Employees at financial tech firm Block have been ordered by executives not to discuss a prominent board member: rapper Jay-Z.
Staffers have recently received “stern warnings” from management that they shouldn’t mention Jay-Z, whose legal name is Shawn Carter, on internal company forums like email or messaging system Slack, according to three employees who requested anonymity because they are not permitted to speak about corporate matters. No reason was given for the order, the employees said.
Carter is among Block’s nine board members.
In 2021, under CEO Jack Dorsey, Block acquired a majority stake in the music streaming platform Tidal from a company owned by Carter. Dorsey and Carter are said to be personal friends.
Last week, Block laid off dozens of workers from Tidal’s relatively small staff, Fortune reported at the time. Further cuts are expected at Tidal and other Block entities, which also include Square and CashApp, as Dorsey continues to reorganize the company.
Earlier this week, Block laid off some staffers at TBD, its developer platform, as Fortune earlier reported. The platform is now set to be shuttered entirely. There were also layoffs at Square this week, impacting at least 20 people, employees told Fortune.
The order to not mention Carter came last month, as some employees questioned among themselves Carter’s role on Block’s board given his purported long time friendship with P. Diddy, the rapper and entrepreneur whose legal name is Sean Combs. The two have collaborated on music and frequently been photographed together over the years attending things like parties and sporting events. Combs is currently in prison awaiting trial related to a federal indictment accusing him of years of sex trafficking and related crimes. Multiple sexual assault allegations and numerous lawsuits against Combs have also been filed.
A spokeswoman for Block pointed Fortune to the company’s most recent shareholder letter, published today, which notes the winding down of TBD, but otherwise declined to comment about any warning against mentioning Carter. The letter also notes a “scaling back of our investment in Tidal,” giving Block “room to invest in our bitcoin mining initiative, which has strong product market fit and a healthy pipeline of demand, and Bitkey, our self-custody wallet for bitcoin.”
Shortly after Block employees were warned about discussing Carter, Dorsey held a virtual all hands meeting. Usually, during these meetings, employees ask questions, anonymously if they choose, of Dorsey and other Block leaders. For this meeting, however, Dorsey turned off the ability for employees to ask questions anonymously, according to two people who were present for the call.
People present explained that the CEO kicked off the meeting by complaining about perceived “negativity” from staff, saying that he wanted more positivity. Dorsey then handed off the meeting to other Block executives who were told by Dorsey to answer the question, “Why are you happy you’re here,” according to the people present.
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