But Arnold has persuaded Arista, Interscope, Sony and Def Jam that LidRock exposure will boost CD sales.
Labels included under the Universal umbrella are Def Jam, Motown, Decca, Island Records, Interscope Records and Polydor Records.
Jay-Z, the rapper turned Def Jam executive, said that Kanye's current success was owed to his obsessive work ethic.
Def Jam then found itself in the bizarre situation of attempting to sign an artist it had already signed.
Ocean began posting videos and pictures on his Tumblr and used Twitter to lash out at Def Jam for mistreating him.
The head of Def Jam Records boasts an impressive artist roster, which includes rapper Kanye West and pop diva Mariah Carey.
Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Recordings and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, is arguably the most political member of the hip-hop community.
She left BMG for Def Jam Japan and in 2005 had her biggest hit, "Story", a tune that was downloaded more than three million times.
Ironically, the opportunity to own his masters was what convinced him to take the Def Jam gig over a similar job at Warner Music Group.
Jay-Z released an album every year from 1996-2003 before taking a job as president of Def Jam and then founding Roc Nation, a joint venture with Live Nation.
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"Nostalgia, Ultra" made a big splash online, reinvigorating Def Jam's interest in Mr. Ocean and leading to his contribution of vocals for an album by Kanye West and Jay-Z.
The famous producer co-founded Def Jam Records with rap mogul Russell Simmons, helping to popularize hip hop music with the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Run-D.
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Gilliam, a community organizer, is also partial to baggy jeans and Kangol caps and looks less like the leader of the free world than the latest signing of Def Jam Records.
Though he left Def Jam in 2007 and a year later launched Roc Nation, a joint-venture label with concert promoter Live Nation, his Def Jam masters are scheduled to revert to him in 2014.
That led to a contract in 2009 with the Def Jam label, but not much came of it initially, and Mr. Ocean turned his attention to working with an underground rap collective known as Odd Future.
Reid, who helped make international stars out of Usher, Pink, OutKast and Toni Braxton on LaFace Records and then helped resurrect the career of Mariah Carey and signed Justin Beiber to Island Def Jam, is currently the head of Epic Records.
Videogame designer Brenda Brathwaite--a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design known for her work on games such as "Def Jam: Icon" and "Jagged Alliance"--says a game about consolidation in the videogame industry would have to pivot from one genre to another.
As I wrote in my book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office, the rapper negotiated the return of the master recordings to all the music he made while at Def Jam as part of an agreement to become president of the label in 2004.
The 1987 production of "Fences, " the only August Wilson box-office hit, struggled to bring in African-American audiences, as did Russell Simmons's "Def Poetry Jam" in 2002.
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