Blacc Sam Credits Jay-Z With Helping Secure Marathon’s Live Nation Partnership

Blacc Sam credited Jay-Z and Roc Nation with helping The Marathon Clothing handle a flood of orders after Nipsey Hussle’s death, leading to a Live Nation partnership that supplied an advance and legal support.

Speaking on One54 Africa alongside his father, Dawit Asghedom, Sam explained how the family protected Nipsey’s business as it grew suddenly. Nipsey was killed outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles on March 31, 2019.

“Jay-Z and Roc Nation came in early and helped us with a partnership with Live Nation to clean up our website because we had so many orders that we didn’t even have a way to ship out or produce,” Sam said.

He recalled an offer to address the immediate backlog before settling on a business agreement.

“We’re gonna produce everything. We’re gonna fulfill the orders so your website doesn’t get shut down,” Sam recalled being told. “And if there’s a deal to do, we could do a deal. If not, it’s on the strength.”

Jay-Z’s support for Nipsey stretched back years. In 2013, he bought 100 copies of the rapper’s $100 mixtape Crenshaw, putting $10,000 behind the independent artist’s direct-to-fan sales campaign.

Sam said the later help went beyond clearing unfilled purchases. “So Live Nation came in and treated us like family,” he said.

“They entered into a partnership with us and gave us a big advance, and they took over all the merchandise,” Sam continued.

He said access to that infrastructure included lawyers who pursued counterfeit products and websites using Nipsey’s intellectual property or the Marathon name.

“Any fake websites that were up, any bootlegs that were out, they were sending cease and desists and sending lawyers,” he said.

Sam also described a separate fight involving attempts to claim the Marathon name through a corporation. He said lawyers connected to the Cochran firm helped the family challenge that effort.

Sam did not identify who he suspected was behind it, but AllHipHop.com reported that the Crips were the ones trying to hijack the name through a company, Crips LLC.

He said the other side backed away as the proceedings moved toward identifying who ran the company. His account placed that dispute alongside the broader work of protecting the brand after Nipsey’s death.

For the Live Nation agreement, Sam described an eventual move back toward operating independently after the advance was recouped. He did not give a dollar amount for the advance in the clip.

“We were able to recoup the, the advance they gave us, and we were able to kinda pivot off on our own,” he said.

The family’s business work has continued across music, clothing and restaurants. Marathon Burger added a Terminal 1 location at LAX in October, extending the food business beyond its neighborhood storefronts.

Sam credited the support network Nipsey built with helping the family carry that work forward.

“Everything was honestly based on the relationships, um, that people had with my brother and how mu- how much they loved bro,” he said.