By this point, it is impossible to not know about the Occupy Wall Street movement. One person that is definitely aware of it is Jay-Z.
Jay-Z's clothing company, Rocawear, recently released a shirt in support of the movement, or at least that is his side of the story. Rocawear released a shirt that read "Occupy All Streets."
While it is easy to see Jay-Z's side of the story – the more publicity the better – but it seems like a slap in the face to the movement.
Occupy Wall Street has been focusing on big business corruption, particularly in politics. Making a shirt that rips off the title of the movement to make money for a big company seems to be the most absurd thing you can do.
Jay-Z saw potential to make a killing by using the popularity of Occupy Wall Street to sell merchandise, probably at a giant profit. This is the biggest insult you can do to the movement.
The movement has been gaining speed even with the media black out; it doesn't need some giant corporation to make attempt to support it, if you believe that excuse.
Jay-Z saw an opportunity to make a profit off of a movement knowing perfectly well that kids would buy it just to look cool and make a statement without having to actually do anything.
The money Jay-Z would see from these shirts would be huge and, more likely than not, he would pocket most of the profits from it.
In what world does Jay-Z live in that this is acceptable? These people are trying to make a major political and social statement, and creating this shirt just takes away from that.
When people see that a corporation is creating merchandise for this movement, the validity of the movement is questioned.
Whether Jay-Z meant to hurt the movement or not is unclear, but it is clear that he hindered the credibility of the movement.
I'm not saying that Jay-Z had malicious intentions, but that's how it came off. If he was trying to support the movement, he should have come up with a better way to show his support other than making a shirt to generate profits.
If he wanted to make a statement about the movement, he should have come out and said it. He has a lot of star power, people listen to him, almost religiously; he could have become a major supporter for the movement.
Jay-Z has since pulled the shirt due to the uproar it caused by supporters of the movement. This proves how even he saw how warped it was to create the shirt.
This might be a case of good intentions that are misunderstood, but Jay-Z could have come up with a better way to show his support for the movement.
Email: jameson.butler@ubspectrum.com
