Recording Lyrics to Change the World

When Amaechi Uzoigwe moved to New York, he had ambitions to work as a journalist or make films. He never expected to found one of hiphop’s most successful independent labels, Definitive Jux, known simply as Def Jux.The label, launched in 1999 by Mr. Uzoigwe and his partner, rap guru El-P (born Jaime Meline), signs artists with a raw sound and a social conscience. Although most of Def Jux’s musicians are black, their music has been described as nerd rap and white boy hip-hop “because it’s intelligent,” Uzoigwe said. The acts – progressive artists with names like RJD2, Mr. Lif, Cannibal Ox, and Aesop Rock – caught on, often selling 60,000 copies of their albums, a feat for indie performers.Mr. Uzoigwe considered it positive recognition when heavyweight rap label Def Jam sued Def Jux over the name similarity.“Just the fact that they’re checking for us means we’re on the map,” Mr. Uzoigwe, 36, said, adding that the suit was settled out of court.Now, Mr. Uzoigwe has a new plan to propel indie musicians further – helping them with their finances, an area many artists avoid, much to their detriment. The idea had been in the works for more than a year, but was cemented last month with the official founding of the financial management company World’s Fair, formed by Mr. Uzoigwe, Flaming Lips manager Scott Booker, and Kevin Wortiz, manager of folk singer Devendra Banhart.“In this business, there’re a lot of creative people, but…they have no understanding of cash flow,” said Mr. Uzoigwe, who admits he gained his business skills by making numerous mistakes. “We make sure they make money.”Mr. Uzoigwe also wants to make sure independent artist, who aren’t backed by multimillion dollar marketing budgets, get exposure. In a huge step towards this goal, Mr. Uzoigwe is helping organize this year’s Plug Independent Music Awards, the indie labels’ answer to the Grammys, which takes place in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival.“You can wait the rest of your life to be recognized by the mainstream,” he added.Mr. Uzoigwe himself never fit squarely into any mainstream group. Born in London to a Nigerian father and an Irish mother, Mr. Uzoigwe’s fair complexion stood out in Africa, and he was the only black kid in his school in Ireland. His family moved often, following his Oxford-educated father’s professorial career, and the family lived in a number of European and African countries before settling in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Uzoigwe developed his affinity for New York when his father – while working for UNESCO – brought him here on business trips.“It was the electricity of the city and anonymity of the city,” Mr. Uzoigwe said in his nondescript Midwestern accent. “Here you can walk down the street and feel alone and surrounded at the same time in a very cool way.”He moved to New York the day after he graduated with degrees in philosophy and English literature from the University of Michigan, where he also played football for a year. He rented an apartment with a college friend, actress Lucy Liu, of “Charlie’s Angels” fame, who got him a job at the wings joint, Pluck U. Eight months later, he was broke, miserable, and heading back to his parents’ house in Ann Arbor.He took a year off, then returned to New York. And this time, he was determined to stay. Instead of riding high on New York’s expensive nightlife, Mr. Uzoigwe buckled down as a production assistant in the film industry.With friends, he formed his own production company, Ozone, and began making music videos as a way to jump-start his film career.Mr. Uzoigwe inadvertently became tangled in the music web when a hip-hop group he was shooting for a video asked him to review their new record label contract. He sorted through the legalities and the group asked Mr. Uzoigwe to act as their liaison with the label owner, then 18-year-old El-P.The two met and immediately hit it off. El-P and his group, Company Flow – considered one of the most influential underground hip hop groups of the late 1990s – began recording albums at Ozone, and Mr. Uzoigwe became their manager. El-P ultimately moved to a larger label, Rawkus Records, but grew disgruntled, broke his contract, and founded Def Jux with Mr. Uzoigwe – the same year the first of Mr. Uzoigwe’s two daughters was born.After seeing how little the music industry paid its artists, Mr. Uzoigwe and El-P made it a priority to treat their artists with respect, giving them creative freedom as well as a generous paycheck. All Def Jux artists reap 50% of all record royalties, while the label covers the overhead.“If it was just about making money we all would have gone to law school or business school,” he said.

Recording Lyrics to Change the World

Recording Lyrics to Change the World

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