Jay-Z’s latest business endeavor is a line of carefully crafted weed—one “Vogue” writer experienced it while listening to “The Black Album.”
I Tried Jay-Z’s New Cannabis Line, Monogram
Jay-Z is not what you would call a “weed rapper.” Sure, he’s peppered his verses with marijuana references since at least 1996’s “Feeling It” (“I free my mind sometimes I hear myself moaning / Take one more toke and I leave that weed alone, man”), but among his peers—of which there are few, consummately speaking—he might be the very last MC you’d envision blowing it down in the middle of a studio session. To that end, I can’t ever recall seeing a picture or video footage of him hitting a joint, blunt, or anything else one might use to get high. This is notable only because if it did exist, it’s not likely to have hurt his career. He’s a rapper, and rappers smoke weed. It’s practically in the bylaws. But if Jay-Z is anything outside of a rapper—his status as a loving husband and father notwithstanding—he’s a businessman. And his latest and greatest business endeavor happens to be weed.
The company is called Monogram, a name I’m told Jay-Z came up with himself. The idea behind it is that a monogram print is characteristic of luxury items. Additionally to that, the “gram” component is a nod to the unit of measure. As the company’s founder, Jay-Z will be inevitably devoting a great deal of time and attention to Monogram as he attempts to grow it in the new and already very crowded cannabis space. “Cannabis has been around for thousands of years, yet it is still an industry whose legacy of skilled craftsmanship is often overlooked,” begins a quote attributed to Jay-Z within the company’s press materials. “I created Monogram to give cannabis the respect it deserves by showcasing the tremendous hard work, time, and care that go into crafting a superior smoke. Monogram products are next-level when it comes to quality and consistency, and we’re just getting started.”
It was a Monday evening in December when I received a text message from Monogram’s culture and cultivation ambassador, DeAndre Watson, alerting me that he was downstairs with a package for me. In writing this piece I would be one of a select few to preview the products just before they went on sale. Monogram products are only available, at least initially, to California residents. Fortunately for me, I reside in Los Angeles, where delivery is an option. While our interaction was brief (he handed me a nondescript black box that looked like it might otherwise hold an assortment of chocolates and wished me a good night), he did answer some questions about his role at Monogram via email.
“I work closely with Jay on the cultivation and strain selection process for Monogram, which starts with us putting together a taste profile for every strain,” he wrote. “This lets the team know exactly what kind of smell, color, moisture, and overall feel they should be looking for at each stage. Then we check every nug by hand, to make sure that each is perfect before we package it up to be smoked.” Without getting into specifics, Watson’s bio mentions that he’s been involved in the cannabis industry for 25 years. He sees Jay-Z’s involvement as a win for people of color who have had a disproportionately difficult time getting into the very much still-burgeoning world of legalized cannabis. “He’s creating opportunities for people like me, who have decades of experience working with the plant but haven’t been able to reap the benefits of the emerging legal market until now,” Watson says.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Felipe Delerme
