Roc Nation

Roc Nation, LLC is an American entertainment company founded and owned by rapper Jay Z. The company has offices in New York City, London and Los Angeles.

History

Roc Nation was founded by Jay Z in 2008. The firm has a multi-year partnership with live event company Live Nation. In June 2009, Roc Nation signed a 4-year distribution deal with Sony Music. In 2010, Roc Nation partnered with London-based entertainment company Three Six Zero Group. In February 2013, Roc Nation signed a worldwide music publishing administration deal with Warner/Chappell Music. In early April 2013, Roc Nation formed a new sports management division, Roc Nation Sports. Shortly thereafter, Roc Nation Sports also launched a boxing promotion division. After the Sony deal expired, in April 2013, Roc Nation signed a multi-year partnership with Universal Music. In February 2015, Roc Nation and Three Six Zero Group announced the formation of Three Six Zero Entertainment, a division representing clients in film, television and the literary arts.

Nation

Nation (from Latin: natio, "people, tribe, kin, genus, class, flock") is a social concept with no uncontroversial definition, but that is most commonly used to designate larger groups or collectives of people with common characteristics attributed to them—including language, traditions, customs (mores), habits (habitus), and ethnicity. A nation, by comparison, is more impersonal, abstract, and overtly political than an ethnic group. It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy, unity, and particular interests.

According to Joseph Stalin: "a nation is not a racial or tribal, but a historically constituted community of people;" "a nation is not a casual or ephemeral conglomeration, but a stable community of people"; "a nation is formed only as a result of lengthy and systematic intercourse, as a result of people living together generation after generation"; and, in its entirety: "a nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture."

Jay Z

Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known by his stage name Jay Z (formerly Jay-Z), is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. In 2014, Forbes estimated Jay Z's net worth at nearly $520 million. He is one of the world's best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records, while receiving 21 Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest rappers ever, he was ranked number one by MTV in their list of The Greatest MCs of All-Time in 2006. Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003), are considered landmarks in the genre with all of them featured in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

As an entrepreneur and investor, Jay Z co-owns the 40/40 Club, and is the co-creator of the clothing line Rocawear. He is the former president of Def Jam Recordings, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and the founder of Roc Nation. He also founded the sports agency Roc Nation Sports and is a certified NBA and MLB sports agent. As an artist, he holds the record for most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 with 13. Jay Z also has had four number ones on the Billboard Hot 100, one as lead artist. On December 11, 2009, Jay Z was ranked as the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper behind Eminem, Nelly, and 50 Cent. He was also ranked the 88th greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

Yo Gotti

Mario Mims (born May 19, 1981), better known by his stage name Yo Gotti, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. In 1996, Gotti released his debut album Youngsta's On a Come Up under the alias Lil Yo. He went to release From Da Dope Game 2 Da Rap Game (2000), Self-Explanatory (2001), Life (2003), Back 2 da Basics (2006), Live from the Kitchen (2012), I Am (2013) and The Art of Hustle (2016).

Musical career

2000–06: Beginnings

Mims grew up in Ridgecrest Apartments of Frayser, Memphis. He began his music career around the age of 14, rapping as Lil Yo, affiliated with DJ Sound and his crew. Between 2000 and 2006, Yo Gotti released a string of independent albums. From Da Dope Game 2 Da Rap Game (2000), Self-Explanatory (2001), Life (2003) and Back 2 da Basics (2006).

2009–12: Live from the Kitchen

After several delays Yo Gotti released his major label debut studio album Live From The Kitchen on January 10, 2012. The album's original first single was titled "5 Star" and it was released on May 20, 2009. The single peaked at 79 on the Hot 100, 19 on U.S R&B and 11 on U.S Rap. "Women Lie, Men Lie" featuring Lil Wayne the album's second single was released on December 11, 2009. The song peaked at 81 on 100, 22 on the U.S R&B and 12 on the U.S Rap. "Look In the Mirror" was the third single released 7 months after the second single on July 27, 2010. The song peaked at 97 on the U.S R&B chart.Live From The Kitchen debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200, with 16,000 copies sold in its first week of sales in the United States. After three weeks on the chart the album has sold 36,000 copies in the United States. In 2012 due to Gotti's views of the low sales of his debut album he took his departure from RCA Records & Polo Grounds Music. On October 17, 2012, he released the 7th version of his well known mixtape series Cocaine Muzik entitled Cocaine Muzik 7: The World Is Yours.

Jim Jones

James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader. Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, infamous due to the mass murder-suicide in November 1978 of 918 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan, and the ordering of four additional Temple member deaths in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital. Nearly three-hundred children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head; it is suspected his death was a suicide.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple there in the 1950s. He later moved the Temple to California in the mid-1960s, and gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the early 1970s.

Early life

Jones was born in a rural area of Crete, Indiana, to James Thurman Jones (1887–1951), a World War I veteran, and Lynetta Putnam (1902–1977). Lynetta reportedly believed she had given birth to a messiah. He was of Irish and Welsh descent. Jones later claimed partial Cherokee ancestry through his mother, though according to his maternal second cousin Barbara Shaffer, this is likely untrue. Economic difficulties during the Great Depression necessitated that Jones' family move to Lynn, Indiana, in 1934, where he grew up in a shack without plumbing.