Shakir Stewart Def Jam VP Commits Suicide

The Def Jam VP Shakir Stewart replaced Jay-Z at Island Def Jam records and was just named to that position in June of this year. In addition, he also retained his duties as senior VP of A&R at Island Def Jam.

Shakir Stewart was responsible for signing such artists as Young Jeezy, Rick Ross and newcomer Karina Pasian. He started out as a music executive at Hitco Music Publishing where he was the creative director who later became the senior VP of creative/GM who brought in Ciara and Beyonce.

The busy music exec was the man behind the successive no# 1 hits in Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart as Destiny Child’s “Survivor”, Outkast’s “The Way You Move”, both Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”, and “Baby Boy” and assembling and organizing Usher’s massive hit “Yeah” on the twelve time platinum album Confessions. Shakir Stewart's career was on the move upward, and no one could see any hint of emotional troubles that would have led to a suicide.

Just this summer, he told Billboard magazine that while in college at Morehouse, Shakir Stewart was “the guy who was the head of passing out fliers at seven clubs a night, seven days a week in 20-degree weather.”

Shakir Stewart said at the time it was his goal to help develop "new, young executives ... The hot executive who's 21, 22 years old and has a serious passion for music and the desire to work 27 hours a day. That's where I was at that time in my life. And that's who I'm looking to mentor. I don't see many people like that. Instead, I see a lot of kids who want to live the lifestyle but don't want to put in the work and do what it takes."

Def Jam Recordings a hip-hop record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a part of The Island Def Jam Music Group in the United States. No details have surfaced on why Shakir Stewart would want to commit suicide.