Billionaire rapper, entrepreneur and philanthropist Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter will serve as the chief brand strategist for Caliva, a California company.
In a statement on Tuesday, Jay Z said: “Anything I do, I want to do correctly and at the highest level. With all the potential in the cannabis industry, Caliva’s expertise and ethos makes them the best partner for this endeavor”
In addition to influencing Caliva’s creative direction, social justice will be a key component of Jay-Z’s role, Dennis O’Malley, chief executive officer of Caliva said.
He’ll be involved in outreach programs such as job training, advocacy and workforce development to help create more opportunities in the industry for people who were negatively affected by the War on Drugs.
“We think this is a sea change in terms of the visibility to the industry. We take this partnership with a lot of responsibility, a lot of humility, a lot of accountability moving forward.Jay-Z now joins Montana, Snoop Dogg, Whoopi Goldberg, Willie Nelson, Martha Stewart as part of a growing list of celebrities who have jumped into the cannabis business in recent years as a number of states have legalized marijuana in some form.
