Source: Sarah / Sarah
Andre Harrell worked at both Def Jam Records and Uptown Records. Here he tells the story of hiring Lyor Cohen:
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Lyor [Cohen] came up for the Summer when he was a kid. He was 21 years old and the promoter for a Run D.M.C concert. He loved it so much that he asked his mom if he could come to New York (from L.A.) and if he got an internship and got this job then he didn’t have to go to grad school (he was gonna go to become a psychiatrist.) So Lyor had 6 weeks to change his career so he worked for us for free all summer. Lyor slept in the office sometimes. He sat across from me so I would hear him on the phone and the way I would hear him talking about hip hop I said “we could use him, as a matter of fact, he might end up being big in hip hop.” So when it was time for him to leave, Russell [Simmons] felt like we didn’t have any extra money to pay him so I split my salary with Lyor so he could stay
He talked about what he saw in Diddy, how Jodeci got signed and the inspiration behind the 90’s FOX TV show New York Undercover. Philly’s own James Mtume was involved in New York Undercover
