A$AP Rocky has established a four-year, full-tuition scholarship at the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment at Long Island University, the rapper and actor announced this week.
I’m a big believer in creating your own lane and giving people the opportunity to do the same. There are so many talented young people with ideas, ambition and something important to say. This scholarship is about helping one of them turn that vision into something real.
A$AP Rocky, in a statement announcing the gift
The gift joins a growing list of entertainment-industry scholarships at the school, which has previously received funding commitments from DJ Khaled, Megan Thee Stallion, NBA All-Star LaMelo Ball and Grammy-winning engineer and producer Young Guru, who also directs the school’s Music Technology, Entrepreneurship & Production program. Each of those gifts, like A$AP Rocky’s, funds a four-year, full-tuition award for a single incoming or current student rather than being spread across a larger pool of recipients.
The Roc Nation School began enrolling students at LIU’s Brooklyn campus in fall 2021, combining traditional academic coursework in music, sports management and entertainment business with mentorship and professional-network access drawn from Jay-Z’s Roc Nation company, which lends the school its name and industry connections. About a quarter of enrolled students receive Roc Nation Hope Scholarships, which the school says allow recipients to graduate debt-free on four-year, full-tuition awards funded by artists, athletes and other entertainment-industry donors rather than by the university’s general endowment.
A$AP Rocky, who appeared on the cover of Variety last year, has in recent seasons built out a public profile beyond music and acting that increasingly includes philanthropic commitments and business ventures. The scholarship announcement arrives as hip-hop artists of his generation, many of whom came up without easy access to the industry’s professional pipelines, have become some of the most visible donors underwriting arts-and-entertainment education at American universities, a shift that mirrors the broader move by athletes and musicians to fund named scholarships rather than simply donate to general university funds.
The school has not yet named a recipient of the new scholarship or said how a student will be selected for it.
