Kareem “Biggs” Burke Is Committed to Reinventing The Roc-A-Fella Empire

"Shout out to Hoffa, he back home!"

Not many can say they have built, retooled and restructured continuous success for two decades with their friends by their side. Kareem "Biggs" Burke can.

Softspoken, and quick witted, alongside Jay-Z and Dame Dash, Biggs played a dominant hand in the inception of the now infamous Roc-A-Fella. As a co-founder, he was instrumental in Jay's release of his debut album Reasonable Doubt, he was key in bringing talents like Kanye West, Cam'ron and Freeway to the Roc roster, and before hip-hop stars were cashing out with big tech, Biggs secured some of the most unprecedented distribution deals of the time.

During a 20-year career, Biggs has expanded his enterprise to touch everything from spirits and film to sports and now he has set his sight on expanding the Roc empire deeper into the world of fashion and experiential luxury with Fourth of November, and his newest collaboration with Roc96 and MadeWorn.

Biggs currently runs his new marketing agency Gravity, and while he is a business man, understand that he is also a business, man. Biggs books his own interviews answers his own emails, calls his own shots and manages his business with a firm thumb on the pulse of what is new, what is next and where his niche lays in the land of it all.

Constantly reinventing while staying true to a core theme is a skill Biggs has mastered, doing all things with precision and attention to legacy, detail, and quality.

We had the pleasure of catching up with Biggs for a phone call to talk about everything from Roc96, his thoughts on Jay's already historical release of 4:44, and how he plans to continue to shake up what is expected from black businesses.

Okayplayer: We're gonna talk a lot about the Roc96 line, so why don't you start by giving our readers an overview of what that collection is, and how the idea came to be.

Biggs: Well, it started when we did our first pop-up shops, which was about a year ago, for the 20th anniversary. We were getting so much notoriety, and people kind of clamoring to the idea of finally having Reasonable Doubt merch. When that happened, after the second pop-up shop, which was like hugely successful, after going through some bumps and bruises with the first one, it began to build a little more.

At that point, Tom Bennett, who used to run Bravado, introduced me to Blaine from MadeWorn, and told me that it would be a great partnership if we got together to see what Blaine does on a luxury level. So that's when Roc96 was born, and we decided to do Roc96 MadeWorn and use some of the aesthetics from 20 years of the legacy, and Reasonable Doubt, and Roc-a-Fella, and everything we created. That launch was in Barney's, with a 30 day exclusive, and we had every window of Barney's around the country. Then once that 30 days was up, we launched in Revolve as well.

Okayplayer: What makes the pieces from Roc96, the perception behind them stand apart from what you would do with traditional Jay merch or Rocawear designs? 

Biggs: Roc96 is all hand-made here in LA, in the US. The shirts are washed for 72 hours to give it the distressed look and everything is hand-applied as well. They're hand-sanded, and there were maybe 18,000 patches that a group of about six or seven people put on by hand for the delivery to Barney's. Everything is done by hand, so it's a lot of work.

Okayplayer: Obviously, now you're in a different place in your career than you were when this whole thing started more than two decades ago. You know what they say, sometimes with money comes different difficulties. So what are some of the acute differences that you see now doing a high-end line with a higher price point versus challenges that you encountered when you guys were doing this in the 90s? 'Cause you were pioneers of this hip-hop lifestyle when it comes to clothing.

Biggs: I think before we knew what we were getting into and we knew what the demand was gonna be here it's kind of the reverse. We just tried something and the demand is so strong that we're chasing the demand right now. Roc96 won't be just known for fashion, it's kind of like this incubator, and it's more about innovation and design rather than just saying that it's fashion. We're looking to do some other collabs that are outside the box as well with juice companies, with eyewear, sneakers, everything.

Okayplayer: There is a little bit more elbow grease needed in the game when you have to build something up and get people to believe in you, though right? Versus now when people know the brand of Roc-a-Fella and understand what Jay's brand is and they a little bit more willing to jump on the bandwagon now than they were 20 years ago.

Biggs: Yeah. Well, you know, it's 20 years of the legacy that we built and still being built today, with Jay still breaking records. That is the heritage that kids clamor to. They want to buy into the lifestyle and movement. And that's exactly what we're providing. 

So, I'm really thinking about things long-term right now, and the next thing I'm probably getting back into spirits. A lot of people are calling me right now to do these liquor deals and beer deals right now, so I'm looking to have a portfolio of brands, not just one thing.

Okayplayer: Right. And talking about branding, Roc-A-Fella doesn't exist in its traditional form anymore, but it's one brand that's managed to stay fresh. Everything that you guys do always feel new even if in terms of legacy items. What's your role and your thought process around reinventing, keeping it true to the Roc-A-Fella name, but putting it together so that it still feels relevant?

Biggs: What I found before is it's about giving them an experience and then also making sure that we're attaching ourselves to quality. That was what we were known for before. We talked about a lot of things in these songs, but it's all about quality stuff, and I think that's why people always want to attach themselves to our lifestyle and movement. But what I'm doing now is really more of the same, we not compromising integrity for anything. It's just staying true to exactly who we are. It was built off of Emory, Ty Ty, Bee-High, Jay, Dame, myself and every individual brought something to the table. And for me, it was a lifestyle.

We used to joke, 'Biggs did it first, Jay put it in a verse.'

The platinum jewelry, the Cristal, the Belvedere, the Iceberg, the Hermes, the Range Rover, it's all those things I brought. I've always had a keen eye to see what was next and what was luxury. I'm bringing that on different tiers of distribution, right? So Reasonable Doubt and 4th of November are affordable luxury and Roc96 is more of a luxury item.

Okayplayer: At the core of all of this is Black business. What steps should other Black businesses take towards protecting and preserving their legacy?

Biggs: There has to be a spark and it has to be something that people really want to attach themselves to. With us, it started before Roc-A-Fella, so it was about going around and performing, and showing the lifestyle. By the time we came out with the music, they were like 'wow, they live exactly what they're talking about because I've seen them.' And this was before we had a record out, right? So we really put in all that hard work. You know, that grit, performing in front of 10-15 people, 400 people, 500 people.

You really have to get into each market and build it. It's like building a user base, right? Same thing like people are doing digitally. But, think about building your brand like a user base, and going in and touching and being there with the people. A big part of that was Jay performing, and us going in there and buying out the bars and coming in there with all the brand new cars. Whatever the next year car was, we had it that year. You gotta build that story, and whatever it is. Be true to yourself, don't compromise integrity, really think about your brand and think about the long term where you're really trying to go with it.

Okayplayer:  What message on brotherhood would you give to people who are coming to the game working alongside their friends? You and Jay have managed to do it for twenty plus years. What are the core values that you would pass on?

Biggs: It's all about the relationship and if it's built on genuine relationship, money, a business doesn't come in between it. When you are friends the relationship is more important. What happens is when you start making money, it becomes more transactional and you have to try to get away from that. It starts to be, 'You know what? Let me do this for him.' And then when you ask for a favor, it's like, 'Yo, but I did that for you.' Then that's not really a relationship. You're building that on a transaction. It's not really love, you know what I'm saying?

When you love somebody, you're not gonna ask them something that you know that they don't want to do. I'm not even going to put them in that situation. For me right now, that's one of the biggest lessons I think I've learned over the years is that when you're working with your friends or your brothers to build that on relationships and not on transactions.

Okayplayer: Speaking on Jay, I saw an interview where you referred to him as a rock star and not just a hip hop star. Can you talk about what you meant by that and how it informs the legacy work that you're doing Rock-a-Fellas and particularly around Roc96?

Biggs: When people usually look at the life span of hip hop artists, it's usually three albums, right? It's very rare that people make it to four or five or even six albums. For Jay to last as long as he has and still be relevant doesn't really happen in hip hop, the only other genre of music that that happens in is really is in rock and roll. I think he's our generation's rock star. And I mean R-O-C Roc star.

Okayplayer: Highly noted.

Biggs: To have more number one albums than Elvis Presley, to have his 13th solo album go platinum in less than a week, I mean he's still pushing culture, still setting precedent and still being relevant. Me and him joke about it because I'm like, 'Jay, I mean you just fucking dropped the album that shook the world and you haven't even come outside. The only time anybody ever sees you is in Soul Cycle coming out with a hoodie on.'

Okayplayer: You gotta be fit if you're gonna run the world. Soul Cycle is intense.

Biggs: Yeah, but he doesn't even come outside. I'm like, 'How the fuck did you just do that? You shook the whole world and you don't even come outside.'

Okayplayer: If you were to design a capsule collection around 4:44, what would that look like?

Biggs: I haven't given it any thought, but he's saying so much. So, so, so much in this album, it's like today's Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" or "What's Going On" with the impact that it's having. I don't know off top here, it will probably be a lot of black and white.

Okayplayer: Just classic.

Biggs: Yeah. And not a lot of color. But I would have to really dive down into that.

Okayplayer: Understandable. Are you happier outside of the music industry or do you miss the grind of the day-to-day music business?

Biggs: I'm definitely happier outside. Every day people are asking me to come back or to help. A lot of artists want me to manage them, they want me to be in on a partnership. I got into music because it was a good business decision and I saw it was a platform that we could launch into other businesses with. I didn't have a particular love for music, I fell in love with it because I happened to be with probably one of the greatest artists of all time, which I attribute to the Lord for bringing us together. So yes, I'm definitely happier because I'm doing some of the other things that I always wanted to do.

Okayplayer: Right. Is there ever a chance that we'll see the trinity of the Roc (Jay, Biggs, Dame) reconnect?

Biggs: I wouldn't say that's impossible. It would just have to be the right situation, the right moment. All of us are kind of doing three different things right now. Me and Jay we speak a lot because of these things that I've been dropping and in talking to him about the capsule and the direction I was going in I got to hear a lot of the music. I actually put one of the songs back on the album, "Moonlight" that wasn't on the album. Once I heard it, I was like, "This has to go on the album."

And he's like, "Man, we're only putting this on the album because of you."

I was like, "Jay, trust me."

Okayplayer: So my next question was gonna be what your favorite song on the album is, but I think you've answered that.

Biggs: As a whole, the album is so ... I mean it's really, really, really hard to pick. I believe it's arguably his best work ever. Out of it today, it'd probably be, "Caught Their Eyes," the one with Frank Ocean.

But, I love "Smile" of course, he talks about me in "Smile" as well.

It's funny because, through the years, all of these artists, Roc-a-Fellas and that's not on Roc-a-Fella, they talk about Hoffa all the time. A lot of people didn't know that I was Hoffa.

Okayplayer: What's behind the nickname?

Biggs: It was given to me as a kid from a friend of mine, he kind of just came up with something. It's nothing in particular, but it kind of stuck.

Okayplayer: Then, of course, I have to ask what is your favorite song of Reasonable Doubt is or your verse?

Biggs: Oh, man, Reasonable Doubt ... "Dead Presidents II", probably the second verse when he's talking about drinkin' Mai-Tai's, with Ty-Ty down in Nevada.

For more from Biggs, be sure to keep a close eye on the return on Fourth of November, future growth from Roc96 and just about anything Biggs has his name aligned with.