Photo Credit: Roc Nation
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has finalized a “first of its kind partnership” with Cleveland-based greeting-card company American Greetings.
Roc Nation, which the 51-year-old rapper and businessman founded in 2008, unveiled the unique partnership in a general release. Per this announcement message, the “multi-year, multi-artist” arrangement will see the entities collaborate to create both “customized digital greetings” and physical greeting cards.
These products, the text indicates, will be “developed in collaboration with the authentic voices of legendary artists as well as the Roc Nation brand.” New York City-headquartered Roc Nation’s roster includes prominent creators such as DJ Khaled, J. Cole, and Jay-Z himself, of course.
Moreover, the Roc Nation-American Greetings union will kick off with an extension to the latter business’s Celebrity SmashUps line, or “highly personalized smile-inducing, shareable videos that entertain, surprise, and delight audiences of all ages.”
As an aside, Michael Bolton, Dolly Parton, and Smokey Robinson Celebrity SmashUps are currently available via American Greetings, with customers selecting a title (mom, coach, friend, etc.), an actual name, a date, and/or an event, depending upon the card at hand, and receiving a customized digital greeting.
Notably, given the imminent arrival of Roc Nation’s Celebrity SmashUps, American Greetings offers unlimited access to these products as well as eCards and printable greeting cards via a membership, which costs $4.99 per month, $19.99 per year, or $29.99 for two years.
And in terms of when fans will have the chance to purchase Roc Nation-themed American Greetings items, “the collection of digital products will be available worldwide and released during 2021,” the message relays, albeit without providing a specific launch date. Similarly, there is “more info to come on physical card availability.”
Addressing the American Greetings deal in a statement, Roc Nation’s president of business operations and strategy, Brett Yormark, said: “We are thrilled to work with American Greetings on a never before seen partnership with a renowned entertainment company, that allows Roc Nation and its talent to create a deeper bond with their audience.”
The Roc Nation-American Greetings partnership represents the latest in a series of high-profile agreements that Jay-Z-backed companies have closed to this point in 2021. To be sure, the “Otis” artist, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this October, in late February sold 50 percent of his Armand de Brignac champagne (commonly known as “Ace of Spades”) to Moët Hennessy.
The following month, Jack Dorsey’s Square acquired Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service in a nearly $300 million transaction, and Jay-Z led a $19 million funding round for NFT platform Bitski about one week ago.
Separately, both Beyonce and Jay-Z remain embroiled in a courtroom confrontation centering on their allegedly unauthorized sampling of a speech in 2018’s “Black Effect.”