HOW CURTIS MAYFIELD LAID THE BLUEPRINT FOR JAY-Z TO BECOME THE FIRST HIP-HOP BILLIONAIRE
Jay-Z, Curtis Mayfield
t’s official: Jay-Z is now a billionaire. Forbes reports that the hip-hop artist and business mogul’s fortune has reached a conservatively estimated $1 billion based on the values of his music catalog, tech investments, real estate, art collection, and various companies, ranging from liquor to entertainment.
Hov is indeed “a business, man.” But while he’s the first rapper to amass a ten-figure fortune, the blueprint (see what I did there) for Black music artists owning their work by creating their own record labels was laid by legendary singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield almost three decades before Jay-Z founded Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996.
Mayfield—the soul music legend whose hits like “Move on Up,” “People Get Ready,” “Keep on Pushing,” and “It’s All Right” were anthems of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements—stressed Black pride and self-reliance in both his music and business endeavors. Inspired by fellow soul musician Sam Cooke (whose short-lived SAR Records launched in 1961 and folded after Cooke’s death in 1964), Mayfield founded Curtom Records in 1968 with music manager Eddie Thomas.
Curtom Records was one of the first music labels in history to be owned by a Black recording artist, and it empowered him to own a recording studio and control his recordings and song publishing. In addition to Mayfield’s solo work and music by his group The Impressions, Curtom signed artists like Donny Hathaway and The Staple Singers.
With the modern success of artist-owned labels like Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella, Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music, and Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group, it’s easy to take for granted how bold and revolutionary Mayfield’s move to create Curtom was in the 1960s. As his son Todd Mayfield explained in Traveling Soul, his 2016 biography of his dad, “When my father started recording in 1958, no Negro artist [owned their work].” But Mayfield insisted on self-empowerment and autonomy. “I just want to own as much of me as possible,” he once told his songwriting and business partner Jerry Butler.
Curtom Records closed in 1980, as the popularity of soul music had declined and hip-hop was on the rise. But just as Curtis Mayfield’s music lives on through samples by numerous rappers including Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, so does his example of self-empowerment for Black musicians.
As we celebrate Curtis Mayfield’s birthday (June 3, 1942) today—and acknowledge Jay-Z’s financial milestone—let us remember him both for his music and his economic vision.