After decades of conquering the music industry, Jay-Z is now set on working with legal cannabis.
The legendary rapper and entrepreneur recently announced a multi-year partnership with Caliva to serve as chief brand strategist, reports Rolling Stone.
In this new role, the 49-year-old Brooklyn emcee hopes to improve the representation of former convicts previously incarcerated due to marijuana-related crimes, most of whom are still banned from the legal weed business in large numbers. Jay-Z’s efforts in this realm will include “advocacy, job training and overall employee and workforce development.”
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“Anything I do, I want to do correctly and at the highest level,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “With all the potential in the cannabis industry, Caliva’s expertise and ethos make them the best partners for this endeavor. We want to create something amazing, have fun in the process, do good and bring people along the way.”
It was Jay-Z himself who reached out to the Caliva brand, after extensive research into several of the largest legal cannabis businesses.
“For Jay-Z to seek out Caliva as a partner is humbling and confirms our mission of being the most trusted name in cannabis,” said Caliva CEO Dennis O’Malley to Rolling Stone. “To find that we were in complete alignment around our values and ethos was just a home run. We believe this partnership is unparalleled in this or any business and we could not be more pleased to be working with him and have him as our Chief Brand Strategist.”
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Jay-Z is now poised to help California’s minorities and former convicts to join the legal cannabis market, which could help finally put an end to the failed War on Drugs.
“In this position, Mr. Carter will focus on and work to increase the economic participation of citizens returning from incarceration – many of who are not seeing the monetary benefits of legalization – through advocacy, job training, and overall employee and workforce development,” according to Caliva’s website.
Oscar Pascual is the editor of Smell the Truth, syndicated on GreenState and SFGATE. Smell The Truth is one of the internet’s most popular destinations for cannabis-related news and culture. This blog is not written or edited by Hearst. The authors are solely responsible for the content.