Jay-Z's Former Partner Kareem 'Biggs' Burke Plots An Empire Of His Own
Zack O'Malley Greenburg ,
FORBES STAFF
Senior Editor, Media & Entertainment
Courtesy of Kareem Burke
Biggs' Plans: Kareem Burke, the 'silent partner' who cofounded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z and Damon Dash, is carving a niche for himself with the help of the brands he helped create in the mid-1990s--via collaborations like the Nike Air Force 1s shown here.
Kareem Burke is sitting in the sky lobby of the W Hotel in Times Square, and he’s not happy with his Diet Coke. “This is disgusting,” he declares. “Super-flat. It’s … syrupy.”
Taste has always been a calling card for Burke, better known as “Biggs.” Back in the mid-1990s, he cofounded Roc-A-Fella Records and the Rocawear clothing line with business partners Jay-Z and Damon Dash; Iconix eventually bought the latter brand for $204 million. Though Burke was known as the “silent partner” of the trio, he’s now stepping out on his own after a series of twists and turns in his business career and personal life.
Last November, Burke collaborated with Nike to launch a limited-edition Roc-A-Fella Air Force 1 for the Nike sneaker’s 35th anniversary. He’s also working on several clothing lines: denim brand Fourth of November, as well as ReDo96 (formerly Roc96) and Reasonable Doubt, the latter two inspired by Roc-A-Fella and Jay-Z’s debut album on the label. He’s even involved in a caffeinated chocolate snack called BEON.
Not a bad roster of business ventures, especially given that he was sentenced to five years in prison back in 2012 after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute 100 kilograms of marijuana (he declines to elaborate on this part of his past). Perhaps most remarkable of all is the fact that he's been able to come to an understanding with his former partners and Universal, the company that currently controls the Roc-A-Fella brand, allowing him to use the label’s name and logo along with the Reasonable Doubt moniker.
“Everybody signed off, and they were all cool with it,” Burke explains. “Roc-A-Fella as a label … it's really not anything that’s active. So anything that's being done outside that creates energy is beneficial for the label anyway.”
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Burke became an entrepreneur in his early teens, often following his older brother from their Harlem home to Chinatown, buying fireworks and reselling them at a profit in the Bronx. But it was in his own stomping grounds where he found the most success. In Harlem, he and several dozen peers formed a collective known as Best Out. They’d throw parties at places like the Cotton Club, charging revelers $100. (“That’s actually where the name Biggs comes from,” says Burke. “Because I was four or five years younger than everybody … they can say you act like you're too grown, too big for your age.”)
One of Burke’s comrades in Best Out was Dash, then working as a manager for a handful of up-and-coming hip-hop acts. Brooklyn-based DJ Clark Kent suggested Dash link up with Jay-Z, who’d given up rapping to focus on the more lucrative opportunities available in the drug trade at the time. After the introduction was made, Dash brought in Burke, figuring they could take the marketing savvy they’d used with Best Out and apply it to music. The three agreed to launch Roc-A-Fella together.
Zack O'Malley Greenburg ,
FORBES STAFF
Senior Editor, Media & Entertainment
Courtesy of Kareem Burke
Biggs' Plans: Kareem Burke, the 'silent partner' who cofounded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z and Damon Dash, is carving a niche for himself with the help of the brands he helped create in the mid-1990s--via collaborations like the Nike Air Force 1s shown here.
Kareem Burke is sitting in the sky lobby of the W Hotel in Times Square, and he’s not happy with his Diet Coke. “This is disgusting,” he declares. “Super-flat. It’s … syrupy.”
Taste has always been a calling card for Burke, better known as “Biggs.” Back in the mid-1990s, he cofounded Roc-A-Fella Records and the Rocawear clothing line with business partners Jay-Z and Damon Dash; Iconix eventually bought the latter brand for $204 million. Though Burke was known as the “silent partner” of the trio, he’s now stepping out on his own after a series of twists and turns in his business career and personal life.
Last November, Burke collaborated with Nike to launch a limited-edition Roc-A-Fella Air Force 1 for the Nike sneaker’s 35th anniversary. He’s also working on several clothing lines: denim brand Fourth of November, as well as ReDo96 (formerly Roc96) and Reasonable Doubt, the latter two inspired by Roc-A-Fella and Jay-Z’s debut album on the label. He’s even involved in a caffeinated chocolate snack called BEON.
Not a bad roster of business ventures, especially given that he was sentenced to five years in prison back in 2012 after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute 100 kilograms of marijuana (he declines to elaborate on this part of his past). Perhaps most remarkable of all is the fact that he's been able to come to an understanding with his former partners and Universal, the company that currently controls the Roc-A-Fella brand, allowing him to use the label’s name and logo along with the Reasonable Doubt moniker.
“Everybody signed off, and they were all cool with it,” Burke explains. “Roc-A-Fella as a label … it's really not anything that’s active. So anything that's being done outside that creates energy is beneficial for the label anyway.”
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Kendrick Lamar, Conscious
Burke became an entrepreneur in his early teens, often following his older brother from their Harlem home to Chinatown, buying fireworks and reselling them at a profit in the Bronx. But it was in his own stomping grounds where he found the most success. In Harlem, he and several dozen peers formed a collective known as Best Out. They’d throw parties at places like the Cotton Club, charging revelers $100. (“That’s actually where the name Biggs comes from,” says Burke. “Because I was four or five years younger than everybody … they can say you act like you're too grown, too big for your age.”)
One of Burke’s comrades in Best Out was Dash, then working as a manager for a handful of up-and-coming hip-hop acts. Brooklyn-based DJ Clark Kent suggested Dash link up with Jay-Z, who’d given up rapping to focus on the more lucrative opportunities available in the drug trade at the time. After the introduction was made, Dash brought in Burke, figuring they could take the marketing savvy they’d used with Best Out and apply it to music. The three agreed to launch Roc-A-Fella together.
