Imagine, if you will, that you’re married to Beyoncé; go on, wrap your head around that for a minute.
You start Roc-A-Fella Records. Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs produces your record drop. Then, as CEO of Def Jam Recordings, you nurture artists like Rihanna, Kanye West, and J. Cole.
You sell over 125 million records, score 23 Grammy Awards, and Rolling Stone and Billboard both proclaim you one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. You’re inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Branching out, start Rocawear and the luxury sports bar chain 40/40 Club.
You are living life on your terms, and living it large. Next act? Drum roll, please. You focus on entrepreneurship, supporting brands that have meaning for you. You invest money in the weed industry. If I ever light up with JAY-Z, I will ask him about combining weed and antibiotics.
“When JAY-Z says, ‘I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man,’ it’s true,” Flowhub Founder and CEO Kyle Sherman told Forbes on announcing the 19 million dollar investment. Sherman thanked investors, including Poseidon, a pioneer investor in the cannabis industry, Headline, an innovative venture capital firm, and Mr. Shawn Corey Carter, otherwise known as JAY-Z.
“JAY-Z is a cultural and creative global force no matter the industry he is involved in,” Sherman noted.
Flowhub, a cannabis retail point-of-sale platform for dispensaries, has a valuation of over $200 million. Plans include growing into emerging markets, developing a vigorous line of products, designing innovative goods to aid retail customers in running better businesses, and expanding its social equity program.
Serving the highly regulated cannabis industry, Flowhub helps dispensaries satisfy compliance needs, aids with expansion, supports outstanding guest experiences; Flowhub is trusted in over 1,000 dispensaries.
Speaking of marijuana dispensaries, have you ever wondered about marijuana and antibiotics? Me too! These are the folks who would know.
Flow with What You Know, Watch that Green Grow
JAY-Z shines as a successful entrepreneur with a business empire traversing industries from clothing lines, champagne, record labels, real estate, athletic teams, and now the cannabis and CBD market. He noted, “my brands are an extension of me.”
There’s the Armand de Brignac story. Now, JAY-Z had name-dropped Christol bubbly in his songs and videos. Yet, when The Economist queried about the rap association, Frederic Rozaud, then managing director and now CEO of Cristal Champagne, replied, “That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it.” JAY-Z boycotted the bubbly.
Then, according to The New York Times, Rouzaud issued a statement expressing, “The utmost regard for, and interest in, all forms of art and culture.” JAY-Z’s answer was to “build our own thing,” as he told Squawk Box. This is how Armand de Brignac champagne (nicknamed the “Ace of Spades” because of the label) became a black-owned luxury brand.
JAY-Z sounds like he could give sane life advice. Of course, some people would ask about music, family, or business. But, if I ever sit down with the man himself, I’d ask what we all want to know, especially during flu season: If I buy some righteous weed, and then I get ill and need to take antibiotics, do antibiotics and weed mix? I bet he says, “Hell yeah!”
Word came that JAY-Z would be joining TPCO Holding Corp. — a newly fashioned cannabis products brand —in the role of “Chief Visionary Officer.” That’s like a visionary and an officer — squared.
Forbes gave a shout-out with the headline, “JAY-Z’s Cannabis Brand, Monogram, Launches With $50 Hand-Rolled Joints.”
Me, I’m hoping someone starts a GoFundMe campaign on my behalf. I score a Monogram, I’ll light my fifty-dollar Monogram joint — and I already have my strain picked out — and keep those ashes in an urn! Cremate me and mix my remains with that fifty-dollar spliff.
Together: Rolling Philanthropy and Business
Besides expressing his personality, interests, and style, a hallmark of Mr. Carter’s business ventures and investments is an aspirational-lifestyle motif, a kick-it-up-a-notch good-time aesthetic, and a clear-eyed philanthropic edge.
Monogram has launched a national drug policy awareness campaign to educate people about the Federal drug laws’ disproportionate effects on communities of color and those of lower educational or lower economic status.
Budding out in June 2021, Flowhub’s social equity program invests in individuals who became casualties of the War on Drugs. Flowhub has granted over $1 million worth of software products to qualified cannabis entrepreneurs via the program.
