Sol Guy
A modern day renaissance man, Sol’s an Artist, Social Entrepreneur (ethical business), Artist Manager, Film and TV producer. Sol, a native of Canada, started his career as an MC and manager of the legendary Canadian hip hop group Rascalz. He then went on to work for Arista Records in New York City as director of International Artist Development. He began traveling the world, charting and propelling the development of Global Hip Hop gaining inspiration from the countries and cultures he visited.
Over the years Sol worked closely with some of the highest profile artists of our time, such as Lauryn Hill, P Diddy, India Arie, k-os, Rascalz, The Roots, Outkast, Kardinal Offishall, Dead Prez, B.I.G. and The Wu-Tang Clan. In 2000, he travelled to Africa for the first time as part of the award-winning documentary “Musicians in the War Zone”. This trip would serve as a major turning point in his career. He returned and adopted a new focus, “Acknowledging my success and experience in the music industry I began to realize the power I possessed in creating media. I decided that I wanted to create a new hybrid that connects the worlds of entertainment and activism.”
Developing new ideas, he concentrated on two projects, a TV property he was developing called 4REAL and a little- known Somali-born MC named K’NAAN. As host and co-creator of the groundbreaking series 4REAL and its partner website, 4REAL.com, his goal was to utilize the power of media to educate, inspire and empower youth around the globe to take charge, get involved and make change. Over the last eight years, his work with the Somali- born MC, singer/songwriter K’naan has become a global success story. Developing K’NAAN’s career over the last 10 years he has helped build him into a genre-bending Global Brand. Recently, Sol spearheaded a groundbreaking deal that paired K’NAAN and his parent company, Universal Music, with Coca Cola for the company’s massively successful $300 Million, 150 Country World Cup 2010 Campaign. This deal raised the bar and set a new standard by which to measure success as it relates to artist and entertainment branding.
Sol believes the day of “bottom line” profit solely driving business are over; and a new triple bottom line that includes, profit, people and the planet is where it’s at. “We are all artists and we all have a responsibility to do our best to make the world a better place,” Sol says.
In addition to producing and hosting 4REAL, Sol presents to youth at schools, universities and events as a motivational speaker, and still finds time to continue to manage and develop K’NAAN’s career. In 2009, Sol was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for his work with 4REAL. He was also named by Playback Magazine as among “The Next 25: Canada’s Rising Stars and Dealmakers.”
Social Media:
Twitter – @solguy
Instagram - @solguy