Jay-Z will help sell cannabis California: Beyonce and Jay-Z at a campaign concert for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, November 4, 2016. The American rapper has decided to start marketing of cannabis, legal in California.

Officially becoming the first billionaire rapper last June, Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Corey Carter, has decided to diversify his sources of revenue by joining a surprising new sector. He has been named "chief strategist" for Caliva, one of California's leading cannabis companies. The use of cannabis for recreational use has been legal since 2018. "It will play a vital role in guiding the creative trends, diffusion and brand strategy," reads Caliva's website.

"Everything I do, I want to do it right and at the highest level.With the full potential of the cannabis industry, Caliva's expertise and ethics make it the best partners for this project. something extraordinary, having fun, doing good and taking people on this trip, "Jay-Z said in a statement published by the British newspaper The Guardian. Beyoncé's husband was a drug dealer in his early years in Brooklyn called Les Echos.

Jay-Z will help sell cannabis California

The cannabis industry in difficulty

This collaboration seems welcome for the company since the cannabis market is not looking good. According to the firm BDS Analytics, quoted by Les Echos, legal cannabis sales in 2018 fell to $ 2.5 billion, which is $ 500 million less than 2017. The president of Caliva, Dennis O'Malley spoke on the US television channel CNN, saying that this collaboration with Jay-Z would allow "significant changes for the industry in terms of visibility".

Jay-Z is not the first celebrity to enter the cannabis business, rapper Snoop Dogg has created his own brand, Leafs by Snoop, and actress Whoopi Goldberg launched in 2016 a range of products based on marijuana to relieve menstrual cramps.