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Barefoot when Jay-Z walked in
The fight was over an artist. Jay-Z's side had been about to sign him, but no deal was ever signed, and six months passed. In that time other bidders offered the artist more money, and the executive, Steve Stoute, told them the artist would probably do a deal elsewhere. Jay-Z's team said the artist had to keep his word, and Stoute answered that six months had gone by and the word had expired.
Jay-Z called to say they were coming right then. They expected him to have people with him for a face-off. He had the front desk send them up and met them alone, with no shoes on. He told them he didn't want to argue about anything that didn't involve big houses, meaning that unless the money was huge, the conversation wasn't worth having. They burst out laughing.
From there Jay-Z and Stoute became friends and spent hours playing Madden. Once they started hanging out, they found out they were second cousins: Stoute's father's brother had married a woman connected to Jay-Z's side of the family.
How did Jay-Z end up running Def Jam?
Jay-Z co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 with Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, and released his debut album Reasonable Doubt on it in 1996. Universal's Island Def Jam later bought the remainder of Roc-A-Fella. In 2004 Jay-Z became president of Def Jam Recordings.
Why do rival labels bid for the same artist?
Labels compete on the advance, the royalty rate, and the marketing budget. The size of the advance signals how much the label expects to spend promoting the artist, since the label recovers it from the artist's earnings. Offers from several labels at once typically raise all three terms.
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