Meek Mill is adding yet another title to his business portfolio. The rapper has just become a co-owner of sports apparel retailer Lids, and he announced the new deal in an exclusive interview with Business Insider.
Lids is the largest retail seller of hats and licensed sports products in North America. As part of his new partnership, Meek will lead the company’s creative strategy team and release a limited-edition line of hats through the brand in August.
According to Business Insider, the rapper from Philadelphia joins the Lids ownership team by way of his close relationship to Michael Rubin, the co-owner of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.
Rubin is also the executive chairman of the sports retailer Fanatics and a co-founder of Mill’s Reform Alliance Foundation for criminal-justice reform.
Mill discussed his approach to the new venture calling it “his boss year” and reflected on how he “studied” and looked to model his business acumen on that of his mentor Jay-Z, who is also his Roc Nation label boss, collaborator, and co-founder in Reform.
On business; Meek said: “I’m trying to get ownership in a lot of things to where I can still live comfortable the way I was living in my prime years as a rapper. I’m just trying to build a foundation of some good businesses that’ll keep me living good. And, Lids, I’ve been shopping at Lids my whole life.”
He attributed his newfound success in business directly on the influence of the “billionaire from Marcy,” saying: “He’s just a different type of guy. He’s about his business. He’s never late; he’s on point. He’s checking on his business every chance he gets. Basically, I’ve seen Jay-Z, and then I’ve watched other artists who came up around his time. He actually built something. He built businesses, and he built things that made him become the man who he is, that we could call a billionaire guy. He built that, and I watched that, and I studied that.”
Meek also executive produced a series on his legal process with Amazon called “Free Meek,” which he hopes will highlight the severity of the unfairness of our justice system.
“If you’re not informed about it, if you don’t have any understanding of the system and the flaws of the system, I hope it’ll open your eyes and give you a taste of what’s going on in life,” he said.
