His name may not be as well known as that of his partner and Cofounder of Roc Nation, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, but Jay Brown is a mogul in the music industry, and the kind of artists who so serendipitously find him, as he claims, come with names like Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Jaden Smith, and Shakira, to name a few.

Since its founding in 2008, Roc Nation has become one of the most successful entertainment companies in the industry. They represent hundreds of artists, producers, songwriters, and athletes. Listening to Jay talk about it, though, you’d think it was anything but. The casual nonchalance he embodies as he discusses music superstars belies the incredible influence he’s had on music culture.

What strikes you first about Jay is his utter authenticity. He’s not boastful about his position, and lets the magic happen as organically as possible. “Normally I try to stay in the background,” he says of working with the artists. “I don’t want to be an artist. I want to be a businessman. I want them to be an artist and let them have the exposure they’re looking for and want. But I don’t want to get it confused, the business and the artist, because that’s not the lifestyle I want.”

DREAMS REALIZED

In fact, the way Jay talks about his incredible career falls somewhere between the fairy tale story of a small child with big dreams, and the grit of a man who’s worked every single day for the position he’s now in. “I’m very lucky to be where I am,” he says. It’s a nuance embraced by Roc Nation as a whole. Where you’d expect a certain level of ego is a company whose logo is a simple paper airplane. He credits this early education and dedication to every aspect of the music industry with the trajectory of his career. “It lead me into working into other labels and figuring out how to work with artists, to figure out what they wanted to achieve with labels, and where they want to go with their career.”

THE MAKING OF AN ARTIST

Today, Roc Nation represents some of the biggest names in music—massive names, in fact—with one of the biggest of them all, Jay-Z, at the helm. To say they’ve been successful at creating incredibly impactful artists would be an understatement. The music coming out of Roc Nation’s artists have molded the musical landscape. All of this in a world where most artists out there, at best, can claim the one-hit-wonder status. For Jay Brown and Roc Nation, maintaining an artist’s relatability is crucial to keep them relevant in the music scene. “As a company, you want to make sure you don’t take an artist out of who they are,” he explains. “The fans will know it. They know when something’s real and something’s fake. They know if they’re doing it for the money or if they’re doing it for the brand.” A lot of this ideology comes from Jay’s cofounder, Jay-Z’s, own career. “It was interesting,” Jay Brown remembers, “because Jay never made records to say ‘I’m going to make a hit.’ He made records to articulate what was going on where he was from. What he did. Where he was planning on going.”

THE FORCE OF THE FANS

That relationship between the artist and their fans is more than radio plays and downloads. Jay believes that the fans drive the art because they live the art. “By the time you’re done with an album,” Jay describes, “you know what the first record’s going to be. Then you actually have it lined up in your mind how your singles are going to fall. But as you put out an album, the fans dictate what the next single is. They’ll start playing it. And not just the fans. The media will start to play it because there’s just something about that song within that time and that moment that just resonates with people, and they start playing that record.”

THRIVING IN THE SHADOWS

Jay has a unique outlook for someone in the entertainment industry, one that’s made Roc Nation the powerhouse that it is. “Fame isn’t in my DNA,” he says. His approach, in contrast, is one that lets the artists be who they are and turn—seemingly effortlessly—into the kind of stars who have come out of Roc Nation. “I don’t walk in their shoes. I don’t become them. I don’t live their life. All I can do is help out and add to their music and where they’re going and try to lead them in the right direction.”