Last week, Drake posted several images of a music industry executive and business investor named Anthony Saleh, as a means to troll Kendrick Lamar. After Drake dissed Kendrick with tracks such as "Push Ups" and "Taylor Made Freestyle," the 37-year-old Canadian artist shared images of Saleh with captions like "Is today the day?" and "Are we getting in our bag or nah??" Reports quickly clarified that Anthony Saleh is Kendrick Lamar's manager, as initially revealed by Hits Daily Double in 2021, proving that Drake was attempting to use these images to hurry a response from people in Kendrick's social and artistic circle.
But what do we know about Anthony Saleh? Despite his connections to several high-profile clients in the rap world, the industry insider actively maintains a low-key presence on social media platforms and rarely appears in public. He has locked down his X (formerly Twitter) account, meaning only a select few can access Saleh's social media. In a way, it seems like Saleh is the perfect match for Kendrick Lamar, as Kendrick has a known aversion to sharing private details of his life with the public, outside of music of course. So, let's take a look at Anthony Saleh's business track record, and see what we can find out.
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Saleh Is The CEO Of A Management Firm
Kendrick Lamar isn't the only big name in rap connected to Anthony Saleh. According to a write-up in Complex, Saleh is the CEO of Emagen Entertainment Group, which reps such notable acts as Nas, Alina Baraz, Col3trane, and Devault. Saleh previously worked with Future and assisted him in the release of his back-to-back number 1 records, Future and Hndrxx. Given that Kendrick Lamar's verse on Future and Metro Boomin's "Like That" from We Don't Trust You kicked off the ongoing "rap civil war," it seems clear that Drake is well aware of Anthony Saleh's ties to Future.
Emagen's site no longer lists Future as a client, though Anthony Saleh has multiple business holdings outside of the management firm such as a general partner role, WndrCo., a holding company that has invested in companies like MixCloud. Kendrick does not appear on the Emagen Entertainment Group roster, despite his ongoing relationship with Saleh. Kendrick and the executive officially linked up only 10 weeks before the "Humble" rapper released his latest LP, Mr. Morale And The Big Steppers, which served as his final project on the Top Dawg Entertainment label.
Saleh Had Multiple Ventures & Investments Before Emagen
Before Anthony Saleh took on the role of CEO at Emagen, he served as an executive vice president at Atom Factory for two years. He also joined the technology investment firm WndrCo as a partner in 2016, investing in multiple startups within the music and tech world. Since Anthony Saleh joined the firm, WndrCo has gone on to fund ventures such as Audioshake, Dapper Labs, Tracklib, and others.
Before catching public strays from Drake in the Kendrick Lamar beef, Anthony Saleh earned recognition as Nas's silent partner, assisting the Illmatic MC in managing his finances and executive producing some of his hit records. According to a 2016 profile in Forbes, Saleh first started working with Nas at the age of 23, and the pair have made a wide array of lucrative investments together since then. The biggest bag for the pair came in the form of their joint venture QueensBridge Venture Partners, which took in more than $40 million on cryptocurrency investments on platforms like Coinbase.