Wiz Khalifa has taken his talents to the NIL (name, image and likeness) space, signing 25 college athletes to endorsement deals with his Taylor Gang Entertainment imprint.
According to On3, the deal was to promote Wiz’s Lil Uzi Vert-featured “45 Minute Beatdown” track. In exchange for compensation, each signee had to post a video dancing to the song on their respective Instagram Stories earlier this month (December 2).
Brokered by the A&P Agency who work heavily in the NIL space, the deal is one of the first of its kind by a music label.
In a statement, A&P co-founder Stefan Aguilera explained why the partnership with Taylor Gang was a great way to tap the younger market.
“Right now in the music industry, there is no better marketing tool to communicate to the college demographic effectively except for our athletes that have a vast following consisting of students and alumni which we have developed over our course of our relationship with our athletes,” Aguilera said.
“A&P Agency is the optimal choice for the music industry, not just because we represent the best athletes, but because nobody understands the college market better than us speaking in terms of creative marketing.”
It’s been a successful 2022 for Wiz, who earlier this year upgraded to a $7.6 million pad in Encino, California after unloading his former mansion for $1 million more than what he bought it for. The move came ahead of his sold-out joint tour with Logic to promote his Multiverse album.
In addition to Multiverse, Wiz also released his Full Court Press collab LP with Big K.R.I.T., Smoke DZA and Girl Talk in 2022, in addition to linking up with Juicy J for their Stoner’s Night tape.
Wiz also re-released his cult classic mixtape Taylor Allderdice to DSPs on April 20, which arrived after the mixtape celebrated its 10th anniversary on March 13.
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