Swizz Beats is the CEO of Megaupload | Hacker News Reader

Swizz Beats is the CEO of Megaupload

factmag.com

150 pointsbjonathan31 comments

This explains why P-Diddy, Alicia Keys (his wife) and a ton of other Hip Hop artists did the Megaupload video.

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

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

Said video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCkI5I8vsBg

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.

I think it's liklier that Kim Dotcom runs the whole thing and Swizzy is just a face.

Can you substantiate this?

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.

> 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.

That same sentiment describes tons of great hip hop beats. The tricky part is picking the correct samples. Here's an example of a simple sample of one song being used to create a classic beat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY8EIoMelFc

For reference, I was talking about the Dr. Carter song as some people below mentioned.

I get sampling, and there is no doubt that Swizz (or the people he works with) has a great ear for samples. I still think there is a big difference between the effort put in the Dr. Carter beat and the Dead Presidents beat--he didn't even layer drums on top, just chopped the original song. The Dr. Carter beat works perfectly, so I'm not hating!

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. ;-)

I agree about Dr. Carter. It's by far the best song on that album. It's got such a great feel to it.

Hard to go wrong sampling David Axelrod...

> Also, it seems like his tracks are extremely simple (though, they still somehow are fairly good).

This is very difficult. It's just as difficult as making a powerful API that's still extremely simple.

isn't swizz beats also an ambassador for lotus cars?

he probably just turns the music off while he codes, honestly most web sites can be done pretty quick if you concentrate. /⸮

I guess my sarcasm sign didn't come across.

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.

Have a look at the about us page, Kaseem Dean aka Swizz Beatz is listed as CEO.

http://www.megaupload.com/?c=about

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

That's the last place I was expecting to find a quote from Alan Kay.

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.

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.

Very good point. All that I have ever heard of him was regarding his crimes, but I may well be prejudging. The "Mega" suite of websites is a great feat, as is their market size. You have to be pretty savvy to accomplish that, at least.

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

Why? How would you know?

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

This article at the NZ herald is a good source:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&obj...

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 :)

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

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.

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

Awesome. Now this is biz-dev:

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

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