There is a long article about Jay-Z in the New York Times and among other things, the rapper has to say a few things about the Occupy movement in a conversation with Russell Simmons:
‘What’s the thing on the wall, what are you fighting for? 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?’
‘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.’
Let me decode it, do I understand him correctly? He doesn’t think he is part of the 1%? The 1% is not just represented by the banks which did offered bad mortgages! And by the way, fixed mortgages are bad Jay-Z? These are precisely the good ones! But how a guy, who has probably always bought everything cash, would know? This declaration demonstrates how disconnected from reality a billionaire can be …. And you don’t know what the fight is about? These people aren't having a picnic in the park, this was really offensive, in a Marie-Antoinette kind of way, but the author of the article calls him the king of Brooklyn, so… Even though the occupy movement may have lost its momentum and some clarity, the fight had good reasons to exist.
And I don’t like what he implies with his ‘Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on’. Good for him if he is one of these entrepreneurs, he is an accomplished businessman and so what? We should venerate him for this? A country shouldn’t only be about entrepreneurs, there is an obvious need for so many other people such as doctors, and teachers, and that’s beyond ridiculous. All he is saying is, oh yeah, this was bad but let’s all be entrepreneurs and capitalists because this is the American way! But he should be smart enough to realize this isn’t possible.
And let’s not forget that Jay-Z’s clothing company Rocawear sold an ‘Occupy Wall Street’ t-shirt last year, and that the profits didn’t go to the movement but rather straight into Jay-Z’s pocket,… it was surely some lucrative entrepreneur move! But he probably didn’t like that Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the Occupy movement, called him a ‘bloodsucker’, and that’s why he is so bitter now. Let's leave Jay-Z celebrate his money, partner with companies and rent an hospital for his wife's delivery, he has nothing to do with the Occupy movement.