Lenny S, senior vice president at Roc Nation, is a self-described “accessible guy” with an elite level of access within the music industry. On this episode of XXL’s Inside Track podcast, Lenny S discusses his unwavering success as an A&R, working with Jay-Z for over three decades, his upcoming book based on the now-famous gold couch and being a part of major moments that made rap game history.
After cutting his teeth in hip-hop as an independent street promoter in his home borough of the Bronx, a one-year stint with Bad Boy Records led Lenny to an intern position at then-upstart label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996. He quickly became a key player at the Roc and has been firmly positioned at the right hand of Jay-Z ever since.
Lenny’s first project as an A&R was when Roc-A-Fella assigned him to oversee the soundtrack for their 1998 film Streets Is Watching. After the Roc’s unprecedented run in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Lenny S later served as an A&R at Virgin Records. He then accompanied Jay-Z over to Def Jam when Hov became president of the label. Lenny worked with the likes of Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, The Roots and his favorite rapper, Ghostface Killah.
Having worked so closely with Jay-Z for so long, Lenny S shares the best piece of advice he’s ever received from the Brooklyn mogul. As far as Lenny’s concerned, it’s a lesson that he continues to carry with with him through all aspects of life.
“It’s something that I live by every single day and I tell everybody,” Lenny S says of Hov’s words of wisdom. “[Jay-Z’s advice]: ‘You do not get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.’ And I think it’s so important because most of my career, I thought that I would get things that I deserved because of what I did or what I put in, or the favor I did for somebody, and it would sometimes never come back around. I learned that it’s not nobody’s fault but my own. If I didn’t negotiate a percentage of that deal, then I’m not owed anything.”
Throughout his career in hip-hop, Lenny S has also taken his affinity for candid photography to the next level. In the coming months, Random House publishing company is set to release Lenny’s book based on photos of high-profile artists who’ve posed on the eye-catching gold couch he has in his Roc Nation office. He has not revealed the title yet. That’s just another aspect of the Roc Nation SVP’s fascinating decades-long journey through the hip-hop world.
XXL is back with another episode of Inside Track, a biweekly podcast that spends time with some of hip-hop’s most influential industry executives, entrepreneurs and more. Hosted by XXL Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Satten and music executive Courtney “Courtney CL” Lowery, each episode will continue to explore hip-hop through the eyes of people who have lived and breathed the culture.
Watch or listen to the episode of XXL’s Inside Track podcast below. The podcast can be found on xxlmag.com, XXL’s YouTube page and on most podcast platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and XXL Live.
