Jay-Z Launches New Cannabis Brand With Caliva

Hip-hop icon Shawn Jay-Z Carter revealed the launch of his new cannabis brand MONOGRAM on Friday, more than one year after he joined California licensed cannabis company Caliva as its chief brand strategist. The launch includes the debut of MONOGRAM’s website, which features photographs and videos of cannabis plants being tended and joints being rolled by hand.

“With its careful strain selection, meticulous cultivation practices, and uncompromising quality, MONOGRAM seeks to redefine what cannabis means to consumers today,” the company wrote in a press release. “In an effort to provide a more tailored customer experience, the brand will also launch through a best in class e-commerce platform dedicated exclusively to its singular product line.”

The website lists little information on specific products or availability, but there are links to the brand’s Instagram and YouTube accounts. The Monogram Twitter feed and Facebook page are also live, and the webpage offers a glimpse into the brand’s business philosophy and commitment to the plant.

“From soil to seed, the expert growers at MONOGRAM leverage a lifetime of cultivation experience to ensure our flower is treated with the respect it deserves through every stage of the grow process,” Monogram writes on its company website. “Precise control and constant monitoring allow our flower to reach its full potential as a superior smoke.”

“MONOGRAM flower is grown in small batches, allowing for every plant to receive personalized attention from our expert growers,” the copy continues. “Our batch-by-batch approach and unique potency designation allow us to highlight the nuances in between harvests and tell you the story of every flower.”

Jay-Z Collaboration Announced In 2019

Caliva announced in April 2019 that Jay-Z would be joining the company as its chief brand strategist. The company said that Jay-Z’s duties would include providing input on creative decisions, community outreach, and corporate strategy.

“Anything I do, I want to do correctly and at the highest level,” Jay-Z said in a statement at the time. “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.”

Caliva CEO Dennis O’Malley told CNN Business that Jay-Z’s role would also include social justice initiatives such as advocacy and job training to help create opportunities for individuals negatively impacted by the War on Drugs.

“We think this is a sea change in terms of the visibility to the industry,” he said. “We take this partnership with a lot of responsibility, a lot of humility, a lot of accountability moving forward.”

“In this position, Mr. Carter will focus on and work to increase the economic participation of citizens returning from incarceration—many of whom are not seeing the monetary benefits of legalization—through advocacy, job training, and overall employee and workforce development,” company officials said in a statement.

Caliva, based in San Jose, California, is one of the state’s largest vertically-integrated cannabis businesses. The company cultivates, processes, and markets cannabis products including flower, pre-rolls, edibles, and topicals for home delivery and in more than 250 licensed dispensaries in California.