Jay-Z Brings Roc 101 Imprint to Random House

Do you write about pop culture or would you consider your work to be genre-defying? If so, Jay-Z’s new imprint may be interested in hearing from you.

Article by Rachel Deahl, photo courtesy of Flickr/Daniele Dalledonne

Jay-Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, has created an imprint at Random House called Roc Lit 101. The new imprint will be overseen by Chris Jackson, publisher and editor-in-chief of One World, and Roc Nation’s executive v-p Jana Fleishman.

In a release, RH said the imprint will be “devoted to publishing books at the dynamic intersection of entertainment and genre-defying literature.” It added that it will aim to release titles on a wide array of topic, including music, sports, pop culture, activism, and art. Jackson added that the aim of the imprint is “to create books that draw from the best of pop culture—its most imaginative and talented storytellers, innovators, and literary chroniclers” while finding “new voices and new stories, but also new readers.”

The first list from Roc Lit 101 will bow in summer 2021, launching with C.C. Sabathia’s memoir Till the End and music journalist Danyel Smith’s Shine Bright. Sabathia’s book will, RH said, be a “raw” account of “baseball, family, fame, addiction, and recovery.” Smith’s book, the publisher explained, weaves “memoir, criticism, and biography” to claim “black women in music as the foundational story of American pop.”

Forthcoming titles from Roc 101 are set to include a work by artist Lil Uzi Vert, a title about criminal justice by rapper and activist Meek Mill, and memoirs from rappers Fat Joe and Yo Gotti. Also planned for the future are cookbooks, as well as children’s titles.