Photo Credit: CNN
Jay-Z has had quite the eventful week with the opportunity of all opportunities placed before him all while coming across as a ruthless opportunist pretty much from all sides. To start, earlier in the week a partnership was announced between Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation and the NFL where he would work with the NFL to “enhance live game experiences and amplify the league’s social justice efforts”. The deal was to “inspire change” according to Jay-Z. “Roc Nation has shown that entertainment and enacting change are not mutually exclusive ideas; instead, we unify them. This partnership is an opportunity to strengthen the fabric of communities across America. The NFL were willing to do some things, to make some changes, that we can do some good.” the NFL added that the agreement will “nurture and strengthen community through football and music.”
While at face value this looks like a great opportunity. There’s just one obvious thing missing here, and that’s Kaepernick. This all started over his alleged unemployment over his participation in peaceful protest addressing police brutality. It comes across as Kaepernick’s situation being used for profit and ironically by someone who has helped Meek Mill with his legal issues, making him a bit of a rising criminal justice figure as of late so this move comes across as a bit of betrayal.
Kaepernick’s girlfriend Nessa Diab asked “So really, how can Jay-Z and the NFL utter social justice in their partnership while keeping Colin unemployed because of his social justice work?” She continues, “It’s typical for the NFL to buy different PR looks to cover up their dirt-that’s nothing new. But what is disgusting and disappointing is Jay-Z let them use him. Whether Jay-Z knew it or not (I don’t doubt his intelligence-so I would think he knew) he helped the NFL bury who he said is an iconic figure, Colin Kaepernick.”
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid said it looked like Jay-Z’s goal was to goal was to “make millions and millions of dollars by assisting the NFL in burying Colin’s career.
There’s an important takeaway with all of this and that is that through all of this, the side that objected to Kaepernick’s kneeling, Conservatives and the President never actually addressed police brutality. One Harvard study ranking the alleged severity of it was quoted which does nothing to address the communities that actually face it as a problem, and besides that, Kaepernick was told he was protesting the flag. He said it was about police brutality and yet both sides never had an actual conversation about the issue at hand. That means years have gone by with one side only concerned with destroying the head of the protest, all while making the community he protested on behalf of not like them just as much as if not more than before. However these deals of Jay-Z’s turn out, so long as the actual topic of police brutality is discussed, it will be a positive. It is, however going to be a hard sell working for an organization he once felt had done his friend wrong.
And lastly, in other Jay-Z news, his debut studio album Reasonable Doubt was just released on all streaming platforms a full 23 years after it came out. Since 2015 it had only been available on Tidal. The album has been described as something that saved his life. As for the title he had the following to say in an interview about how it came about. “We named the album Reasonable Doubt because you know, with anything you do in life, people will judge you,” he said. “Whether it be interviews or radio or whatever you do in life people will judge you. The album is like basically on trial. You either going to like it or you don’t.”
Do the right thing, Jay-Z. That’s all we can say.
