Zack O'Malley Greenburg's Blog, page 13

A Black Friday Signed Book Special

As we all (hopefully) pause for a moment of holiday repose, I’m skipping this week’s regularly scheduled installment of We Are All Musicians Now. But I can’t stop thinking about my latest chapter on the superfan economy, and how it relates to my own experience as a newly-independent writer.

While it’s tempting to sit back and dip into a tryptophan slumber for the next couple of days, I’ve been wondering: what would Amanda Palmer or Taylor Hanson do at a similar juncture in their respective career...

The Last Schmooze

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The first and last time I tried calling in to New York sports talk radio station WFAN, I was about nine years old. I had a question about baseball player Jeff Kent’s contract status—but when I dialed the station, I was informed I’d reached a taxi company, and promptly hung up. 

I’ll never know if the person on the other end was a befuddled livery dispatcher or a prankster radio host. But I decided if I ever called again, I’d d...

Why Amanda Palmer Hates The Word 'Superfan' [WAAMN Chapter 3.3]

This is the weekly installment of my new book,  We Are All Musicians Now . To make sure you don’t miss future serializations, subscribe here. Below you’ll find Chapter 3: Rise of the Superfan (Part 3). Enjoy!

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Amanda Palmer didn’t invent the word “superfan”, but she might as well have: after getting her start as half of punk-cabaret duo the Dresden Dolls, she started a crowdfunding campaign before Kickstarter even existed. Eventually she raised...

For Nipsey Hussle, A Royal Sendoff in Los Angeles

Nipsey Hussle’s final procession departs Staples Center. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images)

Under a bright sky and wispy clouds, a pair of middle-aged men rolled past the Staples Center in a silver Chevrolet convertible of a similar vintage, bumping Nipsey Hussle’s Victory Lap. Street vendors hawked shirts emblazoned with the face of the man born Ermias Asghedom as news helicopters whirred overhead. And tens of thousands flocked to the arena to mourn the death–and celebrate the life–o...

Freeing 21 Savage: Inside The Effort That Got A Rapper Released From ICE Detention

21 Savage performs at the Voodoo Music Experience in City Park on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP) photocredit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP

It was nine o’clock in the morning on Super Bowl Sunday when brand strategist Tammy Brook got the call: Her client, She’yaa “21 Savage” Bin Abraham-Joseph, had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As it turned out, the Atlanta-based hip-hop star was actually a U.K. citizen who’d come to the U.S. as a min...

Usher And Jay-Z Take A Bite Out Of Hungry’s $8 Million Series A

Usher—photographed with his mother, Jonetta Patton, and Hungry cofounder Eman Pahlevani—has joined Jay-Z and Tom Colicchio as an investor in Hungry as part of a new $8 million funding round.

When Jonetta Patton opened J’s Kitchen Culinary Incubator, a place for Atlanta chefs to hone their craft and share resources, the hardest ingredient to find was customers. So when she got a call from Nina Mahmoudpour, director of operations at Hungry—a startup connecting chefs with companies looking for c...

Inside Big Sean’s Plan To Jump-Start Entrepreneurship In Detroit

Big Sean, Big Bank: The Detroit-born hip-hop star (center) has teamed up with Ally Financial to bring dozens of young entrepreneurs to his hometown.

Growing up in Detroit, Big Sean learned how to make mixtapes as a teenager and released his first platinum album at age 23. But lessons on how to handle the fruits of his labor came later.

“Financial literacy isn’t really taught so much in school as it should be,” he explains. “That’s something that I missed out on, and later on in life was one o...

For Nipsey Hussle, A Promising Career — And Grand Plans — Cut Short

Nipsey Hussle in Los Angeles on Grammy weekend. (credit: Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images)

Two days before this year’s Grammy Awards, the late Nipsey Hussle took me on a tour of the small strip mall on West Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles where he earned his name as a youngster. He’d opened his Marathon clothing store there before making perhaps the proudest purchase of his life—the plaza itself—in February.

Nipsey and his business partner David Gross had a grand plan to turn the property into a mi...

What ‘Leaving Neverland’ Means For Michael Jackson’s Business Empire

Wave Of Uncertainty: The legacy of Michael Jackson, photographed in 2005, is at a crossroads. But a commercial reckoning could prove more elusive than some may think. (Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage)

Michael Jackson is, once again, at the center of a very public reckoning. This week, HBO’s Leaving Neverland resurfaced graphic sex abuse accusations, leveled on screen by Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege the singer molested them repeatedly as boys. The film prompted renewed debate ov...

Inside Marshmello’s $60 Million Las Vegas Megadeal

Marshmello’s earnings are about to get jet-puffed with a residency deal worth $60 million over two years. (Photo by John Parra/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Traditionally, dessert is the last part of a delicious meal. For the freshly renovated Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, it’s the starter: Marshmello will open the hotel’s new Kaos Dayclub and Nightclub with a performance on April 4.

The gig will be just the first taste of an expansive residency pact worth $60 million over two years, acco...