Anyone hoping to spend a chill night in, spinning “Watch the Throne” on their turntable, while inhaling $50 of Jay Z-branded weed is, regrettably, out of luck: After four years of operations, it appears that the hip hop mogul’s cannabis brand has gone bust.
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Jay Z launched Monogram, his line of luxury weed, to much fanfare in 2020. The rollout included a model-laden photoshoot at Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs estate and media blitz across glossy magazines.
“Cannabis has been around for thousands of years, yet it is still an industry whose legacy of skilled craftsmanship is often overlooked,” Jay-Z said in a 2020 statement. “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.”
Nearly five years later, however, the rapper’s marijuana brand seems to be all but finished. While Monogram’s official website lists nine ostensible retailers —eight in California and one in Arizona — none of the dispensaries actually carry the brand, SF Gate reported.
The West Coast weed market is notoriously saturated — and Jay Z’s brand stuck out in a not-altogether-positive manner. A joint typically goes for $5 in the Golden State, while the hip-hop mogul was attempting to charge customers $50. Monogram’s erstwhile parent company, which is actually called The Parent Company, quickly spent the $575 million in cash it had at the outset and failed to recoup the investment.
By 2022, The Parent Company reported a $587 million net loss and merged with the commercial weed brand Gold Flora. Months later, Monogram was spun off into its own LLC, while Gold Flora appears to be on its last legs, according to SF Gate.
While any business is subject to the whims of the market, it didn’t help Monogram’s cause that the joints were reportedly poorly rolled on purpose.
When GQ writer Michelle Lhooq visited the manufacturing facility, she couldn’t get the $50 Monogram joint to stay lit for more than seconds, a far cry from a standard burn that lasts several minutes. When Lhooq inquired about this flaw, an employee informed her the rolling papers were deliberately crinkled and the weed was not finely ground.
“It’s not a cigarette. You gotta get the vibe and let it sit,” he told her. “You can even put it back in the tube and go to the club.”
Cannabis investor Seth Yakatan had an entirely different take on the Monogram joint’s overall quality.
“Like many other things we’ve seen in cannabis surrounding rappers, the hype hasn’t met the reality,” he told SF Gate. “Monogram was supposed to be an ultra-premium product, and I don’t know anyone who tried it and thought it was anything more than mid-tier.”
