
Swizz Beats is the CEO of Megaupload - bjonathan
http://www.factmag.com/2012/01/19/swizz-beats-is-the-ceo-of-megaupload/
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DevX101
This explains why P-Diddy, Alicia Keys (his wife) and a ton of other Hip Hop
artists did the Megaupload video.

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cheez
Alicia Keys is his wife? Fuck, that dude does have everything.

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cschmidt
Just to be clear, Swizz Beatz is married to Alicia Keys, not P-diddy.

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checker
How does Swizzy have the time for this? In addition to being CEO of
Megaupload, he's making tracks for other artists, making tracks for himself,
attending media and event appearances, touring, and maintaining a marriage and
social life. It makes me feel rather lazy.

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ssharp
Most of his stuff these days is probably ghost produced. Also, it seems like
his tracks are extremely simple (though, they still somehow are fairly good).
He had a beat on a Lil Wayne album a couple years ago that sounded like
nothing was done other than sampling 2 or 3 loops from an old song and
repeating them.

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dwyer
If you're talking about "Dr. Carter," that's probably my favorite hip-hop beat
in modern history, but I've listened to the song it samples and you're right,
he did almost nothing to it. It's still awesome though. Sometimes what you
_don't_ do to a song is just as important as what you do to it. ;-)

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allertonm
Hard to go wrong sampling David Axelrod...

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runn1ng
I am not sure about the accuracy of this.

The New York Post article has it just as a sidenote and I can't find any other
source of this (all other sources point back to NY Post article). On the other
hand, I have found sources citing Kim Dotcom as a CEO.

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poppysan
<http://www.megaupload.com/?c=about>

Lists Swizz beats as the CEO. While to some it may seem a sound business
decision, I would be hesitant to be the CEO (fall guy) for notorious criminal
Kim Dotcom.

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epoxyhockey
Be careful about judging people. You probably have several _notorious
criminals_ , as you describe them, surrounding you right now.. you just don't
know about their misdeeds. I would wager that Kasseem Dean doesn't have a
pristine criminal record either.

When you adjust to the assumption that you're dealing with dishonest people in
business, you learn to contractually protect yourself, and scale your salary
demands accordingly. I am sure that Kasseem Dean has done just that.

~~~
eaurouge
"I would wager that Kasseem Dean doesn't have a pristine criminal record
either"

Why? How would you know?

~~~
freehunter
How many Ruff Riders are famous for their unwavering law-abidance?

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mpeg
does it matter who is CEO? it's clear that Kimble runs it all; it's even got
his "mega" brand.

I'm personally a bit sad that kim keeps a low profile these days; it was fun
reading his blog/website back in the day, mostly pics of high-life yachts and
models and shit like that, master flamebaiter IMO :)

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kittxkat
Seems like megaupload.com is down for me.

Wikipedia states: "The site was shut down by the FBI on January 19, 2012,
during an investigation into alleged copyright infringement." [1] Anyone knows
any specific details?

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaupload>

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gallerytungsten
Sites like Megaupload are another step along the way to changing the music
business. To break a new act, it's all about mindshare, branding, building up
a name. The labels (used to) control that entirely.

With an alternate channel, the hegemony of the handful of major labels is
threatened. Once someone has the mindshare, you can monetize by touring,
merchandise, and numerous other ways. (The label response to this trend is
"360 deals" but that's another topic.)

Ever checked the math on a major label contract? Check Albini's "problem with
music" for a quick refresher. It makes the most predatory VCs look like choir
boys.

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hazelnut
genius from kim dotcom to get someone from the music business in the boat ;)

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arnoldwh
Awesome. Now this is biz-dev:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB03UBYpOFk>

