Another article on the Post web site, attributed
to Newscore, slammed him harder:
Jay-Z, who has had 12 No. 1 albums, has spent much of his career promoting the massive accumulation of wealth and celebrating the people that do so.
The Jay-Z defense
On the other hand, those defending Jay-Z point out that, while he may be in the 1% of wealth, he's earned it through creativity and drive, not through the
crony capitalism and unfair rules that the Occupy protesters have decried.
That's a significant point, except it breaks down when it comes to Jay-Z's
promotion of Atlantic Yards and the new Brooklyn arena.
Comments on Jay-Z from Gothamist
Gothamist quoted Occupy Wall Street spokesman Patrick Bruner:
Naturally there will be some bloodsuckers who come out of the woodwork. We have a screen-printers guild on camp, and it's easy to find many other T-shirts that actually benefit the cause.
As to questions of appropriation, one Gothamist commentator, Daniel, made a salient point:
Exactly a sad tale of cultural appropriation of art forms, culture, and entertainment of poor whites starting with such exploitive black men like Elvis, through The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin blatantly lifting entire songs of the white man for the black man's profit. Oh wait, that's not how that happened! One cultural idea appropriated and all this outrage?
Where does Occupy All Streets come from?
To quote the
Wall Street Journal (quoting uncredited 'blogs'):
The Occupy Wall Street protesters can’t claim complete ownership over the “Occupy All Streets” phrase, however. As blogs have pointed out, that phrase appeared in the SlutWalk protests in Berlin.
(h/t Atlantic Yards Report) The New York Post reported: Jay-Z has pulled his $22 Rocawear t-shirts, which showed “Occupy Wall Street” altered to read “Occupy All Streets” after criticism of his company's failure to share profits with protesters.
