A source says it was ‘amicable.’ But a music industry insider said it was not Meneilly’s choice.
- ELSA/GETTY IMAGES
On to the next one.
Jay Z and Solange Knowles may have (publicly at least) squashed whatever beef led to their now-infamous elevator brawl, but Hova and his longtime business manager are over.
Music industry insiders exclusively tell Confidenti@l that Jay Z has cut ties with John Meneilly, who helped build the “Empire State” rapper’s empire.
According to one well-placed music industry insider, Meneilly didn’t want to go: “It wasn’t his choice.”
A second source close to the split, however, described it as “amicable and mutual” and says the agreement was made “a couple months ago.”
Mutiple calls to Meneilly went unanswered.
Music industry insiders tell Confidenti@l that news of Meneilly’s departure started making the rounds shortly before Memorial Day weekend.
For more than a decade Meneilly sat at the center of Jay Z’s notoriously tight inner circle. The former Provident Financial executive is largely credited with navigating the rise of the Rocawear clothing line, which Jay Z sold off for $200 million in 2007 while maintaining marketing and licensing rights. Meneilly is also credited as one of the architects behind Jay Z’s huge deal with Samsung last year, which instantly moved a million copies of the rapper’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” Meneilly was also a chief player at Roc Nation, which has grown from a record label to a talent management group that reps Yankee CC Sabathia and former Bronx BomberRobinson Cano.
While Jay Z has always been reluctant to call Meneilly his “manager,” he referred to his once trusted confidant as his “consigliere,” according to Forbes writer Zack O’Malley Greenburg, who literally wrote the book on the Brooklyn music mogul.
When meeting with Meneilly to begin work on 2011’s “Empire State of Mind,” a book on Jay Z’s business philosophy, Greenburg recalls a down-to-business man who set the tone for the negotiation by immediately asking, “What’s in it for us?”
The “99 Problems” rapper is having a rough couple of weeks for sure. In addition to a surveillance video that went public of his sister-in-law pummeling him after the Met Ball gala in mid-May, photos of Jay and Bey sufaced in the Hamptons last weekend while his “Watch the Throne” collaborator Kanye West was marrying Kim Kardashian in Europe. Jay Z is also being sued for $7 million by an artist who says the rapper ripped off his Roc-A-Fella records logo design in 1995. Jay Z’s legal team is trying to postpone that case while Mr. and Mrs. Carter are on tour this summer.