Rap star Dave East is the latest hip-hop artist to leap into the legalized weed market. His new company, East Co., according to the artist’s Instagram page, will provide legal cannabis pharmaceuticals.
East said, “We started from Ground Zero right here, ya dig…we created an idea. [We] created a name. Meet up with the right partners. Created family. Watch that seed grow. Best weed ever. I’m co-signing my own s###.”
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The announcement came with a video of East on a cannabis farm. He appears with Steve Lobel, the OG music manager. The video has the following caption: “Stay Tuned #EASTCO.”
East dropped the strain on Saturday March 27th, at the grand opening of Lemonnade in Van Nuys, the first ever retail cannabis store, grow facility, hip hop museum, and music recording studio. The launch was kicked off by a ribbon cut by Lobel with many celebrity appearances throughout the day and vendors in the cannabis industry.
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East, born David Lawrence Brewster Jr., is a Harlemite. He is a protégé of legendary rapper Nas. Nas signed East to his Mass Appeal Records and then worked with East at Def Jam Recordings.
East is, in many ways, a self-made success. East built his rep on a range of mixtapes. In 2017, he released Paranoia: A True Story. On the mixtape, East’s eleventh, he collaborates with Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, and Nas. It hit the ninth slot on the U.S. Billboard 200.
Like many music artists before him, as well as sports figures, East sees the potential in weed entrepreneurship. Over a dozen states and at least one territory established programs for medical and adult use.
Cannabis remains illegal on the federal level, but varying states and the general public lean toward flexibility when it comes to weed. Only three states have legislation that firmly adheres to “no public access to the plant.”
Artists like Dave East hopes to use his East Co. to make it harder to keep those policies in place.
