Available as Hardback, eBook
Hip-Hop is rewriting the rules of business; The Hip-Hop MBA takes you on a guided tour of just how and what we can all learn from it, by banker-turned-writer Nels Abbey
What does the founding of the Sugarhill Gang teach us about business development? What can we learn about management and leadership from Jay-Z’s decades-long dominance? What does Ice Cube’s refusal to accept $75,000 to remain a member of NWA tell us about risk management? What can we learn about market dominance from the Death Row and Bad Boy Records beef? What does the rise and fall of MC Hammer (and the near fall of Rihanna) reveal about the psychology of money management? Does Lil Nas X have anything to teach us about corporate diversity?
In The Hip-Hop MBA, banker–turned–writer Nels Abbey offers an alternative and entertaining look at business and economics through the rise and triumph of Hip-Hop. This is the story of how rap industrialists – like Jay-Z, Suge Knight, Sylvia Robinson, Puff Daddy, 50 Cent and Bryan ‘Birdman’ Williams – took chronic economic pain and turned it into champagne. With a business acumen often acquired in the streets, these moguls created and sustained a multi-billion-dollar industry – leaving Greek mythology-worthy stories of success and failure, betrayal and revenge in their wakes.
The world of business hasn’t taken Hip-Hop moguls or their methods anywhere near seriously enough – until now. The Hip-Hop MBA is taking you back to school.
“I’m floored by the insights, energy, criticality and illumination. I cannot stress enough how much you need to read this book if you have ANY interest in the shape and structures of our world. Absolutely brilliant”
Jeffrey Boakye
See more reviews
”Praise for Nels Abbey: Cutting!! This book rewarded me with dark, dry chuckles on every page. I had to laugh, because if I didn’t, I would cry”
Reni Eddo-lodge
“I really can’t think of any comedian, satirist or journalist (with a sense of humour) that has made me laugh out so loud and be so stimulated intellectually at the same time. No messing people, Nels Abbey has written the most original book ever … It takes hold of your cerebral cortex then grabs your funny bone, and it doesn’t let go until the very end. Honestly. Even the appendices shine with brilliance. What kind of book is this? I don’t know. Just read it and see how difficult it is to put the label on the work of a true mastermind”
Benjamin Zephaniah
“Nels Abbey has created a work of the blackest humour (pun intended) and it is unrepentantly rewarding … Wicked in every sense of the word”
Jeffrey Boakye
observer
”The Hip-Hop MBA by Nels Abbey is innovative, funny, super informative and extremely inspiring. Go buy it!”
Alessandro Babalola
Nels Abbey
Nels Abbey is a British-Nigerian (Itsekiri) writer, broadcaster, media executive and satirist based in London. Prior to moving into media, he worked in financial services principally for the US investment mammoth BlackRock. Nels is the founder of Uppity: The Intellectual Playground.
This is his second book.
@nelsabbey