 Gen Z is finding rockstar success on their own, but Roc Nation’s co-presidents say talent isn’t enough:‘You got to be hustling as hard as us’ 

Roc Nation’s co-presidents say talent isn’t enough for success: Here’s how they’re building a new era of music icons for Jay-Z’s empire

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Roc Nation’s co-presidents are building a new era of music icons for Jay-Z’s empire


 Gen Z is finding rockstar success on their own, but Roc Nation’s co-presidents say talent isn’t enough:‘You got to be hustling as hard as us’ 



I got to meet people like Jay, Jay Brown and Ta, Ta and people who later on became like mentors in my career. I was listening to Rockefeller stuff in the very beginning of my life because I started working at Rockefeller at 16 years old. And so Jay has always been my favorite artist. I grew up in an apartment complex called 1199 in East Harlem. And Damon Dash is also from 1199. I always like to say we have like a history of stars from 1190. Kamron is also from there, Damon Dash being from 1199 I used to always see him growing up. I seen him one day I asked if I could intern with him and he was like, yeah, just come down to the office. I came down to the office in 1999. I came to his office. Nobody knew I was there. No one was expecting me. They were like, uh who are you? And I'm like, Damon told me to come down. He finally comes in maybe like an hour later. He's like, oh yes, this is Sherry. She's from my building. Make sure that she um learns everything that's going on. I always say when I walked into that company in 1999 I never looked back because I was able to see women that looked like me. And it made me feel a sense of belonging. I never turned back from there. That was my first ever job. And in the music industry, my first internship and the most impactful one was for a woman named Yvette No Shore who be I the like it was real job, you know, because I fell in love with just everything about it. Like I fell in love with the artist coming through the just the way people moved, being invited to different places and, and seeing the the studio atmosphere and everything and then just kind of fell in love with just being in that business. And I got an opportunity when I graduated college, I started as a assistant tour manager for Beyonce on the Dangerously In Love Tour. Her first album kind of worked my way up into being a tour manager for Kelly Rowland. That was a great entry to the business because I was doing my homework. I saw guys like Steve Sal and Chris Lighty and people that I might look up to started as a tour manager later on down the line, as you see the connection, the Beyonce Jay Z connection. And when they started Rock Nation, probably like the first year and they were looking for, you know, A and Rs and building their team. And um you know, they, they remember me because I always kept in contact, I always saw them around and just kind of came full circle and started working at Rock Nation the way we signed new talent or identify new talent to Rock Nation. I think the main thing is off of gut. We still believe in signing artists and developing them off of the belief and their talent and who we feel like is going to be a long term superstar, long term artist. And if we find something, we believe that we're going to be in it for the long haul with that artist, we're big on making sure that music makes you feel something. Once we sign something, we purely love it and we committed to being in a relationship with the partnership with that artist. Authenticity comes first, we're not here to manufacture the artist, we're here to amplify the artist. And so with all of the things that Omar just said and adding the authenticity factor, that's how we really determine the artist that we wanna be um in business with. It's something that we have to identify and be like, oh, we wanna be a part of this. We see something special in that artist and it doesn't have to be super polished. You know, there's artists that sound like an hombre or me who are our success stories where find them pretty early in their career, no real tiktok following, no Instagram following, barely put records out into the marketplace. Um But we stuck with them for, for years and basically see where they are going in their career and see the, see them developing right before our one piece of advice I would say, and it probably could apply to artists and executives is finding your lane and becoming the master in that lane. Like staying consistent, staying focused on one lane before you decide to branch out. I'm big on like identifying what that lane is and then head down and doing the work. Keep your head down because when you look up, you know, you'll be surprised that the strides you have made, but it's important to block out all the noise. When you decide that that's the lane you wanna focus in to stay consistent. There will be a lot of challenges along the way, but that's all part of the journey for artists and musicians, you know, at this point like a craft, you know, I think just be the best you can at it. All these things that we are talking about. A I we're talking about things that are, are, you know, allowing us to take shortcuts. But I think long term and to be to really make a mark or do something special, I think it still boils down to being authentic and actually studying and, and perfecting and obsessing over like what it is that you want to do, stay in truth of that. You know, whether it's musicianship, whether it's, you know, the vocal training, just knowing who you are as an artist, executive, knowing, you know, what you want to accomplish in your career, setting your goals. I think it just, it shows especially social media and all these things. We see the end result. We don't see the journey, we can't forget that there is a journey, there are steps of getting to where ultimately where we want to be and to be great.