Nas enters cigar business

Nas enters cigar business. Hip-hop and cigars are not an unfamiliar combination. There are plenty of successful rappers who are known to love cigars. People such as Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Suge Knight, Sean Puffy Combs, and many more. Jay-Z even worked with General Cigars on the Cohiba Comadore cigars back in 2014. Two years earlier, Snoop Dogg launched a line of cigarillos too. Swisher Sweets has the Swisher Sweets Artist Project with song contests. The latest winner was a rapper and the song was co-written by DaBaby. So that another hip-hop star is entering the cigar business as an investor isn’t too far-fetched. Award-winning and multi-platinum recording artist Nas is now co-owner and partner in Escobar Cigars.

Nas refers to himself as Escobar in several songs and interviews, but the brand is not using the name because of Nas. Escobar Cigars is three years old and the parent company is making cigars in the Escobar Cigar Factory in Esteli Nicaragua. There are currently two lines, the Escobar Natural and the Escobar Maduro. Both come in five different vitolas ranging from a 7×50 Churchill to a 5½x46 Perfecto and include a Double Toro, Robusto, and Double Corona as the other vitolas. The Natural is made with an Ecuadorian Habano wrapper over Nicaraguan filler and binder. The Maduro line features a Mexican San Andres wrapper over an Indonesian binder and Nicaraguan Filler.

Entering retail market

Now that Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones comes in as a partner, Escobar Cigars wants to enter the retail market in the USA and find international distribution. Currently, the brand is only offered on a direct-to-consumer basis. “When the team at Escobar Cigars initially approached me, I was immediately drawn to the brand by the exceptional quality of their product,” says Nas via a press release. “This partnership with Escobar has been almost two years in the making and I am honored to be an equity partner with them. I am looking forward to growing this brand and to giving back to the local communities in Nicaragua where our tobacco is grown, aged, and hand-rolled into a premium cigar.”

The plans for the immediate future are releasing another line, the Escobar Ultra Black. The name comes from the Grammy award-winning King’s Disease album. The Escobar Ultra Black is a line of aged cigars. Escobar Natural and Maduro are getting rebranding after suggestions from Nas.