyor Cohen’s Early Life.
On October 3, 1959, Lyor Cohen was born in New York. Cohen was born to Israeli parents who settled in Los Angeles. After graduating from Marshall High School in 1977, he enrolled at the University of Miami, where he studied international business and finance and graduated in 1981.
He worked at Bank Leumi’s Beverly Hills branch after finishing his degree. Daniel Shulman, the bass guitarist, is Lyor’s brother.
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— jugg, MBA (@jugg_sde) July 7, 2022
Lyor Cohen’s Rush Productions.
In 1984, after working in Hollywood producing performances for groups like Run-DMC and Whodini at The Mix Club, Cohen traveled to New York to work for Russell Simmons’ Rush Productions (later renamed Rush Artist Management).
After beginning his career as Run-road DMC’s manager, Lyor soon found himself in charge of expanding the group’s label and signing artists such as DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, and Slick Rick by 1987.
Cohen became well-known for his negotiating talents and “no-nonsense attitude to business” after he facilitated endorsement deals for artists including Run-DMC (Adidas and New Coke), Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (Le Coq Sportif), and LL Cool J (Troop sportswear).
When Lyor was at the helm of Rush in the late ’80s, the company was widely regarded as the rap industry’s “top management operation,” and it was at this time that Lyor and Simmons established Rush Associated Labels, which handled business for Def Jam and its offshoots.
Cohen assisted Simmons in negotiating the label’s 1994 transition from Sony Music to PolyGram; by this time, Lyor was overseeing day-to-day operations.
Def Jam
Cohen became co-president of the company when the PolyGram/Universal merger of 1998 joined Def Jam, Mercury, and Island to become The Island Def Jam, which signed artists beyond the rap genre like Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi, Elvis Costello, and Shania Twain.
Or was involved in the distribution contract between Def Jam and Rick Rubin’s American Recordings and the label’s 2001 acquisition of heavy metal label Roadrunner.
Lyor Cohen’s Warner Music.
After leaving Def Jam for Warner Music Group in 2004, Cohen oversaw the merger of Atlantic Records and Elektra Records and promoted one of his proteges, Julie Greenwald, to a high position at the combined label.
In 2009, he elevated Greenwald to chairman and CEO of Atlantic, making her the highest-ranking female leader at a U.S. record label. When Lyor was at Warner in 2006, he helped negotiate the “first time a major record business [had] licensed content to YouTube,” and when he was at Spotify in 2011, he handled an agreement between the two companies.
Lyor Cohen’s YouTube.
In September of 2012, he parted ways with Warner and founded 300 Entertainment, a “part label, part marketing company, part distributor with big funding from Google and Atlantic,” as defined by “XXL” magazine. In 2016, Cohen resigned from his position to become YouTube’s Global Head of Music.
Lyor Cohen’s Personal Life.
Lyor met his future wife, model E.K. Smith while filming the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” video, and they wed on April 1, 1988. Cohen remarried in 1990, to Amy, and the couple had two children, Az (born 6/13/1994) and Bea (born 9/2/2001), before divorcing in 2006.
In 2016, while witnessing N.W.A.’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, Lyor suffered a pulmonary embolism, and Az helped save his life.
As of August 2016, Cohen is married to Xin Li, deputy chairman of Christie’s Asia and a former model and basketball player. Lyor’s resume includes time as both a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board member and the interim head of the New York City charity Boys & Girls Harbor.
Real Estate
Cohen purchased an Upper East Side townhouse in 2000 for $9.175 million and listed it for sale in 2010 for $28 million. The home was sold in late 2012 for about $25 million, per public documents. Lyor paid $11.4 million for a 4,440-square-foot NYC townhouse in 2014, which was significantly less than the asking price of $14.5 million.