In every organization, there are people whose presence becomes the heartbeat of the community—steady, grounding, and essential. For Jay-Z’s media and entertainment company Roc Nation, that person is Candice Davis. For more than 20 years, the 46-year-old has been the quiet force holding teams together, nurturing everyone around her, and doing the kind of work that often goes unseen but never goes unfelt. Now, the company she has poured so much of her life into is asking the world to pour back into her.
Roc Nation has launched a deeply personal organ-donation initiative in hopes of finding Davis the one thing she urgently needs: a life-saving kidney transplant.
Her story is layered, tender, and painfully familiar to many Black families who have watched loved ones battle chronic illness while carrying the weight of life’s other demands. A Brooklyn girl through and through, Davis stepped into the music and entertainment world in 2002 at Baseline Studios—the same walls that shaped a generation of hip-hop history. From there, she became a fixture at the 40/40 Club before joining Roc Nation’s office management team, where she quickly became a pillar in the company’s day-to-day rhythm.
But behind the excellence, she has been fighting a battle that spans nearly three decades. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at just 17 years old, marking the beginning of a long medical journey characterized by more than 25 surgeries. In 2022, her health took a devastating turn when she entered end-stage renal failure. Then, in 2023, heartbreak hit again—her husband and primary caretaker died from a sudden heart attack, leaving Davis and her daughter to navigate an already impossible moment.
Even with AB-positive blood, which usually opens the donor pool, Davis’s high antibody levels make finding a match extremely rare. Her 21-year-old daughter stepped forward to donate but was not approved due to being pre-diabetic. For now, Davis spends three days a week on dialysis, waiting—and hoping—for the match that could give her her life back.
Roc Nation’s campaign is more than a corporate effort; it’s a community call. It is a reminder of how urgently Black women deserve care, attention, and advocacy when navigating health systems that often overlook them. And it’s an invitation for anyone who can help to step forward.
To learn more about Candice Davis’s journey—or to see if you may be a potential donor—visit ACauseForCandice.com.