Unlike some corporate partnerships with hip-hop stars, Nas has been making good on his one-year partnership with Fila. Inbetween having the #1 album of the week, Nas is also busy pushing Fila’s new Italia oldschool hightops which come in three different colorways. As part of the deal for using Nas’ name and face, Fila is supporting Nas with marketing dollars for his current album release campaign and will also be a sponsor of his accompanying tour.

Similar to Jermaine Dupri’s TAG Records deal, as labels continue to be strapped for cash, more and more artists are looking for “package” partnership deals that involve a third party “financier” to invest in the expensive process of launching a major album. Instead of outright partnership deals that usually call for an artist getting paid in cash to become a product sponsor, the future is now product sponsors putting their money in an album launch campaign. This way artists get marketing dollars, labels mitigate financial risk and product sponsors still get the artist to push their brand.

Via: Hypebeast