It seems that there is a big difference between JAY-Z the rapper and Shawn Carter, the kid from Marcy Projects.
And within that space between those two realities, a philosophy of what causes police brutality has emerged from the RocNation head honcho. Depending on who you ask, this mindset is the undercurrent that supports his new controversial and complicatedly secret partnership with the National Football League. It is also why so many people have jumped on this video where he seems to be victim blaming. In the video he seems to offer up a reason why young people from single-parent households don’t respect authority, and how that lack of respect yields the violence perpetrated against poor Black and Brown people in our country’s urban jungles.
READ MORE: Dame Dash Speaks on NFL and Jay-Z Partnership: “Everybody Knows Jay Ain’t Sh*t”
In several videos that have recently surfaced, JAY-Z is on a panel discussing race relations with New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft and CNN’s Van Jones. Therein the conversation he says that youth (from single-households and without fathers present in their lives) are angry and buck the system, which opens them up to exchanges with the police- that sometimes ends tragically.
?Jan 2019 panel w/ Bob Kraft, Van Jones & others:
JayZ says growing up in a single parent house causes people to have an “adverse feeling toward authority” which causes them to tell police “f*ck you” resulting in interactions that “causes people to lose lives.”
#JayzNFL pic.twitter.com/XONYeoGPKq— Resist Programming ? (@RzstProgramming) August 31, 2019
After saying people are killed during police interactions, JayZ continues, “we don’t want those in charge of the police areas to be in danger either. We want to be very clear. If someone commits a crime they should go to jail.” #JayzNFL pic.twitter.com/vGSxbmeUw2
— Resist Programming ? (@RzstProgramming) August 31, 2019
JayZ links the issues to politicians who “run on this,” but assures he means “no disrespect. I don’t want anyone to feel defensive about what I’m saying.”
He says the broken family structure impacts police officer families & “hard working” taxpayers who pay for jails. #JayzNFL pic.twitter.com/hX4kq9AU17
— Resist Programming ? (@RzstProgramming) August 31, 2019
To be fair, these are mere clips of the entire exchange. No one is really able to ascertain what the context of this video is unless the whole panel is released. This is not the first time that a rapper has expressed a similar thought. Check out what Jada Kiss said on this subject.
READ MORE: Kanye West Brought “Sunday Service” to Watts
However, after just hearing the clips above, many are thinking he is coming down with the same thing his little brother caught last year. In 2018, Kanye West (protegé of JAY-Z) received a huge amount of backlash after suffering from a strange case of Affluenza. The symptoms were saying crazy things about Black people wanting to be slaves, rocking the MAGA hat, and also saying Donald Trump was his father figure. This was only cured recently by his Sunday Services, and the hope is that JAY-Z the rapper gets some of Yeezy’s Jesus and remembers the little boy Shawn Carter from the NYCHA.
