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Top 10 Interesting Facts about Lyor Cohen

Lyor Cohen is an American record executive and entrepreneur. He is actively involved in hip-hop at various record labels for more than 30 years.

Lyor Cohen was born on October 3rd of 1959 in New York City. His parents were immigrants from Israel.

Cohen grew up in a small village in the Los Feliz Eastside neighborhood in Los Angeles.

As a young teenager, he used to be taken by his brother to the neighborhood basketball games every weekend.

This is where he first learned about hip hop style of music, he always credits his brother for the exposure.

Here are the top interesting facts about Lyor Cohen.

1. Lyor Cohen had Difficulties Learning English

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As a young schoolboy, Cohen had difficulties learning English, since he came from a Jewish-speaking family.

Although Cohen was born in the United States of America he spent his early childhood in Israel with his parents.

His first language as a kid was Hebrew, a language that is widely spoken in Israel, where he spent his early years.

He was still a young boy when the family returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, California.

Switching from Hebrew to English gave him a lot of difficulties in his first years in school.

2. Lyor Cohen tried Shrimp Farming

Cohen attended the University of Miami in Florida, where he graduated in global marketing and finance.

After graduation, Cohen spent time with some of his former schoolmates who were immigrants to the United States from Ecuador.

Together with his friends, Cohen traveled to Ecuador, with the hopes of starting a shrimp farming business.

Shrimp farming had begun in the 1970s, and production grew steeply, particularly to match the market demands of the United States, Japan, and Western Europe. 

After spending several weeks in Ecuador, Cohen realized the shrimp farming venture was not working for him, and he decided to go back to America.

3. Lyor Cohen  Worked in a Bank

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After graduating from college, Cohen started working for bank Leumi, an Israel bank in the Beverly Hills’ office as a financial analyst.

Cohen didn’t like the terms and conditions of working in the bank, which he later termed as boring and miserable.

Leumi bank is the largest bank in Israel, with overseas offices in Luxembourg, US, Switzerland, the UK, Mexico, Uruguay, Romania, Jersey, and China

It was founded on February 27, 1902, in Jaffa as the Anglo Palestine Company a subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust Limited.

4. Lyor Cohen Borrowed his Business Starting Capital from his Mother

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After Cohen attended a hip-hop rap show staged near his neighborhood, he was so thrilled that he decided to enter into the hip-hop business.

Hip hop world seems more genuine and authentic than any other thing he had done before, though hip-hop was dominated by African Americans he decided to give it a shot.

Without money to fulfill his ambition, Cohen turned to his mother for assistance with starting capital.

He borrowed $700 from his mother to enable him to organize his first hip-hop rap show, which featured popular rap bands like red-hot chili peppers from the East coast.

His first show was a success and he made over $36000 in a single night. He ended up losing all his money in the second show he organized.

5. Lyor Cohen Was President of Def  Jam  Records

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Cohen began transitioning from artist management to the label side of the music business in 1989 when he and Simmons formed Rush Associated Labels.

The goal was to capitalize on the ability of established recording artists to sniff out new talent by signing boutique label deals with them.

In 1985, Simmons and Rick Rubin launched the DEF-JAM label which later split after three years. Cohen became the president of the DEF-JAM music label.

In 1994, Cohen and Simmons sold half of dem-jam to polygram at $33 million. Seagram bought the all the rest of DEF-JAM shares in 1999

6. Lyor Cohen is Divorce Twice

Lyor Cohen first married E.K. Smith, a fashion model who he met during the filming of the Beastie Boys video. The couple divorced in 1988.

In 1990, two years after his first marriage, Cohen married the army. The couple ended their marriage after 16 years.

In 2016, the music industry mogul tied the knot with Xin Li, who’s a former Chinese basketball player and presently the deputy chairman of Christie’s Asia.

The wedding was held at his bayside house at sag harbor New York, it was attended by high-profile guests from the music industry.

7. Lyor Cohen is Passionate about Signing New Talents

In his music career, which has been full of ups and downs, Cohen has always been interested in breaking out new artists.

Cohen is one of the most powerful players in the traditional music business but believes in bringing new diversity to the distribution model.

He is more drawn to the idea of bringing new opportunities to artists and believes in subscription models used by Apple Music and Spotify are a good start.

For him, YouTube, which benefits from Google and its algorithm, is the future.

8. Lyor Cohen was Hospitalized In 2016

Cohen was hospitalized in 2016 after suffering from pulmonary embolism, a blockage of blood vessels in the lungs.

He was rushed to hospital by his son AZ and his very close friend Norm,

Cohen was later discharged, after spending several days in the hospital.

He later credited Az, his son from his second marriage, and a close friend, for saving his life that day.

9. Lyor Cohen is worth $150 MILLION

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Cohen started his career in the banking sector, but he has made his fortune in the music industry.

He is one of the biggest drivers in the music industry and a notable figure in the world of hip-hop music.

Since he joined youtube global, Cohen has completely transformed the platform’s

relationship with artists.

Lyor Cohen is worth $150 million in 2022.

10. Lyor Cohen  Founded 300 Entertainment label

In the year 2012, Lyor Cohen together with Rogers Gold, Kevin Liles, and Tedd Moscowitz founded 300 entertainment record labels.

Entertainment labels engage in a wide range of functions in the music industry, including new artist recruitment and development.

In September 2016, Lyor Cohen announced his exit from 300. Following this announcement, Kevin Liles assumed the role of CEO.

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