Official Nas Thread
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EDITOR'S PICK4,610 viewsSep 12, 2018, 09:50am
Life Is Good: Why Nas Is Making His Hip-Hop Cash Kings Debut At Age 44
Zack O'Malley GreenburgForbes Staff
Hollywood & EntertainmentSenior Editor, Media & EntertainmentHip-Hop Cash Kings list of the top-earning rappers for the first time after raking $35 million last year. That’s thanks to 40-plus shows and a big Hennessey endorsement—and his cut from the sale of Ring, a smart doorbell maker, to Amazon. While Nas may have missed out on the sneaker and streetwear deals of the late 90s, he’s proved to be a later-in-life commercial force and a bit of an unlikely trailblazer with his startup investments.
ANDRES JAUREGUI; PHOTO: STEVE JENNINGS/GETTY IMAGES
Take his involvement in Mass Appeal, which occupies two floors of a SoHo WeWork building, an industrially stylish space complete with a pet snake shedding skin in a neon-lit aquarium (a gift from the rapper Young Thug). Mass Appeal was revived five years ago by Peter Bittenbender, cofounder of the creative studio Decon, and Sacha Jenkins, cofounder of Ego Trip magazine.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: C FLANIGAN/GETTY IMAGES
The latter spent much of his youth in Queens, where Nas grew up with blues playing father and a mother who worked for the Postal Service before releasing Illmatic, still considered by many the best rap album of all time. Jenkins recognized Nas’ talent early and kept in touch as Mass Appeal evolved.
“Sacha connected all the dots and called Nas, just like, ‘Do you want to help?’” Bittenbender recalls. “That totally wasn’t part of what he was doing at that point, but he had a history [with] the brand, so it made a lot of sense.”
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES
Nas came on and invested a six-figure sum in a million-dollar round alongside Decon and early-stage firm White Owl Capital Partners. Mass Appeal resurfaced in 2013 with plans to become a quarterly print publication. That strategy has since given way to a multimedia approach.
Today, Mass Appeal’s editorial output exists mostly on platforms like YouTube, which is home to its popular video series. There’s “Rhythm Roulette,” where Mass Appeal challenges producers to make a beat from three records chosen randomly from a local record store while blindfolded, and “Open Space,” which features interviews with celebrity guests.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: TABATHA FIREMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Mass Appeal has also expanded into other areas, launching its own creative agency and spinning out specials like the hip-hop documentaries Rapture and Fresh Dressed. Nas contributed to both, arranging an introduction to YouTube’s music chief Lyor Cohen—onetime head of Def Jam Records—who then brought on Mass Appeal to work on a Google campaign around hip-hop’s 44th anniversary featuring an interactive graphic orchestrated by the hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy. Nas also helped Mass Appeal set up interviews with famous friends like Kanye West and Diddy for Fresh Dressed.
“Hip-hop was so embedded in the lives of so many people who make decisions,” Jenkins says. “Now [Nas is] a moving piece of social capital. That capital is tied into his art, and that art has opened all these doors, you know? Now people understand that the art itself is tied to culture, and culture is tied to commerce.”
Nas has followed a similar formula for his other investments. His inspiration struck around the time he met Andreesen Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz and bonded over a shared love of hip-hop and barbeque at a dinner arranged by fellow Mass Appeal investor Steve Stoute circa 2012 (“I’m a big foodie,” the rapper says). Two years later Nas founded QueensBridge Venture Partners with his manager, Anthony Saleh, and Rashaun Williams, a Goldman Sachs alum, who helped him source deals.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES
Since then, either through angel investing or through QueensBridge, Nas has ended up with stakes in dozens of startups, including many of those scouted by Andreessen Horowitz: Lyft, Genius and Coinbase, to name a few. He is, of course, not the only rapper with equity stakes. Plenty of the other Hip-Hop Cash Kings have invested in Silicon Valley darlings, from Jay-Z (Uber, stock-trading app Robinhood) to Diddy (Spotify), though Nas appears to be the most prolific.
NAS: NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: TAYLOR HILL/GETTY IMAGES
Most recently, Nas helped launch Mass Appeal Records in 2014 and earlier this year released his latest album, Nasir, on the label. This came after he managed to convince Universal Music Group to let him out of the last record on his deal; the record giant also joined him as an investor in Mass Appeal.
“There wasn’t a time when [rappers] didn’t think about investing,” says Nas. “It just so happens that the world is opening up.”
Reach Zack O'Malley Greenburg at zgreenburg@forbes.com. Cover image by Franco Vogt for Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackom...ing-his-hip-hop-cash-kings-debut-at-age-44-1/
Life Is Good: Why Nas Is Making His Hip-Hop Cash Kings Debut At Age 44
Zack O'Malley GreenburgForbes Staff
Hollywood & EntertainmentSenior Editor, Media & EntertainmentHip-Hop Cash Kings list of the top-earning rappers for the first time after raking $35 million last year. That’s thanks to 40-plus shows and a big Hennessey endorsement—and his cut from the sale of Ring, a smart doorbell maker, to Amazon. While Nas may have missed out on the sneaker and streetwear deals of the late 90s, he’s proved to be a later-in-life commercial force and a bit of an unlikely trailblazer with his startup investments.
ANDRES JAUREGUI; PHOTO: STEVE JENNINGS/GETTY IMAGES
Take his involvement in Mass Appeal, which occupies two floors of a SoHo WeWork building, an industrially stylish space complete with a pet snake shedding skin in a neon-lit aquarium (a gift from the rapper Young Thug). Mass Appeal was revived five years ago by Peter Bittenbender, cofounder of the creative studio Decon, and Sacha Jenkins, cofounder of Ego Trip magazine.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: C FLANIGAN/GETTY IMAGES
The latter spent much of his youth in Queens, where Nas grew up with blues playing father and a mother who worked for the Postal Service before releasing Illmatic, still considered by many the best rap album of all time. Jenkins recognized Nas’ talent early and kept in touch as Mass Appeal evolved.
“Sacha connected all the dots and called Nas, just like, ‘Do you want to help?’” Bittenbender recalls. “That totally wasn’t part of what he was doing at that point, but he had a history [with] the brand, so it made a lot of sense.”
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES
Nas came on and invested a six-figure sum in a million-dollar round alongside Decon and early-stage firm White Owl Capital Partners. Mass Appeal resurfaced in 2013 with plans to become a quarterly print publication. That strategy has since given way to a multimedia approach.
Today, Mass Appeal’s editorial output exists mostly on platforms like YouTube, which is home to its popular video series. There’s “Rhythm Roulette,” where Mass Appeal challenges producers to make a beat from three records chosen randomly from a local record store while blindfolded, and “Open Space,” which features interviews with celebrity guests.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: TABATHA FIREMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Mass Appeal has also expanded into other areas, launching its own creative agency and spinning out specials like the hip-hop documentaries Rapture and Fresh Dressed. Nas contributed to both, arranging an introduction to YouTube’s music chief Lyor Cohen—onetime head of Def Jam Records—who then brought on Mass Appeal to work on a Google campaign around hip-hop’s 44th anniversary featuring an interactive graphic orchestrated by the hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy. Nas also helped Mass Appeal set up interviews with famous friends like Kanye West and Diddy for Fresh Dressed.
“Hip-hop was so embedded in the lives of so many people who make decisions,” Jenkins says. “Now [Nas is] a moving piece of social capital. That capital is tied into his art, and that art has opened all these doors, you know? Now people understand that the art itself is tied to culture, and culture is tied to commerce.”
Nas has followed a similar formula for his other investments. His inspiration struck around the time he met Andreesen Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz and bonded over a shared love of hip-hop and barbeque at a dinner arranged by fellow Mass Appeal investor Steve Stoute circa 2012 (“I’m a big foodie,” the rapper says). Two years later Nas founded QueensBridge Venture Partners with his manager, Anthony Saleh, and Rashaun Williams, a Goldman Sachs alum, who helped him source deals.
NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES
Since then, either through angel investing or through QueensBridge, Nas has ended up with stakes in dozens of startups, including many of those scouted by Andreessen Horowitz: Lyft, Genius and Coinbase, to name a few. He is, of course, not the only rapper with equity stakes. Plenty of the other Hip-Hop Cash Kings have invested in Silicon Valley darlings, from Jay-Z (Uber, stock-trading app Robinhood) to Diddy (Spotify), though Nas appears to be the most prolific.
NAS: NICK DESANTIS; PHOTO: TAYLOR HILL/GETTY IMAGES
Most recently, Nas helped launch Mass Appeal Records in 2014 and earlier this year released his latest album, Nasir, on the label. This came after he managed to convince Universal Music Group to let him out of the last record on his deal; the record giant also joined him as an investor in Mass Appeal.
“There wasn’t a time when [rappers] didn’t think about investing,” says Nas. “It just so happens that the world is opening up.”
Reach Zack O'Malley Greenburg at zgreenburg@forbes.com. Cover image by Franco Vogt for Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackom...ing-his-hip-hop-cash-kings-debut-at-age-44-1/
DeuceZ
Li pitit gason
never on schedule but always on time.
prophecypro
Hollywood North
Salute Nas getting the bag and getting on Forbes list
prophecypro
Hollywood North
Brehs Im worried Kelis gonna leak whatever story she got next with Essence on the gawd's birthday 
These are the things I think about
I'll take the L
These are the things I think about
I'll take the L
Brehs Im worried Kelis gonna leak whatever story she got next with Essence on the gawd's birthday
These are the things I think about
Who cares? That was a marriage that ended almost 10 years ago
JayBaldacci
All Star
Its funny how nas's stock has gone up a lot more since the late 2000s/early 2010s...
Prolific_1011
All Star
damn.. so it was a pic of Nas and Mike Will sitting together behind the boards. Someone in Eardrummers posted it. Just happened to see it on the gram. it was recent like yesterday
