Jay Z’s controversial partnership with the luxury clothing brand Barneys appears to be paying off.
According to the New York Daily News, after six weeks, the rap icon’s New York Holiday Collection has tallied roughly $1 million in sales.
The high-end items range from a $70 T-shirt to a $33,900 alligator skin-banded watch.
Intially the “Empire State of Mind” rapper planned to donate 25 percent of the profits from his Barneys line to charity but following the outcry over so-called “Shopping While Black” incidents at the store, he decided to give 100 percent of the proceeds to the Shawn Carter Foundation, which provides scholarships for underprivileged people seeking higher education.
Jay Z has been widely criticized for continuing his relationship with Barneys after the accusations of racial profiling. He pledged to helped the store review its policies last November.
The easy position would have been to walk away and leave policymaking to others hoping that someone addresses the problem,” said Jay Z at the time. “I will take this into my own hands with full power to recommend, review and revise policies and guidelines moving forward. I am choosing to take this head on.”