Hot on the heels of landing a multi-year deal to broadcast the All Def Movie Awards, ALL DEF DIGITAL (ADD) is producing the first-ever All Def Roast. In partnership with MERRY JANE, the cannabis lifestyle media platform, ADD has confirmed Snoop Dogg as the first celebrity to be roasted. The announcement was made today by Russell Simmons, founder of All Def Digital, and Sanjay Sharma, President and Chief Executive Officer for ADD.
The All Def Roast will be a new franchise developed by the All Def Digital team and will feature the most worthy personalities deserving of the unique and inimitable "Def" touch. The roast series will feature a line-up of some of the best names in popular culture, from comedy, music, and sports to even politics.
"Snoop had such an amazing time with us at the All Def Movie Awards, when we told him about our idea to launch a new breed of ‘Def Roasts,’ he was immediately on board as our first honoree. We are jointly partnering with his company MERRY JANE to roll up the best roast ever," said Simmons. "The All Def Comedy Roast will reimagine the format and be completely fresh, fun and irreverent. We will bring the best names in the world of urban and pop culture together for a true night to remember. Snoop is gonna leave baked and roasted— and the audience will remember this one forever."
"With a footprint deeply established in the world of comedy, we plan to develop the All Def Roast into a signature cross-platform programming franchise for our media company," said Sharma. "Short form content will be distributed across our platform which now reaches over 100 million fans, we can leverage new platform tools like Facebook Live, and we are already speaking with digital and broadcast partners about collaborating together as well."
"Over the years, I have roasted several entertainers and friends and now it’s my turn to be in the hot seat," said Snoop Dogg. "I’ve got mad love for what Russell has done with ALL DEF DIGITAL and am looking forward to seeing what ADD and MERRY JANE have up their sleeves for my roast. And as they say, ‘if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.’"
"MERRY JANE is excited to partner with ALL DEF DIGITAL to kick off our joint roast with an entertainment legend like Snoop Dogg," said Ted Chung, Co-Founder of MERRY JANE. "MERRY JANE and ADD are both forward thinking companies that engage the modern global audience, so a partnership on this production is a natural fit. We create groundbreaking material which has changed antiquated perceptions and celebrates the world of Cannabis — and our inaugural roast with Snoop Dogg will definitely push the needle."
ALL DEF DIGITAL has been moving aggressively into premium long-form content, in part through its first-look deal with HBO for television. HBO has announced several ADD projects, including All Def Comedy Live, a stand up comedy series based on ADD’s wildly successful weekly live comedy event in Hollywood. The All Def Roast will be produced by ADD’s head of programming, Chris Conti, and VP of programming, Jeru Tillman, both of whom also produced the All Def Movie Awards as well as ADD’s HBO comedy series.
"Like with the All Def Movie Awards, we’re focused on filling generational and cultural gaps in the media market," said Chris Conti, Head of Programming for ADD. "This is a twist on a traditional format, done in an unconventional way, that we know our audience will love. And who better to flip the script than Russell Simmons and Snoop Dogg?"
