A  recent BBC Program, called 1Xtra, “Can’t Knock the Hustle” featured an interview by Alvin Hall with Sean Carter, better known as the rapper JayZ.
 
Sean was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant projects, in Brooklyn, and dealt drugs when he was 16. Today his nine rap albums sell millions, and he has personal wealth of $320 m. – wealth driven by JayZ’s remarkable skill at platform innovation. He recently completed a world tour.

Here is how he did it. JayZ built his empire on ‘platform innovation’- leveraging a innovation into an entire platform, or range, of products and services – with common sense and intuition. For more sophisticated theory, readers are referred to the fine book by Annabelle Gower and Michael Cusumano, Platform Leadership: How Intel, Microsoft and Cisco Drive System Innovation. 

“I did not have lofty goals,” says Carter. He got his name, JayZ, because, he says, as a youth he had an older demeanor and was called, as a result, Jazzie Do, in street slang. Later, he shorted it to JayZ. He fell into rap by accident. When he was 9,  one of his friends, on the street, was able to speak in rhyme, extemporaneously, for 15 minutes. JayZ was impressed and wanted to learn to do it too. He did. Meanwhile, as a 16-year-old he dealt drugs.  

He got into rap by chance, and cut an album. Most artists look for an artist’s contract from a major music company. But JayZ started his own company, Roc-A-Fella Records. They pressed CD’s, 300 at a time, in Brooklyn, then sold them on “H” St. near a hot-dog stand out of their car trunk. He forged a distribution deal – the major companies distributed JayZ’s rap tunes, which were a hit, leaving most of the profit with JayZ.

I was not afraid, he said. He could always return to dealing drugs. His street trade taught him the basics of selling and dealing with people. 

Once, at a concert, JayZ and his team noticed many of the participants were wearing “Iceberg” T-shirts bought at a concession booth. He approached the company and offered them a tie-in deal. They refused, scorning the rap artists. So JayZ started his own clothing company in 1998. He bought two sewing machines and installed them in their dingy offices, so rundown they had to leave at 6 pm because the rats came out at dark.

The first year, Roc-A-Wear sold $90 m. in apparel! The company then nearly crashed, because of disorganization. “Truth trumps intelligence,” JayZ says. We missed shipments, payments… he says. He knew he needed help. He brought in a top strategic investor: Russell Simmons, godfather of hip-hop entrepreneurs and founder of the company DefJam. Today Roc-A-Wear has plush offices in the Fashion District in Chelsea, Manhattan. And JayZ has become DefJam’s CEO. 

What is platform innovation? JayZ has used his own celebrity as an innovation platform, with clear tight synergies. He has a Sports Bar, 40-44, in Chelsea, which sells his own vodka brand Armadale, displays JayZ clothing and plays JayZ music. He has an endorsement deal with Reeboc, whose JayZ sneaker line is the fastest-selling in the company’s history. He has an endorsement deal with HP, and the JayZ-based campaign to sell laptop computers has them flying off the shelf. He is on the Board of Directors of the NBA team New Jersey Nets. JayZ’s strategy is not unlike that of Martha Stuart, who has leveraged her own celebrity and brand image into enormous market success, despite a stint in jail. And his personal wealth today is estimated at $320 m. – not bad for a poor black kid once trying to survive on the mean streets of Brooklyn.