The Bio That Reignited the Whole Thing

David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, penned an op-ed for the New York Times over Memorial Day weekend on artificial intelligence. The piece made a reasonable case that AI creates more jobs than it kills.

Then someone at the Times read the contributor bio at the bottom.

"David M. Solomon, in addition to running Goldman Sachs, is an electronic dance music producer known as DJ D-Sol."

Wall Street lost its mind — briefly. Goldman PR chief Tony Fratto scrambled to clarify that Solomon did NOT request that bio line and the Times did NOT run it past Goldman before publishing, according to the New York Post. A Times spokesperson had no comment.

The paper of record had accidentally un-retired a persona that one of the most powerful bankers in the world spent years trying to quietly bury.

How DJ D-Sol Became a Problem

This goes back further than most people remember.

The New York Times first profiled Solomon's DJ hobby in 2017, when he was still co-president of Goldman. The framing was flattering — a buttoned-up finance titan with a surprisingly human side. When he became CEO in 2018, Solomon leaned into the DJ D-Sol brand as part of his public identity.

Then it started going sideways.

In 2020, Solomon performed with the Chainsmokers at a Hamptons event that openly flouted COVID social distancing rules. He personally apologized to Goldman's board, according to the Financial Times. The board was NOT amused.

He kept performing anyway — at Lollapalooza in Chicago in July 2022, at tiki bars in the Bahamas, at Manhattan events. According to Business Insider, he was playing roughly half a dozen high-profile gigs per year.

His last public performance was Lollapalooza, July 2022. By October 2023, the Financial Times formally reported he was done with public DJ gigs.

The Goldman Defense — And Why It Doesn't Quite Hold Up

Goldman's official line, delivered by Tony Fratto, was this: "Music was not a distraction from David's work. The media attention became a distraction."

According to Forbes, at the time Solomon quit public DJ gigs, Goldman profits had declined on a rolling 12-month basis for nine consecutive quarters. The stock was down 9% year-to-date in October 2023. Rival JPMorgan Chase was UP 9% over the same stretch, per Forbes.

The Guardian reported that Goldman's net earnings fell by a third year-over-year in Q3 2023 — $2.1 billion versus $3.1 billion the prior year. Solomon had already taken a 30% pay cut in 2022 after a brutal stretch that included one of Goldman's largest rounds of layoffs in history.

Footage of your CEO in headphones at a music festival during a financial nosedive is a PR liability.

What Media Coverage Got Wrong

Most mainstream coverage treated the DJ story as either a charming quirk (early days) or a serious leadership question (later).

Solomon himself told Business Insider back in 2017: "If you can't find a way to have passions and pursue those passions and mix them into your professional life and your personal life in some way, shape or form, it's just harder to have the energy to keep on doing this."

The problem wasn't the hobby. It was the brand conflation — performing at Lollapalooza, appearing on the TV drama Billions to plug Goldman's Marcus savings account, remixing Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" for a Goldman client (Larry Mestel's Primary Wave Music, which controls Houston's catalog). The lines between CEO, celebrity, and brand ambassador got blurry in ways that made the board uncomfortable and gave critics ammunition during a down cycle.

Media on the left used it to paint Solomon as an out-of-touch elitist playing DJ while workers got laid off. Media on the right used it to question his seriousness.

The Scoreboard Doesn't Lie

Here's what actually happened after Solomon gave up the DJ life in October 2023.

Goldman stock is up nearly 250% since then, according to the New York Post. Over just the past year, Goldman shares rose more than 60%. JPMorgan — run by Jamie Dimon — gained 15% over the same period. The S&P 500 gained 26%.

Solomon still does private gatherings. His DJ Instagram page, David Solomon Music, hasn't been updated since November 2022. But the public spectacle is over.

What This Actually Means

CEOs of public companies are not private individuals. Every photo, every performance, every side project becomes fair game — especially when the numbers are bad.

Solomon figured that out. The stock reflects it.

The New York Times apparently still hasn't.