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Jay-Z is a Grammy-winning rapper, a club owner, a clothier, a fledgling hotelier, the part-owner of a basketball team and the former president of a record label. Now, he gets to add adman to his resume.
Jay-Z - real name, Shawn Carter - is joining forces with another African-American entrepreneur, Steve Stoute, to open Translation Advertising in New York, an agency that will help marketers reach multicultural consumers.
The new agency will be part of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, which has worked for mainstream advertisers like General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, McDonald's and Reebok.
Translation Advertising expects to announce its first clients soon, said Mr. Stoute, who sold Translation Consultation last October for an estimated $10 million to $15 million to the Interpublic Group of Companies in New York.
Interpublic, the third-largest agency company (behind the Omnicom Group and the WPP Group) also owns agencies like Campbell-Ewald, Deutsch, Draft FCB, GolinHarris, R/GA and Universal McCann. Interpublic and Translation Consultation share clients like the Chevrolet division of G.M.
Interpublic will own 49 percent of Translation Advertising. The majority stake will be owned by Mr. Stoute, 37, and Jay-Z, 38, who will be the co-chairmen.
"You know his story," Mr. Stoute said of his new partner, who grew up in the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn. "He came from nothing and turned it into something before our eyes."
Mr. Carter, in a telephone interview, said he considered his involvement in an agency "part of the natural growth" of his career.
"As an artist, you make music," Mr. Carter said. "And if you see people who don't know how to market your music, you get involved in it."
Otherwise, what you want to accomplish "gets lost in translation," he added, "no pun intended."
Mr. Carter was referring to his work first at Roc-A-Fella Records and later at Def Jam Recordings. Mr. Carter stepped down last month as president at Def Jam, part of the Universal Music Group.
"He left his day job at Def Jam; he has to do something," Mr. Stoute said, laughing.
