Everybody Got Paid…But Jimmy Got Rich

This is the story of how one man positioned himself at the center of the most powerful movement in music history, and made sure he always got paid. From his early days as a studio engineer working alongside John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, to co-founding Interscope Records in 1990 with Ted Field, Jimmy was never the artist. He was always the architect. While Death Row Records was shaking the world with Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg, Jimmy saw an opportunity nobody else did. He didn’t compete with Death Row, he distributed it. He watched Suge Knight heading to his inevitable demise, and collected his percentage from the back. When Death Row collapsed, Jimmy was already gone onto the next one. Dr. Dre. Eminem. 50 Cent. Kendrick Lamar, Beats, Apple . Some of the greatest artists in hip hop history all passed through Interscope. All made Jimmy richer. The label became a machine and Jimmy Iovine was the only one who never changed positions inside it. Throughout his entire career Jimmy Iovine was the perfect middleman between the artists, labels, and corporate worlds eventually becoming a billionaire mostly through the Hip Hop culture.