110 Quotes by Troy Carter

The music industry really is a meritocracy on a creative level.

As important as hustle is, grit and resilience are equally as important because there's a lot of rejection in our business.

As we look at Hollywood and the controversy around the Oscars, it goes back to the voting block and the lack of people who come from that culture. For example, the NWA movie is a fantastic, fantastic movie. You need people who can look at a piece of art like that and understand the artistry in it.

Once we started making investments, we realized the same service we provided to artists was applicable to entrepreneurs as well.

I like to compare the attitude and energy of an emerging start-up to that of the early hip-hop era. From working at labels like Bad Boy and Ruff Ryders, walking into the Def Jam offices, A Touch of Jazz and things like that, the vibe is that off making something out of nothing and making things work, and that's what I love about start-ups.

My third hire when I came to Spotify was Tiffany Kumar, who came on as our global head of songwriter relations. The whole idea was to put our heads together and figure out how to build and contribute within the songwriting community.

The venture capital world is completely stacked against minority entrepreneurs.

If you look at a company like Uber, a company that so anti-establishment that cab companies are trying to find ways to shut it down, one could compare that to how Public Enemy and NWA went after then-modern society in hip hop.

To me, as A&R people and as managers, we're in the business of finding talent. It's no different than working with these engineers who just want to make good products.