While we reported, and showed you pics of Jay Z “standing with the Nets”-the Nets wearing jerseys reading “I Can’t Breathe”—a slogan gone viral in remembrance of Eric Garner, a husband and father of six who was killed by the hands of an NYPD cop’s choke hold during questioning [about Garner selling lose cigarette packs]
Well where there’s smoke, there’s desire. And rapper Jay obviously felt more than inspired to do his part and take a stand well beyond posing for pics with a pro-team wearing jerseys to acknowledge the travesty that many feel was a total misappropriation of justice [hen the cop responsible for Garner’s death was not charged].
Shawn Carter a.k.a. Jay Z, a New York native himself-born and raised in Brooklyn’s Marcy Housing project-queried for and was granted a policy meeting with Andrew Cuomo (D.N.Y).
This meeting was to be about how cops enforced laws with the intent to discuss how the community and criminal justice system could work together to pass a reform package.
Cuomo and Shawn Carter met on Wednesday in Cuomo’s midtown office. And although the governor’s spokesperson Melissa DeRosa, stated the meeting was “productive,” it certainly did not go without extreme criticism.
Cuomo has policing powwow with rap mogul (and ex-crack dealer) –Fox News’ headline
Andrew Cuomo Meets With Admitted Former Crack Dealer Jay-Z to Discuss Police Policy –Page Six’s headline
Rap music is birthed from the streets of New York and was then, and still is, a form of creative expression no different than that of a poet, a song recited over instrumental music called a beat.
Jay Z, like many rappers, come from the streets and humble beginnings in which (depending on the eye of the beholder), theses beginnings are anything and everything but “humble.”
That being said, Jay Z’s electing to get involved did not go without scrutiny of his drug-dealing past in which news reports [from non other than Fox News and cc’d by New York’s Page Six] having made sure it doesn’t go unnoticed their rap on wax statistics: stating the rapper had 187 references to crack or cocaine on his 12 solo albums, and up to an including his most recent (2013) chart-topper “Magna Carta Holy Grail.”
As quoted by Fox (and Page Six):
“In addition to his rap boasts about drug dealing, his criminal justice experience includes being charged with stabbing people and bashing them on their heads with bottles at his favorite city nightclubs,” [unquote].
Additionally, spokesperson for the state GOP David Laska who, as well was outraged about the meeting, stated: “Given Jay Z’s history with the law, he’s as serious a source on police policy as Vladimir Putin is on freedom of speech.’’
Obviously, the world of social media has given way to a platform that redefines what “the court of public opinion” really means.
Either way, despite the outcry about the likes of “Jay Z” stepping from the stage to the state on such a serious issue of concern, a “bad guy” like Shawn Carter has been hit with much harder than mere word in the form of sticks and stones.
That being said, I’m thinking these words of the disdain of people like Fox, Page Six, and the world of social media; being hit with words of disagreement is nothing compared to having died by the hands and guns of other human beings out of fear, judgment, lack of understanding, misunderstanding, and sheer apathy.
So I’m thinking, unlike the Eric Garner’s of the world (for whom Jay Z is fighting for) unlike them, he –“Jay Z” (slash) Shawn Carter. will live.
