Hennessy is continuing its partnership with Grammy award winning rapper Nas. Their latest campaign, titled “Dear Destiny,” is a two-minute commercial that features the 47-year-old lyricist writing a letter to his daughter — also named Destiny.
The spot starts as a camera zooms into Nas sitting down at a dining room table. After Esco places his glass of Hennessy down, he picks up his pen to write his letter, which reads like a heartfelt poem. Nas narrates the ad smoothly as he discusses the idea of Black excellence in the note to his child.
“Dear Destiny, standing still scared to death, holding you in my hands, I knew. I wanted you to see something I never saw; feel something our family had never grasped: Black excellence,” he says. “Something like the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921, 40 acres and 35 blocks of Black folks running the town. Lawyers, doctors, businesses, all Black owned. Imagine that. The vision of Black Wall Street was intentional and so was its downfall. Why, Destiny?”
The commercial juxtaposes black-and-white clips of prominent Black people from the Black Wall Street community with modern entrepreneurs.
“Autonomous Black folks living this good. They took the city by force. And burned it straight to the ground,” Nas continues. “A hundred years later, a hundred years strong. Destiny, you knew a spirit that powerful could never be held down. Black excellence lives on and those spirits, they never stop, they never settle. Black women building, Black men thriving. Destiny, believe in Black creativity, Black wealth, our potential, our people. Wherever Black folks dream, the spirit of Greenwood is there. So find them, build with them, dream with them, be your own Black Wall Street however and wherever you imagine.”
The ad ends with Destiny, his daughter, joining her dad at the dining room table. But, not before the visual shows her, the young entrepreneur who started her first business at age 17, in a makeshift makeup boutique. In 2014, Destiny launched her lipstick company Lipmatic after her friends pushed her to start a lipgloss line. The business has grown and expanded to makeup and is now known as Matic Cosmetics.
“Dear Destiny” debuted on BET during the 52nd annual NAACP Image Awards. According to AdWeek, the campaign also marks the launch of Hennessy’s Never Stop Never Settle Society initiative. The cognac company has teamed with the Marcus Graham Project to form a growth accelerator that aims to ensure Black entrepreneurs receive the resources, funding and infrastructure necessary to expand their businesses and help their communities prosper.