While the music industry has been diving into blockchain and cryptocurrency, Jay-Z is now tapping into a collaboration that aims to make the metaverse more accessible.

Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners is investing in spatial LABS (sLABS), a tech incubator that focuses on the metaverse and blockchain-based products, Billboard reports. Roc Nation vice-chairman Jay Brown and longtime venture capitalist Larry Marcus are also investing in the innovation.

sLABS is founded by Ghana-born and Southern California-raised technologist Iddris Sandu. Starting at 13-years-old, Sandu has worked with big brands such as Apple, Google and Facebook. The now 24-year-old and his company’s collaboration portfolio lists Uber, Instagram, Beyoncé’s Ivy Park, Kanye West’s Yeezy, Rihanna’s Fenty line, and — as AfroTech previously reported — the late Nipsey Hussle’s The Marathon Clothing Store.

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The tech incubator is set to launch its debut product, LNQ, next year. With LNQ — a blockchain-enabled hardware platform — Sandu’s goal is to “provide young creators with better tools to utilize the metaverse as it becomes a reality,” according to Billboard.

“Aligning with Marcy Venture Partners assists with our vision for elevating the youth as it relates to access and a means to true technological empowerment,” Sandu said in a statement. “The lasting impact of this relationship is not simply defined by the work we’re doing now, but by the immeasurable impact for generations of creators to come.”

The sLABS partnership is just one of Jay-Z’s latest blockchain investments as he’s becoming well-versed in the tech space. The company’s intersection of tech, music, culture and humanity is one of the driving factors of it reaching the business mogul’s radar.

“Iddris has a conscious world view and a youth-centric vision that is innovative and refreshing to witness,” JAY-Z said in a statement. “We share similar parallels in how we imagine impacting people in our lifetime. Partnering with him on this journey and others is very exciting.”

Iddris Sandu

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