Kareem "Biggs" Burke (born January 19, 1974) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and producer. He is best known as the co-founder of

Roc-A-Fella Records Roc-A-Fella Records was an American record label and music management company founded in 1994 by record executives and entrepreneurs Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, Damon Dash, and Kareem "Biggs" Burke. Carter issued his debut album, '' Reasonable Doubt ...

along with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Damon "Dame" Dash.

Early life

Kareem Burke was born in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

, New York City, on January 19, 1974. Burke has several siblings, C. Burke, Brian L Burke, Robert "Bobalob" Burke, Kyambo R. "Hip-Hop" Joshua, Jamil "Mal" Clay and a sister. In 2003, his brother Robert E. Burke III was murdered in the Bronx.

Career

In 1995, Burke co-founded the record label

with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Damon "Dame" Dash. In 2004, Roc-A-Fella Records was purchased by

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

(which had previously only owned half of the company). In 2017, Burke hired Julia Lang to work as his image consultant for two years. In 2018, Burke executive produced the film, '' O.G.'' which premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

on February 23, 2019. In February 2019, it was announced that Burke had signed

Saint Jhn Carlos St. John Phillips (born August 26, 1986), known professionally as Saint Jhn (stylized as SAINt JHN; pronounced "Saint John"), is a Guyanese-American rapper and singer. He is best known for the 2019 remix to his 2016 song " Roses". The r ...

to his management company, Circle of Success. Burke has spoken about how meeting Saint Jhn pushed his management vision further, as he heard Saint Jhn's music at a listening party. According to Burke, "The night oc Nation co-founder Tyran Smith played a preview of Saint Jhn's new album, I drove home listening to ''Collection One'' and had an immediate sonic connection to his music." Shortly after, Burke became Saint Jhn's manager.

''It's a Hard Truth, Ain't It''

In August 2020, Biggs took to social media to announce an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

nomination for "It's a Hard Truth, Ain't It". Kareem Burke co-directed and executive produced the project and it premiered at the 2018

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

alongside '' O.G.'', another film that was produced at Indiana's Pendleton Correctional Facility during the same period. "It's a Hard Truth..." documents thirteen incarcerated men as they study filmmaking while exploring a therapeutic process of how they landed in prison with lengthy sentences. The men all received directors credit for the film along with O.G. director Madeleine Sackler. Several of those thirteen men were also cast as first-time actors in O.G., having the opportunity to work with Tony, Golden Globe, and Emmy winning actor, Jeffrey Wright. "It's a Hard Truth Ain't It" is the first widely released documentary to be directed by men still incarcerated in a maximum security prison.

Legal issues

On June 4, 2012, Burke was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute more than 100 kilos of

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

. In addition to the prison time, Burke had to forfeit $15,000 in cash, his $660,000 house in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, and his

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

car. In November 2015, Burke was released from prison.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Kareem 1974 births Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople African-American record producers American businesspeople in fashion American hip-hop record producers American music industry executives American music managers Businesspeople from New York City People from Harlem Record producers from New York (state) 20th-century African-American businesspeople 21st-century African-American businesspeople