Early life

Born in New York to Israeli immigrants in 1959, Cohen grew up in Los Angeles. In 1981 he received a degree in global marketing and finance from the University of Miami. Afterwards, he worked briefly in the Beverly Hills office of Bank Leumi.

Music career

Rush Productions / Rush Artist Management

Late in 1984, after promoting a pair of rock and rap shows at The Mix Club in Hollywood (one featured Run-DMC, the other featured Whodini), Cohen moved to New York to take a job at Simmons’s Rush Productions (later called Rush Artist Management). Beginning as Run-DMC’s road manager, Cohen quickly began taking on additional responsibilities, working on behalf of an artist roster that included Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. By 1987, Cohen himself was signing artists to Rush. These acts included Slick Rick, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (the latter better known today as Will Smith), Eric B. & Rakim, EPMD, Stetsasonic, De La Soul,and A Tribe Called Quest.

Cohen credits Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay with teaching him the basics of the music business. “ showed me how to settle shows and fulfill my responsibilities to the group,” Cohen told Vibe magazine. “It’s those lessons that I rely on daily to do what I do now.” Before long, according to Rolling Stone, Cohen “became known for his no-nonsense approach to business, his negotiating skill, his ability to forward the plot.” It was Cohen who brokered Run-DMC’s endorsement deal with Adidas, “one of the first big commercial deals for a rap group.” This deal was followed by others that paired up Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince with Le Coq Sportif, LL Cool J with Troop sportswear, and Run-DMC with New Coke.

By 1989, Rush—under Cohen’s leadership—was recognized as “the premier management operation” in the rap field. Steve Stoute, in “The Tanning of America,” credits Cohen with “ early on in the cultural melting pot that was being brewed for and by the younger generation.” In his own words, Lyor Cohen has said, “I was determined to prove people wrong, to prove to the gatekeepers of the industry that we had a place here and we weren’t going to relinquish our opportunity.”

Def Jam

From artist development to label executive

Cohen began transitioning from artist management to the label side of the music business in 1989, when he and Simmons formed Rush Associated Labels. The goal was to capitalize on the ability of established recording artists to sniff out new talent by signing boutique label deals with them. It paid off most notably with Jam Master Jay’s JMJ Records, which brought Onyx to Def Jam in 1992. By then Cohen was starting to groom a new generation of executives, notably Chris Lighty, Julie Greenwald, Kevin Liles, Todd Moscowitz, and Mike Kyser.

In 1994 Cohen teamed up with Simmons to negotiate Def Jam’s departure from Sony Music Entertainment (which had been distributing Def Jam since 1985) for a new home at PolyGram. By then, having become Simmons’s partner in the label several years earlier, Cohen was running Def Jam day-to-day. (Rick Rubin, Def Jam’s founder, had left the label in 1988.)

Def Jam under Polygram and Universal Music Group

Under Polygram and Cohen's leadership, Def Jam prospered. Cohen ushered in a brand-new roster of multi-platinum artists, including Redman, Method Man, Jay-Z, DMX, Ja Rule, Ludacris, and Kanye West. Concurrently, Cohen struck custom label deals with Roc-a-Fella, Murder Inc., Ruff Ryders, and Disturbing Tha Peace.

In 1998, PolyGram was purchased by Seagram, and merged into Universal Music Group. It was during this period that Cohen extended Def Jam’s reach by establishing Def Jam West in Los Angeles, Def Jam South in Atlanta (managed by Scarface, the Houston-based rapper-turned-talent-scout), Def Jam Germany in Berlin (the first of Def Jam's international outposts), Def Jam Japan in Tokyo, and an office in London.

Island Def Jam Music Group

In June 1998, after overseeing the merger and integration of several of Polygram’s best-known labels (Island Records, Mercury Records, and Def Jam) into a new unit called the Island Def Jam Music Group, Cohen was named its president. In the process, he became (as he himself noted) “the first hip-hop president in charge of a major label.”

This promotion required Cohen to expand his portfolio to include artists who didn’t rap, among them Bon Jovi, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain, Elvis Costello, Ashanti, Nickelback, Slipknot, Sum 41, The Killers, and Slayer. In 2000, Cohen teamed up with Nashville-based executive Luke Lewis to form Lost Highway Records, an “alt-country” label that was home to Lucinda Williams and Ryan Adams, as well as the soundtrack to the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2001. In 2001 Cohen struck deals to distribute both Roadrunner Records, a heavy-metal label, and Rick Rubin’s American Recordings. In 2002, American released Johnny Cash’s American IV: The Man Comes Around. The last album released by Cash before his death, it included Cash’s hit version of Trent Reznor’s "Hurt."

Warner Music Group

In January 2004 Cohen left IDJMG for a position with the Edgar Bronfman, Jr. investor group-financed Warner Music Group, which was subsequently spun off from Time Warner. Ultimately, Cohen was named WMG's chairman and chief executive.

By 2006, the positive effects of Cohen’s leadership were encapsulated in a story for the Los Angeles Times, which noted: “Under Cohen, Warner Music has thrived, due in part to the executive’s innovative initiatives, such as an incubator program that builds relationships with independent label executives the company aspires to hire.” WMG’s success with the Houston rapper Mike Jones and the punk band Paramore both grew out of the incubator program.

At WMG Cohen oversaw the merger of the Atlantic and Elektra labels into the Atlantic Records Group, and placed Julie Greenwald, his protégée, into a top executive position there. In 2009, Cohen elevated Greenwald to chairman and chief operating officer of Atlantic, a promotion that established Greenwald as the highest-ranking woman executive at an American record company. Greenwald’s successes at Atlantic have included The Black Keys, Bruno Mars, Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Mraz, Kid Rock, Lupe Fiasco, Plies, T.I., and Wiz Khalifa.

YouTube and Spotify

In September 2006 Cohen oversaw an agreement with YouTube that allowed the site to show videos by WMG artists in exchange for a share of YouTube’s advertising revenue. According to The New York Times, the deal marked “the first time a major record company licensed content to YouTube.” In 2011 Cohen oversaw an agreement on behalf of the WMG roster with Spotify, the digital music service. Eventually, Cohen oversaw all of WMG’s digital initiatives.

Departure from WMG

In September 2012 Cohen resigned from the Warner Music Group.

Future ventures and 300

There is much speculation about Cohen’s next move. Although nothing concrete has yet emerged, Cohen’s own assessment of his career may be broadly predictive. “I’ve been an outsider in the traditional record industry for more than 25 years,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m an entrepreneur, so I encourage risk-taking. And the only way to encourage risk-taking is to take risks yourself, which means sometimes you’ll fail, or people will say you are too aggressive or controversial. But someone needs to jump into the pool first for a party to get really great. I’ve always been willing to be that guy.” In November 2013, Cohen revealed he was starting a new company named "300 Entertainment," after the 300 Spartan Warriors who fought the famous war against the Persians seen in the movie 300. He stated the company would be part record label, part marketing company, part distributor, with major backing from Google and Atlantic Records.

Philanthropy and leadership

Cohen is currently on the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and is an acting Director for the New York-based charitable organization Boys & Girls Harbor.

Personal life

Some of Cohen’s closest associates have included his longtime friend and business partner Russell Simmons, Jay Z, music executive Julie Greenwald, Jon Bon Jovi, and Kanye West, who dubbed himself "the Lyor Cohen of Dior Homme" on a 2010 recording.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]