Procter & Gamble plans hip-hop music foray

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble is getting into the hip-hop business by launching a record label with Island Def Jam Music Group.

The joint venture with be called Tag Records, a nod to Procter & Gamble's's Tag body sprays. It will be run by Island Urban president Jermaine Dupri, who helped produce the latest sales disappointment by his girlfriend, Janet Jackson.

Tag Records will unveil its first signing in May, and is promising a marketing budget 10 times the going rate of $1 million or so for most artists.

"My goal is to find artists that have longevity written all over their face," said Dupri, adding that TAG is expected to launch two artists per year during the course of the three-year deal.

Jackson's "Discipline," meanwhile, is currently at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 in its sixth week.

Reuters/Billboard