00:00 I got to meet people like Jay, Jay Brown, and Ty Ty,
00:03 and people who later on became like mentors in my career.
00:06 I was listening to Rockefeller stuff in the very beginning of my life
00:10 because I started working at Rockefeller at 16 years old.
00:12 And so Jay has always been my favorite artist.
00:15 I grew up in an apartment complex called 1199 in East Harlem,
00:19 and Damon Dash is also from 1199.
00:22 I always like to say we have like a history of stars from 1199.
00:27 KM Ron is also from there.
00:28 Damon Dash being from 1199, I used to always see him growing up.
00:32 I seen him one day, I asked if I could intern with him,
00:36 and he was like, "Yeah, just come down to the office."
00:38 I came down to the office in 1999.
00:41 I came to his office. Nobody knew I was there.
00:43 No one was expecting me.
00:44 They were like, "Who are you?"
00:46 And I'm like, "Damon told me to come down."
00:48 He finally comes in maybe like an hour later.
00:50 He's like, "Oh, yes, this is Shari. She's from my building.
00:53 Make sure that she learns everything that's going on."
00:56 I always say when I walked into that company in 1999,
01:00 I never looked back because I was able to see women
01:03 that look like me, and it made me feel a sense of belonging.
01:06 I never turned back from there.
01:07 That was my first ever job in the music industry.
01:12 My first internship and most impactful one
01:14 was for a woman named Yvette Noir-Schor,
01:16 who's Beyoncé's publicist.
01:18 I treated the internship like it was a real job,
01:19 you know, because I fell in love with just everything about it.
01:22 Like, I fell in love with the artists coming through,
01:24 the way people move, being invited to different places
01:28 and seeing just the studio atmosphere and everything.
01:31 And I just kind of fell in love with just being in that business.
01:33 And I got an opportunity when I graduated college.
01:36 I started as an assistant tour manager for Beyoncé
01:38 on the "Dangerous Lady In Love" tour, her first album.
01:40 Kind of worked my way up into being a tour manager
01:43 for Kelly Rowland.
01:44 That was a great entryway to the business
01:46 because doing just my homework,
01:48 I saw guys like Steve Stout and Chris Leidy
01:50 and people that I admire and look up to.
01:52 I started as a tour manager.
01:53 Later on down the line, you see the connection,
01:55 the Beyoncé-Jay-Z connection.
01:57 And when they started at Roc Nation,
01:59 probably like the first year in,
02:00 they were looking for, you know, A&Rs and building their team.
02:03 And, you know, they remembered me
02:05 because I always kept in contact,
02:06 always saw them around and just kind of came full circle
02:09 and started working at Roc Nation.
02:11 The way we sign new talent or identify new talent
02:13 to Roc Nation, I think the main thing is off of gut.
02:17 We still believe in signing artists
02:19 and developing them off of the belief
02:22 in their talent and who we feel like
02:24 is going to be a long-term superstar, a long-term artist.
02:29 And if we sign something, we believe that we're gonna be
02:31 in it for the long haul with that artist.
02:33 We're big on making sure that music makes you feel something.
02:36 Once we sign something, we purely love it
02:38 and we're committed to being in the relationship
02:40 or the partnership with that artist.
02:41 Authenticity comes first.
02:43 We're not here to manufacture the artist.
02:45 We're here to amplify the artist.
02:47 And so with all of the things that Omar just said
02:50 and adding the authenticity factor,
02:53 that's how we really determine the artist
02:55 that we wanna be in business with.
02:57 - It's something that we have to identify
02:59 and be like, oh, we wanna be a part of this.
03:01 We see something special in that artist.
03:02 And it doesn't have to be super polished.
03:04 There's artists that we sign like an ombre or a meta
03:06 who are our success stories where we sign them
03:08 pretty early in their career, no real TikTok following,
03:11 no Instagram following, barely put records out
03:13 into the marketplace, but we stuck with them for years
03:17 and basically see where they're going in their career
03:19 and see them developing right before our eyes, really.
03:23 - One piece of advice I would say,
03:25 and this probably could apply to artists and executives,
03:29 is finding your lane and becoming the master in that lane,
03:34 like staying consistent, staying focused on one lane
03:38 before you decide to branch out.
03:40 I'm big on identifying what that lane is
03:43 and then head down and doing the work.
03:45 Keep your head down 'cause when you look up,
03:48 you'll be surprised at the strides you have made,
03:52 but it's important to block out all the noise.
03:54 When you decide that that's the lane
03:57 you wanna focus in on, just stay consistent.
03:59 There'll be a lot of challenges along the way,
04:02 but that's all part of the journey.
04:04 - For artists and musicians, at this point,
04:06 just study your craft.
04:07 I think just be the best you can at it.
04:09 All these things that we're talking about, AI,
04:11 we're talking about things that are allowing us
04:14 to take shortcuts, but I think long-term
04:17 and to really make a mark or do something special,
04:19 I think it still boils down to being authentic
04:22 and actually studying and perfecting and obsessing over
04:26 what it is that you wanna do, staying true to that,
04:29 whether it's musicianship, whether it's vocal training,
04:33 just knowing who you are as an artist, executives,
04:36 knowing what you wanna accomplish in your career,
04:38 setting your goals.
04:39 I think it just, it shows, especially social media
04:41 and all these things, we see the end result.
04:42 We don't see the journey.
04:43 We can't forget that there is a journey.
04:45 There are steps of getting to where,
04:47 ultimately, where we wanna be and to be great.
04:49 (upbeat music)
04:52 (upbeat music)
