One of the most powerful figures in music has had a lot of buzz surrounding his name in hip-hop circles lately. Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, has been involved in the music industry for 45 years. The north Londoner is a certified knight, an honor bestowed upon him by Queen Elizabeth II in 2016 through her 90th birthday honors list, which praised the music industry and its role in challenging times. leadership. This guy is a big shot.
Unfortunately, his name was recently used as ammunition by Ye to attack Drake on a diss track. Ye mentioned that the 63-year-old music mogul insulted Drizzy on the remix of “Like That” and in an interview with social media personality Justin Laboy. Ye debuted the song last Saturday (April 20) during a chat with Laboy on his new podcast, The Download. The diss track is a remix of Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” featuring Kendrick Lamar, in which K-Dot takes aim at Drake and J. Cole. Ye also called Lucian Liushen’s “rich dad” in the interview. This attack was meant to imply that Grainge was letting Drake get all the spin and love his certified lover boy heart desires on DSP.
“This is n***as’ packaging/Where’s Lucian? Serve your master, n***a/You caught a little bag for your master, didn’t you?/Deal for life, I serve n***a *Feeling sad cause / Y’all out of sight, out of mind / I can’t even think of Drake’s line,” Ye raps on the remix.
The lyrics likely refer to the lucrative deal Drake signed with Universal Music Group in 2022. Dollar.
Lucian is also named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones against Diddy in February. The lawsuit alleges that Diddy sexually assaulted, harassed and failed to pay Jones for her work on Off the Grid. Lucian is listed as the person who provided financial resources to Puff Daddy and the rap mogul’s record label, Love Records. As Diddy’s general business partner, Universal Music Group chiefs “have a responsibility to ensure that the financial support they provide to Sean Combs and Love Records is not used to target sex workers, drugs and alcohol” workers, drugs and alcohol,” court documents state.
Now, with this information coming out, Lucian Grange is certainly more than just the negativity associated with his name over the past few months. In 1986, he joined Universal Music Group and founded PolyGram in the UK, making it one of the three major music publishing companies in the UK. He served as General Manager A&R (1993) and Managing Director Polydor (1997). Grange subsequently assumed the title of Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group UK in 2001. Universal Music Group (UMG), founded by Lucian, is the largest of the three major record companies, ahead of Warner Music and Sony. Grainge oversees brands including Interscope, Republic, Def Jam, Capitol, Motown and Island.
Lil Wayne’s Young Money, Eminem’s Shady Records, J. Cole’s Dreamville and Coach K and P’s Quality Control Music are just some of the hip-hop labels associated with UMG and Lucian.
When looking at Grainge’s achievements as head of the world’s largest music group, he is responsible for significantly increasing the company’s revenue and profitability. Under his leadership, UMG became the first music company to have nine of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Digital Songs chart, and the first to have all 10 of the top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. music company.
“The barometer of our success is not just market share, although obviously if it was market share, we’re doing pretty well,” he said at a 2018 Capitol event. “The barometer of our success is creating the best artists want to do. The company to sign with.
He’s even open to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, which have increasingly permeated the music industry in the last year. “It’s a good thing that artificial intelligence serves artists, but it’s a bad thing that artificial intelligence is used to harm or prevent artists from receiving the compensation they deserve,” he told us fast company March. “So our approach is to employ responsible AI technologies in a way that enhances human creativity.”
Such a momentous achievement earned him a huge bonus. Grainge’s annual salary is $5 million. His annual bonus is $10 million, and the equity he receives includes an annual grant of $20 million. The music mogul also locked in $100 million in one-time transition awards that include restricted stock units and performance stock options. He even received a $150 million bonus for UMG’s successful IPO in 2021.
Rappers have taken notice, too. Drake mentions Lucian’s name on Migos’ 2021 single ‘Having Our Way’: “Things haven’t changed, billionaires look at me differently when they see my Lucian Grainge pay stub.” Terra Travis Scott also backed the multi-million dollar man on Drake and 21 Savage’s 2022 song “P***y & Millions”: “Only Signin’ the Gang ‘We the new Lucian Grainge’.
The music mogul is keeping it in the family, too. Lucian’s son Eliott Grainge is the founder of 10K Projects, which includes Ice Spice, Trippie Redd, Iann Dior, Jeleel! and Rich Amiri, among others, have signed.
So while Ye brought up Lucian Grange’s name to criticize Drake, having someone with that much power seems to work in your favor in this game.
