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My First MillionThe Story Of Death Row Records Co-Founder Harry-O (#421)
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At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Harry-O on Building Businesses, Prison, and Founding Death Row Records
- Harris says he learned business early at a neighborhood shoeshine parlor and by watching his mother run her restaurant, and went on to own a 30-car limo service, construction, production, music and salon businesses, and real estate by his mid-20s.
- He describes producing the play Checkmate with major actors and getting it to Broadway just as he was arrested, later receiving a 25-to-life sentence plus a 20-year federal sentence.
- Harris acknowledges selling cocaine, says he is not proud of it, and explains that he came to see the damage it did to his own community.
- He says Death Row grew out of Godfather Entertainment, formed with Suge Knight and attorney David Kenner while he was in prison, and describes how Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg's sound made the label a game changer.
- Harris says Death Row has returned under Snoop Dogg, with himself as CEO, and credits his calm demeanor to a conversation with God and a belief that each person is a miracle.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasEarly jobs taught business fundamentals
Harris says shining shoes taught him competition, how to read people, and not to judge a book by its cover, while watching his mother's rise from employee to restaurant owner showed him effective management.
He enters ventures as a managing partner who learns the business
Harris says he would come in on the management side and ask partners to teach him everything they knew, then combine that knowledge with his own management skills.
Chasing quick money carried a heavy cost
Harris says that what made him rich also made him poor in spirit, and he believes impatience pushes people into choices that cost them a lifetime of misery.
Death Row came from a rift and a connection
Harris says Dr. Dre's value was overlooked at Ruthless, which opened the door for Suge Knight, who managed Dre and D.O.C., and led to Godfather Entertainment and then Death Row.
The label's impact went beyond the drama
Harris argues that Death Row had a small but effective roster, helped Universal's distribution through its Interscope relationship, and that the narrative has focused too narrowly on negative aspects.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI was always like a sponge at a young age.
— Michael "Harry-O" Harris
what was making me, uh, rich was also making me poor in spirit and in, uh, culture. You know, I was helping to destroy my own community.
— Michael "Harry-O" Harris
you don't realize that the patience that, that you need, that you can exercise, that you should exercise, could save you a lifetime of misery.
— Michael "Harry-O" Harris
I didn't want my sentence, uh, to be the end of me.
— Michael "Harry-O" Harris
you gotta say what you mean and mean what you say. It could, it could turn out real ugly, you know, if you, you know, if you, uh, don't understand your surroundings
— Michael "Harry-O" Harris
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
