Jay-Z’s Other Baby Is Starving
January 19, 2012 7 Comments
The day before Blue Ivy Carter was born, another of Jay-Z’s babies was in its death throes.
Rocawear — the hip-hop clothing brand founded in 1999 by rapper entrepreneurs Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Damon Dash — laid off half the staff of its men’s and boys apparel division on Jan. 6, one day before Jay-Z’s wife, Beyoncé Knowles, gave birth to the couple’s baby girl.
Rocawear’s New York headquarters — a 40,000-square-foot facility at 1411 Broadway where Jay-Z took an office in 2009 — fired 28 of its 56 workers for “economic” reasons, according to documents filed with the New York State Department of Labor.
Jay-Z, formerly a “big presence” in the office, rarely shows up anymore, an insider told reporters. “It’s kind of like he’s given up on the brand,” the source added.
In 2007, as the market for urban-style clothing was peaking, the rap tycoon sold the Rocawear brand for $204 million in cash to Iconix Group, a licensing company that also owns brands such as Candie’s, Ed Hardy and Peanuts.
While Jay-Z retained an interest in Rocawear as part of the deal, his contractual obligations to the brand have expired and the rapper has since refused to promote it amid steady, double-digit sales drops, sources said.
“Jay-Z doesn’t do anything without getting paid a lot of money — a lot more than Rocawear is generating,” according to one insider.
Jay-Z does not own Rocawear anymore (remember he sold it for $204 million), so why in the world you say he is involved with its problems.
He’s smart because nobody wears it anymore. He sold it years ago and knows it’s dead in urban america so why beat a dead horse. he’s moved on smart man
I didn’t know Rocawear was still around.
companies go bankrupt all the time. i know jay z says he;s god, but he’s not god. he can not resurrect a dead brand. My 15 year old daughter cried when I told her she had to wear a rocaware coat I bought her two years ago.
if no one wants to wear the stuff there is nothing jay can do. people here complaining, go buy a rocawear coat if you want to save the company. i say good riddance. jay z would be a fool to put any money in this dead nobody wants to wear their stuff company.
It’s time for many of us to stop seeing celebrities as leaders. This dude is only about selfish, greedy, egotistical grandstanding not about things that actually deal with a struggling population of people that look like him who are currently suffering the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
One solution: Take a look at some of the people in our past who took the time to strategize and make a difference for us today. We have a personal responsibility to take control of our communities and the money in it by taking over the foreign owned businesses that we support to our detriment. . Each time we spend our money outside of our community we give our power away to people who have a dubious history with Africans/with us.
It’s time to picture your beautiful Black selves in those businesses. These are the same businesses that your ancestors were burned out of because they were too successful (Negro Wall Street/Rosewood, FL/all the towns destroyed during the Red Summer of 1919).
Jay-z, Russell, Diddly wont’ tell you that every time you own the businesses, and spend with each other and that money bounces around a few times, you upend the power of others to not hire you Every small purchase with them keeps them employed and cares for their village back home. Our hoods support their hoods and they despise us to the tune of billions
now this is what you call a business man. have to be cut throat
modern day Frank Lucas