Jay Z drops $10K on Nipsey Hussle's "Crenshaw"

Nipsey Hussle wanted to make a point by pressing only 1,000 hard copies of his new album, "Crenshaw," selling those for $100 and giving the digital version away for free.

He said he wanted to stick it to music labels for turning artists into conformists -- and apparently, Jay-Z agrees with his "I Am Proud 2 Pay" message.

Jay dropped $10,000 to pick up 100 copies of Nipsey's album, posting a photo on his site of the impressive stack of CDs and blessing it with the "#Newrules" hashtag.

Shout to Jay Z for buying 100 copies of #Crenshaw! http://t.co/0q0ymjOiFg http://t.co/L2HGopo7Ob

— iamproud2pay.com (@NipseyHussle) October 9, 2013

The Hov has made a point over the past year to make his mark on the business side of the music industry -- hence the "new rules" moniker -- particularly through deals with Samsung and Facebook to release his album, "Magna Carta... Holy Grail" and the "Holy Grail" video through digital and social media.

In releasing "Crenshaw" for $100 or for free, Nipsey said his goal was to reward the "1,000 of [his followers who] are engaged to the point of brand loyalty" rather than the thousands of people who follow him on Twitter but don't "mobilize around my releases."

He said he has 100,000 downloads -- and has sold all 1,000 copies of the $100 version (which came with a concert ticket included) -- in the first 24 hours since the release of "Crenshaw."

100k cash off iamproud2pay 100k downloads on datpiff 24 hrs. #FUCCTHAMIDDLEMAN #CRENSHAW

— iamproud2pay.com (@NipseyHussle) October 9, 2013

http://t.co/rlyF7kBsgd or http://t.co/pzg8JoKhAV #Crenshaw Always by choice never by force

— iamproud2pay.com (@NipseyHussle) October 8, 2013