Anthony Saleh
Nas · Kendrick Lamar · Future · Gunna
Anthony Saleh began managing Nas at 23, founded Emagen Entertainment Group, and built a parallel investment practice — Emagen Investment Group and a partnership at WndrCo — that put Nas into early-stage technology including Coinbase. Kendrick Lamar joined his roster around 2021.
“You can accomplish anything in the world if you don't care who gives the credit.”
Saleh spent 2010 to 2012 as EVP at Troy Carter's Atom Factory before running Emagen. The roster has included Nas, Future, Gunna, YG, Alina Baraz and, since around 2021, Kendrick Lamar.
The distinguishing move is that he did not treat management income as the business. He built an investment vehicle alongside it and directed artist capital into early-stage technology — Nas's position in Coinbase being the widely cited example — and became a partner at the technology investment firm WndrCo in 2016. That converts a career with a limited earning window into ownership with a long one.
It is the most direct modern answer to the structural problem every manager on this page ran into: touring and recording income stops, and the manager's percentage stops with it. Saleh's version of the job assumes the money's job is to become other money.
Route income into ownership
Artist and brand income is front-loaded and finite. Saleh built an investment vehicle alongside the management company and put Nas into early-stage technology. You don't need a fund: the small version is deciding, in advance, a fixed percentage of every payment that never touches operating costs and goes into something that keeps earning after the campaign stops — catalogue, equity, a tool you own. Decide the percentage before the money arrives.
Manage the capital, not just the career
Artist income is front-loaded and finite; equity is neither. A manager who can credibly route earnings into ownership is doing something no percentage-of-gross model can replicate, and is worth keeping long after the touring slows down.