Valuetainment - June 23, 2025


＂Suge Knight Never Bought My Catalog＂ - Scott Storch SHUTS DOWN $419K RUMOR With SHOCKING Truth


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

179.69827

Word Count

1,608

Sentence Count

168

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

On this episode of the podcast, we sit down with music producer, songwriter, entrepreneur, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Jermaine Dupri. We talk about how he went from a $10,000 a night hotel room to making $100 million in a single album, how he built a multi-million dollar empire, and why he thinks Shug Knight is a scammer.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What's the business model?
00:00:01.220 When you say you went through $100 million,
00:00:03.240 that means you had to make a couple hundred million dollars.
00:00:06.880 What is the business model in being a producer?
00:00:10.400 Because you said when he first went to Drake,
00:00:11.680 he gave you $10,000 hotel room, things like that, right?
00:00:14.720 The publishing, the revenue streams that come from that,
00:00:17.640 there's so many.
00:00:18.400 There's songwriter share, neighboring rights, publishing.
00:00:22.620 Can you give an example?
00:00:23.600 What song that you wrote, that you produced,
00:00:28.280 what one song gave you the most income?
00:00:32.580 These are all huge.
00:00:34.500 I made some of the biggest records.
00:00:35.920 Give me one of them.
00:00:36.540 Like you said, off this one song, off this album,
00:00:38.820 I made $6.8 million.
00:00:41.380 I made the most money when I went to Florida in the mid-2000s
00:00:46.420 because I was doing, it wasn't like I was splitting
00:00:49.260 and making the records with a bunch of people.
00:00:51.680 I was doing them by myself, all of them.
00:00:55.380 All of them.
00:00:56.000 Beyonce's records, huge.
00:00:59.820 Mario, Let Me Love You, Lean Back, Make It Rain.
00:01:03.580 What does a Mario Let Me Love You make you?
00:01:05.640 Millions.
00:01:06.700 Millions?
00:01:07.180 Yeah, still.
00:01:08.500 Till today you're getting residuals.
00:01:10.340 Yeah, there's income streams, like I said,
00:01:12.760 for a publisher, for somebody like Blackstone
00:01:15.440 who's trying to buy a catalog,
00:01:17.980 they're going to pay at most for like these new catalogs
00:01:23.480 because they go, after a while they go, spike and that's it.
00:01:27.280 10X, 12X.
00:01:28.900 10X whatever renewals is.
00:01:30.340 My catalog?
00:01:32.600 25, 30X because they know they ain't going to get it
00:01:36.360 because like Trae just sold his catalog for 200 million
00:01:40.340 to Warner.
00:01:42.760 Or Universal, excuse me.
00:01:43.960 And I remember him telling me like,
00:01:49.200 that's it.
00:01:49.780 Why?
00:01:50.300 Because I told him something about my catalog
00:01:52.120 and he's like, yo, you should sell it, this, that, the other.
00:01:56.060 I said, why?
00:01:57.060 I thought you're supposed to give it
00:01:58.080 so you have generational wealth.
00:01:59.420 He's like, fuck that.
00:02:01.100 I'm like, he's like, I'm, you know, this age and this and that.
00:02:05.200 And like, my kids aren't going to know how to do anything
00:02:08.540 with this catalog and like, you know, really market it.
00:02:11.540 And like, he's like, and I asked my lawyer,
00:02:14.160 how old will I be to get 200 million out of this catalog?
00:02:18.480 And he said, I think he was like 130 years old.
00:02:21.760 And he's like, fuck that.
00:02:22.680 I'm going to use this money while I'm on earth
00:02:24.420 and turn it in, buy real estate, do something great with it.
00:02:28.480 He was concerned that if I sell a catalog like that,
00:02:31.560 I'm going to blow it.
00:02:32.540 He's like, are you going to blow it?
00:02:33.520 Because that's it, like, so.
00:02:36.880 He said, if you're not going to blow it, invest it, sell it.
00:02:40.980 He's showing here that Jordan's catalog
00:02:42.940 was making 10 million a year annually
00:02:44.640 and they bought it for $250.
00:02:45.880 So if that's the case, they paid 25 X for it?
00:02:50.500 My point exactly.
00:02:52.100 Wow.
00:02:53.200 What's the story about the fact that
00:02:55.200 Shug bought one of your catalogs for $419,000
00:03:01.580 and some change?
00:03:02.600 What is that story?
00:03:03.500 I think I read that somewhere.
00:03:04.620 No, that's not true.
00:03:05.340 I don't believe any of that shit.
00:03:06.520 Do you know which one I'm talking about?
00:03:07.460 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:03:08.080 It was not him.
00:03:09.040 He was involved in not that catalog,
00:03:13.360 not that big catalog or anything,
00:03:14.900 but, like, it was a...
00:03:15.760 $419,306.20.
00:03:17.820 Mm-hmm.
00:03:18.940 $419,306.20.
00:03:22.240 That's not true.
00:03:23.960 I'm trying to see.
00:03:24.620 Maybe I misread this.
00:03:25.900 No, it was a company called Royalty Advance Company.
00:03:29.720 It wasn't the publishing catalog.
00:03:30.680 In 2000, it's a Scott store struggling
00:03:33.120 for financial intimidation by Shug Knight,
00:03:36.980 signing to a portion of the songwriting royalties
00:03:38.800 into a troubled period, 2012.
00:03:41.540 Yeah, no.
00:03:41.940 Is it royalties insulting?
00:03:42.880 That's not true.
00:03:43.700 No, no, no.
00:03:44.460 Oh, okay.
00:03:45.800 Because I remember when I talked to Vanilla Ice,
00:03:47.760 Vanilla Ice told me when Shug held him over the,
00:03:50.420 you know, balcony,
00:03:51.160 you better sign this or else,
00:03:52.420 and, you know, how much truth is that story?
00:03:55.000 He's like, no, it kind of happened.
00:03:56.700 You know, he took a complete different angle.
00:03:58.900 Mm-hmm.
00:03:59.900 With Shug.
00:04:00.680 Do you doubt that Shug would do that with his reputation?
00:04:03.100 Well, listen, I remember one time,
00:04:04.760 I'm hanging out with Reggie Calloway.
00:04:06.340 I don't know if you know Reggie Calloway.
00:04:08.240 You know...
00:04:08.600 Reggie Calloway.
00:04:09.520 Jay King.
00:04:10.160 Reggie Calloway was, I want to be Richie.
00:04:12.400 He sang Casanova.
00:04:13.400 Oh, yeah, Calloway.
00:04:13.840 Casanova.
00:04:14.460 You know, Reggie Calloway.
00:04:15.420 He sang at my wedding.
00:04:16.340 Casanova was LaVert.
00:04:17.260 Yeah, of course.
00:04:17.640 Yeah, he sang at the wedding.
00:04:19.320 I want to be Richie.
00:04:20.300 But no parking on the dance floor.
00:04:23.100 I think that's it.
00:04:23.980 Anyways, Jay King was with Club Nouveau.
00:04:27.440 Do you remember Club Nouveau?
00:04:28.320 Look at all these rumors.
00:04:29.700 Yeah.
00:04:30.120 Okay.
00:04:30.880 So Jay becomes an insurance agent.
00:04:33.280 They also did the lean on me.
00:04:35.000 Yes, yes, yes.
00:04:36.620 He did another one called Why You Treat Me So Bad.
00:04:38.540 That was my favorite song from those guys.
00:04:40.340 Jay King.
00:04:40.740 Till today I listened to him before.
00:04:41.400 You know your shit, man.
00:04:42.220 Why You Treat Me So Bad.
00:04:43.160 I mean, Jay and I, we spent a lot of time together.
00:04:45.740 So I said, Jay, you got to get into insurance.
00:04:47.940 There's a lot of money.
00:04:48.680 All right, man.
00:04:49.140 I'll go get my license.
00:04:50.020 He gets his insurance license.
00:04:51.700 Jay, you got to learn how to sell insurance.
00:04:53.580 You got to put me in front of some people.
00:04:55.240 He says, perfect.
00:04:56.060 First person he puts me in front of is Suge Knight.
00:04:59.560 That's crazy.
00:05:00.440 This guy's not going to get a proof of life insurance, Jay.
00:05:03.060 I got to tell you a funny story about the insurance.
00:05:05.400 You want to hear something?
00:05:06.100 He brought you to Suge Knight.
00:05:06.500 He brought Jay King, introduced me to Suge Knight at, I think Jay King, correct me on
00:05:11.160 this.
00:05:11.320 He'll call me.
00:05:11.840 It was at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills or one of the-
00:05:14.840 Burton Way.
00:05:15.580 Yeah.
00:05:15.780 I don't know which one it was.
00:05:16.560 He used to love to hang there.
00:05:17.520 Yeah.
00:05:18.040 That was Suge's spot.
00:05:18.780 What was that interaction like?
00:05:22.340 Listen, I've had a handful of interactions with him, minus when he calls me from prison
00:05:28.460 and he says, yo, just so you know, P, you need to know this.
00:05:32.400 The hood fucks with you.
00:05:33.400 This is what Suge said.
00:05:34.680 That is true.
00:05:35.360 I want to do a podcast with you, man.
00:05:36.800 I'm like, all right, cool.
00:05:37.640 Let's do it.
00:05:37.960 And then we did a nice little-
00:05:38.900 There's a very loving side of him.
00:05:40.880 Very interesting side.
00:05:42.140 I had a Thanksgiving with him one time.
00:05:43.860 It's a complex character in the movie that you can't quite figure out.
00:05:47.120 That's basically him.
00:05:48.520 But you were saying about insurance.
00:05:50.240 I'll tell you some funny shit.
00:05:52.480 And like, when I lived on Palm Island, no, I was living on Las Olas at the time, I hired
00:05:57.180 a caterer last minute.
00:05:58.380 I was like, I need fucking 30 people catering this and that.
00:06:02.240 This guy named Seth Cohen is the caterer who's serving drinks at my thing.
00:06:08.600 And like, I'm on top of the world.
00:06:11.420 Go flash forward to like my fall.
00:06:15.200 They reach out to me.
00:06:16.380 This guy, Seth Cohen, he's like, by the way, I'm rich as fuck now.
00:06:19.480 Like, and I want to hire you to make some music for my, it was Brad Cohen, actually, his brother
00:06:23.160 that wanted me to make music for his wife and his kids or whatever the hell it was and put
00:06:28.200 some money in my pocket.
00:06:29.440 This guy went from being my caterer to being a member of the Alfalfa Club to being like
00:06:35.680 insurance care direct.
00:06:37.400 Is this guy?
00:06:40.080 No.
00:06:40.780 That's the lawyer.
00:06:41.860 Insurance care direct.
00:06:43.080 Type in insurance care direct.
00:06:44.600 Mm-hmm.
00:06:45.680 Go to Images Rap.
00:06:46.800 And Brad and Seth, these guys blew the fuck up from an office that was smaller than half
00:06:57.380 the size of this room, bro.
00:06:58.900 And just sweated that shit out.
00:07:00.700 And now they're buying up all the crown jewels of fucking Fort Lauderdale, the Anheuser-Busch
00:07:06.240 house.
00:07:06.940 There's one by one, they're just buying them all.
00:07:08.840 Good for these guys.
00:07:09.600 Yeah, they fucking crushed them.
00:07:10.960 I mean, look.
00:07:11.360 Now that Seth is like doing AI insurance sales, he's like, was before anybody could even think
00:07:17.480 of it, I think he's got the patent on it.
00:07:18.780 It's a lot of money in insurance.
00:07:19.880 Bro, he's doing, imagine AI insurance, he played me both sides of an AI call of insurance.
00:07:29.420 It was way better than a human.
00:07:31.720 Like, you know, you ask this thing and it's going to answer you the right information, concise,
00:07:37.240 clear, at the right tempo, aesthetically pleasing to the ear.
00:07:41.820 Like, I was like, what the fuck?
00:07:43.780 Yeah.
00:07:44.100 Like, your whole, like, workforce is, like, going to be, like, gone.
00:07:47.140 It's going to change because the call center's gone with AI.
00:07:50.940 By the way, increase your 80%, like.
00:07:54.640 Oh, the game has changed.
00:07:56.080 And insurance, there's a lot of money in it.
00:07:57.680 Hey, what's going on?
00:07:58.440 I'm Scott Storch.
00:07:59.460 And you might have seen me on the PVD podcast.
00:08:01.880 And you might have some questions you want to ask me.
00:08:03.920 I'm available on the Minette app and you can ask me about pretty much anything, music,
00:08:09.920 industry stuff, you know, my life and my history or, you know, anything, technical questions
00:08:15.660 with music, equipment, whatever, production techniques.
00:08:19.600 Check it out, Minette.
00:08:21.140 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:08:24.160 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.
00:08:26.920 Thanks, go for it.