After the New York Times ran a chunky profile of Jay-Z this weekend, a gleeful Fox Nation concluded that the fabulously successful rapper/entrepreneur/NBA owner is against the Occupy protests at Zuccotti Park and elsewhere. One percenters, unite!
Headline? "Jay-Z Rips Into Occupy Wall St."
Said the Times:
He gets a little agitated when the subject of Zuccotti Park comes up: “What’s the thing on the wall, what are you fighting for?” He says he told Russell Simmons, the rap mogul, the same: “I’m not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don’t know what the fight is about. What do we want, do you know?”
Jay-Z likes clarity: “I think all those things need to really declare themselves a bit more clearly. Because when you just say that ‘the 1 percent is that,’ that’s not true. Yeah, the 1 percent that’s robbing people, and deceiving people, these fixed mortgages and all these things, and then taking their home away from them, that’s criminal, that’s bad. Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on.”
Does that sound like Jay-Z "ripping" Occupy Wall Street to you? Please. Hova might be asking the protesters to clarify their goals, but I suspect many of the protesters are asking themselves the same question. So what does it mean when Jay-Z then pointedly accuses some one percenters of robbing, deceiving and ripping off clients off with fixed mortgage schemes? That's not ambiguous: "That's criminal. That's bad. Not being an entrepreneur."
Evidently it's possible to be for free enterprise and against vulture capitalism at the same time. It's called "nuance."
Leave a Comment:
Good grief. Who gives a shhit what Jay-Z says, one way or the other?
He didn't build that 470 million dollar net worth.
Frankly, I think that OWS had to start off exactly the way that they did. The protests had to spark a pause in our left/right conversations where no one was listening to each other. Frankly, someone needs to explain to Hova that his "nuance" is exactly what OWS was all about.
For Heaven's sake, Steve, what are you babbling abou--? What? Oh, Kent Jones. Sorry, Steve.
Go ahead, Kent. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Jay-Z was hawking "Occupy" t-shirts through Rocawear last year before public derision forced him to remove them...he's hardly even relevant.
I suspect about 200 million Americans are asking "Who the He!! is Jay Z?"
I know I am.
That's an attitude that doesn't do anyone any good. Just because you don't know who he is doesn't mean he's not an important figure. Jay-Z is regarded as one of the most important hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs of the last 15 years. He has tremendous clout with the urban demographic and his get out the vote efforts were an important part of Obama getting elected. What he says matters to a lot of people.
Just because he speaks from a place that isn't familiar to my white, midwest, middle-class experience doesn't make him irrelevant.
He's the reason you don't hear The Who except at the nursing home anymore.
Don't give a crap about him or his music as long as he pays his taxes....
Agreed, who the f... gives a sh.t what Mr. Beyonce thinks. Next!
I'm sure the reporting is out of context anyway. In any case, he's not alone in being unable to get a handle on just what OWS stands for and is in no way a GOP endorsement.
JayZ just held a 2 day Made In America concert in downtown Philadelphia which concert started with a video Made In America by President Barack Obama. JayZ's relevance is that he reaches the young voters in America and any seemingly negative remarks about OWS do not reflect on his election preference.
For me, anyone with a huge audience that wants to stand up for and stand behind POTUS, he's OK and I thank him. Hey, even this article is getting in the news!
Even if you don't like Jay-Z's politics, you might like what's been done to one of his best songs:
Mitt Romney in "99 Percent Problems" - http://bit.ly/Ankyml
Check this one out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKXZ6quhps0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
His clothing line also started printing "occupy" merchandise last year without even throwing a dime ows' way, so he's a little bit of jerk to now to come out with his statements...
For full disclosure, I'm against many parts of OWS myself... I don't want to trash 'em though but... yeah I don't want to trash 'em so I'll just leave it at that.
I'm sorry, I really don't care what's on Jay-Z's mind. He is a rapper. He is good. He has made a ton of money. Good for him. I like his music but he isn't an economist or a political scientist. His ideas on the Occupy movement and the economy carry about as much weight with me as ... Clint Eastwood's.
I don't know about Zuccotti Park, but I spent a good deal of time at Occupy Oakland and I can tell you without a doubt that this strawman is false, that those who Occupied that square(Oscar Grant Plaza) were NOT anti-capitalist. You could find them sure, but being one BART stop from Berkeley, that shouldn't be a surprise. It's like the Anarchists being at the front of every freaking parade, they wanted to be there and make themselves known. They don't vote, how else are they going to do it? It's about time that the liberal side of the media stops spinning this lie for the 1%