Chris Lighty, who managed the careers of 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Missy Elliott and Diddy, was discovered dead in his Bronx apartment on Thursday morning, August 30, 2012. The police have stated that they are investigating the death as a possible suicide.
While police ruled his death a suicide, friends and family say Chris Lighty was the victim of foul play. Learn the story behind the music executive in an all-new #CelebrityCrimeFiles, premiering tomorrow at 11p/10c only on @tvonetv! #TrueCrimeMondays 🔍 pic.twitter.com/aZCOZsesnW
— TV One (@tvonetv) March 13, 2023
Mr. Lighty was one of the most influential people in the hip-hop industry and his work during the genre’s heyday in the ’90s and ’00s helped cement hip-hop as a significant commercial force complete with multimillion-dollar record agreements and partnerships with large corporations.
He established the management firm Violator in the early 1990s and it quickly became the industry standard housing a roster of stars with street cred and corporate aspirations very unlike Mr. Lighty’s own.
Mr. Lighty landed endorsement deals for his clients Busta Rhymes (with Mountain Dew) and A Tribe Called Quest and he also created a famous 1997 Gap commercial featuring LL Cool J.
In 2004, Mr. Lighty established a relationship between 50 Cent and the beverage firm Glacéau, giving the rapper a stake in the company and his own variety of Vitaminwater. After three years, when Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau for more than $4 billion, 50 Cent’s share was valued at up to $100 million.
Mr. Lighty got his start in the music industry thanks to Russell Simmons’s company, Rush Management. Mr. Lighty is one of his mother’s six children, all of whom were born in the Bronx.
Like Jay-Z and other rap industry luminaries, he grew up in the Bronx River projects and he has asserted that he learned the fundamentals of business by making a living off the streets.
“I obtained my M.B.A. in hell,” Mr. Lighty said. To the tune of 80 million recordings, his business boasted that year.
Starting out as a record carrier for DJ Red Alert, he later joined Rush Management and worked under Mr. Simmons and Lyor Cohen, the latter of whom is currently the chief executive of recorded music at Warner Music Group.
Mr. Lighty had founded his own management and record company in the early 1990s; he called it Violator, after the name of his old gang in the Bronx.
In addition to his job as a manager, he has also served as an executive at the record label Def Jam, Jive and Loud, and as CEO of the Brand Asset Group, a Warner Music joint venture that is responsible for securing sponsorship and other branding arrangements.
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