Music is only the vehicle that gets Cortez Bryant through the door. The 43-year-old businessman gained his claim to fame as an early executive of Young Money, managing superstar acts like Lil Wayne, Drake and Nicki Minaj. He has also been linked to acts such as Lil Nas X and Latto. Now, Bryant is fully living out his purpose and providing a seat at the table for fellow Black entrepreneurs and creatives. He’s purchased a building across the street from Cam Newton‘s “Fellaship.Atl” lounge and restaurant on Centennial Olympic Drive in Atlanta and turned it into The Culture Lab, where local creatives can come and book sessions to record music or podcasts. He purchased the property knowing the Centennial Yards project was in the works and he wanted to have something to hand off to his son to continue the legacy he’s built.
Bryant also gives back and mentors others through his foundation in addition to teaching a music course at his alma mater at Jackson State.
Recently, Bryant spoke to rolling out about his educating efforts as well as some of the biggest acts attached to his name.
What is one wealth tip you want to give the Black community?
One wealth tip I would give to Black people is understanding the power of credit. That’s something we don’t understand. The value of credit and the value of using other people’s money to make our investments and try to create these dreams we have. That’s something that we’re not usually taught, I definitely was not taught that and I don’t think it’s being taught in school today.
I built an app called assemble.fyi, … where the purpose of the platform is to connect people who have these types of questions and want to know what experts understand. You can literally go on there, either schedule a Zoom with an expert in financial literacy on a lot of different topics … or you could just submit a question.
Exposure is important. With wealth building, one tip that I learned, and I didn’t know and didn’t learn until … after I made money and lost money, was the value of credit because I’d use my own money and didn’t understand the value of credit and how to make that work for me.
Where do you see Drake and Lil Wayne’s legacy within hip-hop?
Right now, they are in the top five, and I don’t see that changing.
I don’t see anyone catching up with Drake, man. I think Drake is an anomaly. I was blessed to work with him and helped build that blueprint of who he is.
Wayne is an innovator. He’s going to go down as one of the most influential artists in the history of music. He built Drake, Nicki Minaj and other people we had over at Young Money.
I think when it’s all said and done, both of them for me will definitely be on the Mount Rushmore of hip-hop.
