If you've seen actor, rapper, America's Got Talent host, and TeenNick chairman Nick Cannon in the news lately, you might have assumed it was due to his performance in an upcoming Spike Lee joint about violence in Chicago's south side. But on Wednesday, the entertainer had news from an entirely different dimension when he announced that he had added another feather to his not-quite-Pharrell-sized hat: chief creative officer at RadioShack.

Does this "hire" mean anything more than seeing Cannon's face on advertisements, as has been the case with many other major tech company celebrity hires? RadioShack certainly wants us to think so, as the company's announcement gave a vague list of Cannon's CCO duties, the biggest of which appears to be the "development of RadioShack-exclusive products." Cannon will also be tasked with in-store music curation, event promotion, and helping the company "continue to grow" its educational and STEM-specific initiatives. RadioShack didn't specify what existing educational initiatives it is running, and its home page currently offers no official information about such initiatives.

The announcement did recall a story from Cannon's youth, in which he broke a stereo that he'd taken apart then went to a RadioShack in his home of San Diego to get help fixing it—where he eventually figured out how to assemble and modify his own sound systems. (In other interviews, Cannon has boasted that as a kid, he'd figured out how to connect telephones to turntables and "make hold music.")

"RadioShack is a brand that matters," Cannon said in the announcement. "As a kid, spending time in my neighborhood RadioShack was invaluable. The maker mentality and educational approach taught me a lot and encouraged me to explore my own creativity. In return I wanted to give back by fostering creative pursuits in others, and helping kids move to the next level."

However, while Cannon has launched tech ventures over the past few years, the results have spoken less to RadioShack's maker mentality and more to its modern, suffering incarnation, including budget-priced tablets sold on QVC and Beats-like headphones. Cannon previously served as an "entertainment ambassador" for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, apparently to promote a line of "Ncredible" tablets. Those devices included a built-in multimedia sharing app designed to let aspiring entertainers pitch their acts directly to Cannon's production company. (As of press time, the official Ncredible site's online store wouldn't load.)

Until today, the last major announcement about the state of RadioShack (after its filing for bankruptcy and delisting from the NYSE earlier this year, that is) came in July when the company was acquired by General Wireless for $26.2 million.