Relaxing in his 10,000-square-foot Tuscan-style mansion just north of Malibu, 42-year-old Yo Gotti, founder and CEO of Memphis-based Collective Music Group (CMG), is relaxing. “Some things validate hard work,” Gotti says, looking out at his infinity pool with striking perspectives of Los Angeles sunsets. “He’s one of them. “
Gotti has been doing this work for decades, having emerged from the Memphis rap scene in the late 1990s and breaking ground with his 2016 album, The Art of the Hustle, which peaked at number four on Billboard’s two-hundred-album chart and featured the single “Down in the DM,” which was heard in classified ads on the sports betting site FanDuel.
Along the way, in 2012, Gotti started his own music label, Cocaine Muzik Group, which largely includes Tennessee-based hip-hop artists, plus Blac Youngsta and Moneybagg Yo. A few years later, Gotti met Curtis “50 Cent”. Jackson, who begged him to remove the “cocaine” from CMG’s call and remove the label with something more corporate. “If you know 50,” Gotti says, “he’ll give you data if he likes you. “
His rise in music worldwide is long and Gotti celebrates it with the symbols of success. It has an impressive collection of watches that it says is worth around $10 million and includes watches from Patek Philippe, Rolex, and Vacheron Constantin. He also owns a fleet of luxury cars, adding a Hummer armored truck, a lime-green 2023 Rolls-Royce Cullinan and a Tesla Model S, a gift from his girlfriend, Angela Simmons, daughter of rap legend Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons of Run-DMC.
In addition to leading CMG, Gotti owns a minority stake in the MLS D. C. team. United and owns the Prive restaurant in Memphis. In total, Forbes estimates Gotti is worth about $100 million, but he still has a lot of work to do. “If I haven’t written any other rap, I’m financially healthy,” he says. “My whole career, I’m preparing for this. “
It’s not that I don’t need more. Inspired by one of his mentors, billionaire hip-hop mogul Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Gotti began studying business categories at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management in December, with a business valuation. “I might need to buy a company or win another,” says Gotti, who never finished his studies. “That’s why I make sure I’m very rigorous and understand the language and the verbiage, as well as listen” to monetary experts.
“His business acumen is evident in each and every move he makes,” Jay-Z told Forbes, “breaking the mold of an executive’s old-guard definition. “
Valuations are a priority for Gotti because of the astronomical costs that investment teams are paying these days for music catalogs. Bob Dylan, for example, sold his catalog for $400 million in 2020, according to PitchBook; the following year, Bruce Springsteen sold his for $550 million. Younger artists also benefit. Last year, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber sold the rights to their music for more than $200 million.
Would he be offering appeal to Gotti? It’s not that simple,” he says. “I’m beyond transactional thinking. I think of genuine generational wealth. How are we going to have that cash forever, like [Walton’s] Walmart? »
Born Mario Mims, Yo Gotti grew up in Frayser, Tennessee (also known as North Memphis), with three children. His mother and three aunts sold drugs to pay the bills, and his father was in prison growing up. and lucrative street lifestyle was appealing. Geraldine Mims remembers giving young Mario the most productive things in life: buying food at Neiman Marcus and traveling to Las Vegas to watch championship boxing matches. “They gave me the price of having beautiful things because they had them,” Gotti says of her mother and aunts. But he also witnessed the disadvantages of living outside the law.
Rake It Up: “I go beyond transactions,” says Yo Gotti, “I mean true generational wealth. “
“Everything disappears, all the money,” he says.
His mother went from making money every night and driving a new Mercedes to making $5. 25 an hour, racing in a grocery store and driving a Chevrolet Cavalier. Even so, “I refused to go back to the street,” he recalls. Today, she is the chef at Gotti’s restaurant, but life on the streets has recently taken a toll on the family: In January, Gotti’s older brother, Anthony Mims, was shot and killed in Memphis.
Generation Next: “I hope that what I’m doing shows them that there’s a better way. “
And even if Memphis is still on his mind, for now, he’s in another world. Sitting in the back of a Malibu restaurant he frequents frequently, Gotti has his phone face down and his social media on pause. Drenched in the breathtaking prospects and euphonious sounds of the Pacific Ocean, he nevertheless relaxes. He reflects on where he’s been and where he’s headed next, with a specific focus on how to teach CMG’s young artists, adding GloRilla and EST Gee, what he learns over 20 years in the music business. ” If you retrieve information, you transmit it,” he says.
When asked what he would bring to the youth of Memphis to help them in the tragedies of drug trafficking and gun violence, Gotti is clear: “I hope that what I’m doing today shows them that there is a better way. “
And what major will he seek for himself? How will he earn his next $100 million?
“It’s in progress,” says Gotti. Many other people have no patience: they need everything tomorrow. That’s why they can’t execute a genuine plan. Armed with his education and clever mentorship, when that liberation comes, Yo Gotti will be ready. “We know,” he says, “we’re getting to the top. “