Ben Baller

Business of HYPE is a weekly series brought to you by HYPEBEAST Radio and hosted by jeffstaple. It’s a show about creatives, brand-builders and entrepreneurs and the realities behind the dreams they’ve built. On episode 15, jeweler for the stars Ben Baller recounts his humbling rise from his moniker’s hardwood origins to multi-millionaire status hot on the heels of retirement…if his entrepreneurial spirit doesn’t spark yet another career metamorphosis. After about a minute into the interview, after Jeff makes his introductions, listing off the various industries and job titles Ben has worked, the entrepreneur stops our host on “music,” admitting “I haven’t accepted the fact that I’m a jeweler.” He continues to state what it would take for him to really define himself as such because, as he put it, ”all this time I’ve always waited for someone to give me the validation for music and the DJing; I feel like I never got that. So all this shit I did 20-25 years ago in the music business is just paying off now.” Before all the diamonds, exotic cars, clothing brands and cannabis ventures, Ben Baller — a named he earned playing college hoops — was a Los Angeles DJ during the budding era of ’90s hip-hop. Soon, after catching the eye and ear of Dr. Dre, Ben landed at an infant Aftermath Entertainment and quickly rose to become head of A&R. And while his life and career are vastly removed from that side of the music industry, it was this time period that was arguably the most formidab