Mr. Sol Guy
A modern day renaissance man Sol's a creative in the true sense of the word - Social Entrepreneur, Artist Manager, Film and TV producer.
Sol, a native of Canada, started his career as an MCand manager of the legendary Canadian hip hop group Rascalz. He then went on to work for Arista Records in New York City as director of International Artist Development and began traveling the world, charting and propelling the development of Global Hip Hop gaining inspiration from the countries and cultures he visited. Over the years Sol worked closely with some of the highest profile artists of our time such as Lauryn Hill, P Diddy, India Arie, k-os, Rascalz, The Roots, Outkast, Kardinal Offishall, Dead Prez, B.I.G. and The Wu-Tang Clan.
In 2000, he travelled to Africa for the first time as part of the award winning documentary "Musicians in The War Zone". This trip would serve as a major turning point in his career. He returned and adopted a new focus, “Through my success and experience in the music industry I began to realize the power I possessed in creating media so I decided that I wanted to create a new hybrid that connects the worlds of entertainment and activism.”
Developing new ideas he turned his focus to two projects a TV property he was developing called 4REAL and little known Somali Born MC K'NAAN. As Host and co-creator of the groundbreaking series 4REAL and its partner website, 4REAL.com, his goal was to utilize the power of media to educate, inspire and empower youth around the globe to take charge, get involved and make change.
Over the last 8 years His work with Somali born MC, Singer Songwriter K'naan is a global success story. Developing his career over the last 10 years he has helped build him into a genre bending Global Brand. Recently spearheading groundbreaking l deal that paired K'naan and his parent company Universal Music with Coca Cola for the companies massively successful $300 Million, 150 Country World Cup 2010 campaign. Raising the bar and setting a new standard to which to measure success as it relates to artist and entertainment branding.
"We are all artists and we all have a responsibility to do our best to make the world a better place,” Sol says. The day of "bottom line" profit solely driving business are over, a new triple bottom line that includes, profit, people and the planet is where its at.
In addition to producing and hosting 4REAL, Sol presents to youth at schools, universities and events as a motivational speaker, and still finds time to manage and develop the career of hip hop artist K'NAAN.
In 2009, Sol was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for his work with 4REAL. He was also named by Playback Magazine as among "The Next 25: Canada's Rising Stars and Dealmakers."