Interview with Nels Abbey, author of The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls
Nels Abbey, author of The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls recommends a brilliant bunch of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Nels's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls
What does the founding of the Sugarhill Gang teach us about business development? What can we learn about management and leadership from Jay-Z's decades-long dominance? What does Ice Cube's refusal to accept $75,000 to remain a member of NWA tell us about risk management? What can we learn about market dominance from the Death Row and Bad Boy Records beef? What does the rise and fall of MC Hammer (and the near fall of Rihanna) reveal about the psychology of money management? Does Lil Nas X have anything to teach us about corporate diversity?
In The Hip-Hop MBA, banker-turned-writer Nels Abbey offers an alternative and entertaining look at business and economics through the rise and triumph of Hip-Hop. This is the story of how rap industrialists - like Jay-Z, Suge Knight, Sylvia Robinson, Puff Daddy, 50 Cent and Bryan 'Birdman' Williams - took chronic economic pain and turned it into champagne. With a business acumen often acquired in the streets, these moguls created and sustained a multi-billion-dollar industry - leaving Greek mythology-worthy stories of success and failure, betrayal and revenge in their wakes.
The world of business hasn't taken Hip-Hop moguls or their methods anywhere near seriously enough - until now. The Hip-Hop MBA is taking you back to school.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £16.14
Blackwells £16.99
Waterstones £16.99
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game by Pimpin' Ken. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Doubt I have a favourite but, crazy as it sounds, Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game by Pimpin Ken is a rather interesting alternative book. It teaches that there are really only two careers: the exploiter and the exploited, or, as they put it: pimping and hoe-ing. Similar to the Hip-Hop MBA I saw much of the book as a metaphor for capitalism at its most brutally honest – warts and all.
Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game
Star of the HBO documentaries Pimps Up, Ho's Down and American Pimp, Annual Players' Ball 'Mack of the Year' winner Ken Ivy reveals the unwritten rules that took him from the ghetto streets to the executive suites.
The names change, but the game remains the same. In Pimpology, Ken Ivy pulls a square's coat on the unwritten rules that took him from the ghetto streets to the executive suites. Ken's lessons will serve any person in any interaction: Whether at work, in relationships, or among friends, somebody's got to be on top. To be the one with the upper hand, you've got to have good game, and good game starts with knowing the rules.
If you want the money, power, and respect you dream of, you can't just 'pimp your ride', you need to pimp your whole life. And unless you've seen Ray Charles leading Stevie Wonder somewhere, you need Ken's guidelines to do it. They'll reach out and touch you like AT&T and bring good things to life like GE. Then you can be the boss with the hot sauce who gets it all like Monty Hall.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £13.99
Bookshop.org US $16.73
Blackwells £11.99
Waterstones £16.99
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huffy. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
I’m currently reading How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff, I’d strongly recommend it.
How to Lie with Statistics
In 1954, Darrell Huff decided enough was enough. Fed up with politicians, advertisers and journalists using statistics to sensationalise, inflate, confuse, oversimplify and - on occasion - downright lie, he decided to shed light on their ill-informed and sneaky ways. How to Lie with Statistics is the result - the definitive and hilarious primer in the ways statistics are used to deceive.
With over one and half million copies sold around the world, it has delighted generations of readers with its cheeky takes on the ins and outs of samples, averages, errors, graphs and indexes. And in the modern world of big data and misinformation, Huff remains the perfect guide through the maze of facts and figures that are designed to make us believe anything.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £10.44
Bookshop.org US $12.97
Blackwells £10.99
Waterstones £10.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The book that left the greatest impression on me as a writer when I was young was The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah.
The Coldest Winter Ever
In a stunning first novel, renowned hip-hop artist, writer and activist Sister Souljah brings the streets of New York to life with a powerful and utterly unforgettable tale. Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, business minded and fashionable, Winter knows no restrictions. No one can control her. She's nobody's victim. Winter knows the Brooklyn streets like she knows the curves of her own body. She manoeuvres skilfully, applying all she has learned to come out on top, no matter how dramatically the scenes change.
But a cold winter wind is about to blow her life in a direction she could never have expected. Unwilling to give up her ghetto celebrity status, her friends and her lovers, Winter sets off on a series of wild adventures to reclaim her role as princess of the alleyways. But when her schemes begin to unravel, Winter is on her own, figuring out a whole new way to survive. The Coldest Winter Ever marks the debut of a gifted storyteller. Sister Souljah explores a young urban woman's innermost state of mind in a voice as bold as it is bracingly honest. Provocative and thoroughly entertaining, this is a daring novel of passion, loss, courage - and of the sometimes terrible tolls exacted from us just to stay alive. You will never forget this Winter's tale.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £10.99
Bookshop.org US $17.66
Blackwells £10.99
Waterstones £10.99
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
On so many fronts I have a special relationship with paper and ink. I believe it is the best way to make an ideal start to feel real, the best way to absorb information and, as a writer, a good way to earn a living (while awaiting that all-precious call from Hollywood).
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
I love all bookshops…that prominently stock my books, equally and passionately.
Many thanks to Nels for recommending a brilliant bunch of books! Please don't forget to check out The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: (The Hip-Hop MBA: Lessons in Cut-Throat Capitalism from Rap’s Moguls), Simon & Schuster (Pimpology: The 48 Laws of the Game), Penguin Books Ltd (How to Lie with Statistics), Simon & Schuster (The Coldest Winter Ever).
< Home
