Hova! Hova! Jay-Z Heads To Madison Avenue

Rappers. Love ‘em. They’re unstoppable. First, Puffy becomes the advertising director of Ciroc. And now, Jay-Z is headed to Madison Avenue. Shawn (Hova’s real name) has paired up with Steve Stoute to open Translation Advertising in New York. This is actually a lunch of a multicultural division of already established consulting agency, Translation, which Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, which has worked for mainstream advertisers like General Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Reebok. Translation was sold by Sproute to Interpublic last year for around $15M.

Shawn had this to say: “As an artist, you make music. And if you see people who don’t know how to market your music, you get involved in it.”

We’re all for this. All for it. In honor of Jay’s big jump, go listen to a Nigerian remix of his song “Roc Boys.” It’s so much better than what the kids from Mullen are putting out these days.

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