Jadakiss and Hasan Minhaj brought hip-hop, comedy and New York culture together for a Lower Manhattan block party celebrating their new coffee-and-chai collaboration.
The rapper and comedian teamed up on Sept. 21 to promote their limited-edition “Instant Classic” bundle, drawing a crowd outside Kolkata Chai Co.’s storefront on Kenmare Street.
The gathering featured several familiar names from New York’s hip-hop and entertainment scenes, including Dave East, C.J. Wallace, Jaewon Phillips and comedian Usama Siddique.
The collaboration combines Kiss Cafe’s medium-dark Arabica coffee blend with Kolkata Chai’s signature chai concentrate and a handheld frother.
For Jadakiss, the project builds on a family business he started with his father, Bob Phillips, and son, Jaewon Phillips. Kiss Cafe launched in 2022 and previously attracted investment interest from fellow hip-hop heavyweight 50 Cent.
Minhaj also has a family-business connection to the collaboration. He became an investor and business partner in Kolkata Chai Co., founded by Bengali brothers Ayan and Ani Sanyal.
The partnership therefore brings together two businesses rooted in different cultural traditions.
For Minhaj, however, the collaboration also represented a personal full-circle moment. He recalled discovering Jadakiss and The LOX when he was in eighth grade.
“My earliest memory of Jadakiss is, funny enough, The Lox’s ‘Money, Power, Respect’ video,” Minhaj said. “I was in the eighth grade.”
Minhaj described the project as a distinctly New York partnership, pointing to the city’s ability to bring different cultures and communities together.
“This is a New York partnership,” he said. “It’s a combination of two different cultures.”
He also referenced Jadakiss’ collaboration with Jennifer Lopez on “Jenny From the Block” as an example of the rapper crossing cultural lines through his work.
Jadakiss sees the coffee-and-chai collaboration as more than a one-off product. He hopes the partnership inspires other family-owned businesses to collaborate across cultural communities.
“Maybe this can spark a flame in some other families to do some things,” he said. “We’ll do some more collabs with some other Black and brown families.”
For Minhaj, teaming up with an artist he admired growing up made the project especially meaningful.
“It’s an honor to team up with my childhood hero,” he said. “It’s not only for the culture, but to have two cultures collide and make something new.”
With the “Instant Classic” bundle bringing coffee and chai into the same cup, Jadakiss and Minhaj are betting that the collaboration can become something bigger than a limited-edition drop — a New York-style meeting point between two cultures, two businesses and two very different creative worlds.
