SoulAlive said:

White House Dismisses Rapper's Cuba Song

By Mary Bruce | ABC OTUS News – 2 hrs 7 mins ago

Rapper Jay-Z's latest track is getting poor reviews from the White House.

In the song, entitled "Open Letter," Jay-Z brags that he "got White House clearance" for his recent controversial trip to Cuba with wife Beyonce.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today denied the White House had any involvement with their trip, saying the Treasury Department handles all clearances for travel to Cuba.

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury," Carney joked.

In the song, Jay-Z also recounts a conversation he had with President Obama about his trip. "Obama said, 'Chill, you, gonna get me impeached… We don't need this s-t anyway, chill with me on the beach," he raps in the nearly three-minute song.

Carney dismissed the claim. "It's a song," he said. "The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip."

"I am absolutely saying that the White House, from the president on down, had nothing to do with anybody's personal - anybody's travel to Cuba. That is something that Treasury handles," he said.

Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip to Havana was government-sanctioned and allowed through a licensed program that encourages "meaningful contacts" with Cubans.

According to the new song, they "turned Havana into Atlanta" with "Guayabera shirts and bandanas," Jay-Z raps.

Good!

I hope he enjoys the taste of humble pie

In all seriousness, the whole thing is so trivial. I'm surprised even the white house decided to entertain this foolishness with "poor reviews",,,,,,,of all the things they should be reviewing.

That's because Obama's Press Secretary is a tool.

SoulAlive said:

White House Dismisses Rapper's Cuba Song

By Mary Bruce | ABC OTUS News – 2 hrs 7 mins ago

Rapper Jay-Z's latest track is getting poor reviews from the White House.

In the song, entitled "Open Letter," Jay-Z brags that he "got White House clearance" for his recent controversial trip to Cuba with wife Beyonce.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney today denied the White House had any involvement with their trip, saying the Treasury Department handles all clearances for travel to Cuba.

"I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury," Carney joked.

In the song, Jay-Z also recounts a conversation he had with President Obama about his trip. "Obama said, 'Chill, you, gonna get me impeached… We don't need this s-t anyway, chill with me on the beach," he raps in the nearly three-minute song.

Carney dismissed the claim. "It's a song," he said. "The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip."

"I am absolutely saying that the White House, from the president on down, had nothing to do with anybody's personal - anybody's travel to Cuba. That is something that Treasury handles," he said.

Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip to Havana was government-sanctioned and allowed through a licensed program that encourages "meaningful contacts" with Cubans.

According to the new song, they "turned Havana into Atlanta" with "Guayabera shirts and bandanas," Jay-Z raps.

Great. When will people learn that the more you feed into the Carter's Machine, the more they sit back and laugh. Shawn knew exactly which lyrics would garner the most attention. Just as Beyonce knew that releasing that song (Bow Down) with a broad message to any and everyone that someone wouldn't be able to resist and say something on twitter, facebook or record a response. How dumb... Yes, Keyshia I'm talking about you.

My point as others have said, this is just another faux controversial story that's not worth these 300 plus words I've used. Jay & Bey care too much about their money to have any real "CON-TRO-VERSY."

namepeace said:

He has every right to "clap back" at his critics, that's the American way for anyone with the platform he has.

But I can't help but imagine the results if he would use that platform in a similar way on issues of the day NOT involving him directly. Certainly, he doesn't have to. But still.

I hear ya NP. I think he's a little too selfish for that. Although it's never too late, he's had plenty of time to go there. He worships at the alter of that green martian.

banks said:

mjscarousal said:

I agree ...... but like Timmy84 said Jay Z did this to himself and I dont feel sorry for him.

This is what happens when you think you are more important than what you really are.

(What does the White House have to do with him going to Cuba anyway? That doesnt necessarily mean he got permission just because he has gone to the White House and knows Obama....

silly lyrics)

If I had Jay Z's money and the media scolded me ..... I would laugh because I wouldnt care.

Its funny how his quick to respond to the media but wont respond to The Game, DMX etc calling him out for a free style battle

Probably because he knows he will lose.....

That's just it.. That verse has nothing to do with the Trip. He is saying he's a boy from Brooklyn and has white house clearance' you know this kid that grew up in the pj's now can get in to the White House to see the POTUS..

Okay, but HOW MANY TIMES can he go back to that well? He reminds us of his rags-to-riches story every time he spits 16.

i can't STAND Jay Z, he needs to go the fuck away! as far as i'm concerned his money (and that of 99% of wack ass peers) is BLOOD money and they owe the black community an apology. pseudointellectual, self-absorbed, non-giving a fuck ass n##!%

namepeace said:

banks said:

That's just it.. That verse has nothing to do with the Trip. He is saying he's a boy from Brooklyn and has white house clearance' you know this kid that grew up in the pj's now can get in to the White House to see the POTUS..

Okay, but HOW MANY TIMES can he go back to that well? He reminds us of his rags-to-riches story every time he spits 16.

Marcy Stand Up!

Tell me why again Conservatives are furious over Jay-z going to Cuba, when this has been happening for decades. We should all be laughing over the blatant hypocrisy.

The real target behind the phony outrage is Obama.

[Edited 4/12/13 11:00am]

Musicslave said:

namepeace said:

Okay, but HOW MANY TIMES can he go back to that well? He reminds us of his rags-to-riches story every time he spits 16.

Marcy Stand Up!

Considering he hasn't been back to Marcy since the early '90s when he got with Jaz-O.

Timmy84 said:

Musicslave said:

Marcy Stand Up!

Considering he hasn't been back to Marcy since the early '90s when he got with Jaz-O.

IkR?! GTFOH Shawn!

Timmy84 said:

mjscarousal said:

X would eat his ass up like he was dog chow...

Pretty much.

Like Nas did with Ether ...

Identity said:

Tell me why again why Conservatives are furious over Jay-z going to Cuba, when this has been happening for decades. We should all be laughing over the blatant hypocrisy. The real target behind the phony outrage is Obama.

Because they are retarded. Those miami cubans always want attention and since Jay and Bey are very known in popular culture, they thought, well lets throw some more shade on Cuba and people who visit the place. It's crazy to me that to this day" normal" americans can't travel to Cuba, unless they have a certain VISA. The political situation in the states is laughable, neither Democrats or Republicans know what the fuck they are doing... At least Cuba has free health care and free education for everyone, unlike the states... (Yes I know it has nothing to do with it but just wanted to inform ppl bout it).

His lyrics have been lagging for some time now, but I still dig his tunes. Production is almost always top notch. He'll always be in my top 5 rappers. "Y'all gon' learn today!" How old is the Zoolander reference, Mr. H-O-V?

Identity said:

Tell me why again why Conservatives are furious over Jay-z going to Cuba, when this has been happening for decades. We should all be laughing over the blatant hypocrisy. The real target behind the phony outrage is Obama.

Because of its size and history with the U.S., Cuba is easy to pick on. What's the point of a continuing embargo? China is far worse when it comes to human rights violations, yet we're on thier teet like white on rice.

runphilrun said:

Identity said:

Tell me why again why Conservatives are furious over Jay-z going to Cuba, when this has been happening for decades. We should all be laughing over the blatant hypocrisy. The real target behind the phony outrage is Obama.

Because of its size and history with the U.S., Cuba is easy to pick on. What's the point of a continuing embargo? China is far worse when it comes to human rights violations, yet we're on thier teet like white on rice.

C what U did there.

You see, what had happen was... 21 Jump Street director Phil Lord, the son of a Cuban refugee, has responded to Jay-Z's response with his own open letter, seemingly educating and blasting the man who calls himself Hov for being "a bad citizen... a bad neighbor... a bad artist," referring to Jay-Z's Open Letter as "Nihilism with a beat."

The couple's Cuba trip was approved by the U.S. Treasury Department; but Phil Lord said that the single Jay-Z released in response to his critics upset him so much that he had to speak his mind about it.

And that, he most certainly does...

Read the entire letter below which is quickly making its way across the web:

An Open Letter to Jay-Z

Dear Mr. Z,

I just heard your new track, "Open Letter," released today. It's got everything I love about your music: looping internal rhymes, an infectious beat, and imagery that draws me into a kind of swaggering, defiant fantasy.

Speaking of defiant fantasies, I've been following news of your recent trip to the island nation of Cuba. As the son of a Cuban refugee, and cousin and nephew to many Cubans on the island, I cringe when Americans visit Cuba for a fun island vacation. For one thing it's illegal (which nobody seems to care about), but more importantly, it's either ignorant of or calloused to the struggles of Cubans on the island. I actually encourage my friends to travel to Cuba, to bear witness to one of the great tragedies of our time, to learn about the real Cuba, to put a human face on the caricature of Americans that the Castros propagate. Exchange and travel between our two nations should be a catalyst for change, as it has been even in my own family. But for me, Cuba is not the place to have a fun, sexy, vacation. Because for Cubans on the island and living elsewhere, it's not.

So when I heard of your visit, I thought to myself, Jay Z seems like a smart, thoughtful guy. He doesn't realize what he's walking into. He probably just thinks Cuba is a chic place to relax with the family. He probably just doesn't know the things I know.

He likely doesn't know that the Cuban tourism industry is run by the Cuban military, so when he spends money at an officially sanctioned hotel, or restaurant, he is directly funding the oppressors of the Cuban people.

He doesn't know that most Cubans have poor access to independent news sources, the internet, books, and food.

He doesn't know that Cuba has two health systems, one for the well-connected, and one for everyone else.

He doesn't know that before Castro, the Cuban peso traded one-to-one with the dollar, and that since then, the Castros have raided the nation's coffers and introduced widespread poverty to a once prosperous nation.

He doesn't know that my ancestors fought to free Cuba from Spain, and to set up a democracy to ensure that they would always be free.

He doesn't know that in spite of those dreams, my mother and her family fled for their lives from this regime way back in 1960, as did *two million* other Cubans.

He doesn't know about the thousands of people executed by firing squads led by sexy t-shirt icon Che Guevara.

He doesn't know about the dissidents, artists, and librarians that currently rot in Cuba's prisons, and the thousands more who live in fear.

He doesn't know about Orlando Zapata Tamayo, an Afro-Cuban dissident who died in a Cuban prison in 2010 after an 80-day hunger strike.

He doesn't know that a U.S. Citizen, Alan Gross, is currently serving a 15-year sentence in a Cuban prison for providing phones and computers to the members of the Cuban Jewish community. He doesn't know that all attempts by our government and private citizens to secure his release have been scoffed at.

He has likely forgotten about all those who have died in the Florida Straits, trying to float on makeshift boats to freedom.

He doesn't know that contrary to popular understanding, Amnesty International reports that repression of dissidents in Cuba is actually on the rise.

He doesn't know that when an international music luminary shows up in Cuba, his presence is unwittingly used as propaganda to support the regime.

He doesn't know that artists in Cuba, with whom he was supposedly having a cultural exchange, serve under the close supervision of the government, and don't enjoy the freedom to defiantly name check the President, call out a few senators, threaten to buy a kilo of cocaine just to spite the government, or suggest that they will follow up their purchase with a shooting spree, as rapped about in "Open Letter."

He doesn't know that just because our country applies a different, some say hypocritical policy to China, it doesn't make either regime any less oppressive, or any more acceptable.

He doesn't know that when people say "I've got to visit Cuba before it gets ruined," I think to myself, "It's already ruined. And by the way, ruined by what? freedom of speech? walls that don't crumble? shoes? Do you mean ruin Cuba? Or ruin your fashionable vacation in Cuba?"

He doesn't know that when I really start to think about all this, I get so mad I can't sleep.

He doesn't know that when he's wearing that hat, smoking that coveted contraband cigar, he looks like a dupe.

He doesn't know how much good he could be doing in Cuba, for Cubans, instead. Bearing witness, supporting artistic freedom, listening.

He doesn't realize that as someone privileged to be born in a free society, one in which someone could come from nothing and become a celebrated music, sports, fashion, business and political mogul, it's not only his good luck to be able to bring to light the needs of the less fortunate, it's his obligation.

But then, Jay-Z, I heard your new song, and paid attention to the lyrics.

I heard you bragging about your "White House clearance."

I heard you talk about how much you enjoy Cuban cigars.

And I heard you tell the President I voted for, "You don't need this shit anyway, chill with me on the beach."

You reject the responsibility to speak up for an oppressed people, even while you take up your own cause with gusto.

Then I figured it out.

You actually know all of this stuff, you just don't care.

That's not just being a bad citizen, or a bad neighbor.

It's being a bad artist.

It's Nihilism with a beat.

-Phil Lord

Its easy to scapegoat Jay-Z but the American government is to blame for sanction and the embargo on Cuba while while maintaining such a relationship with communist China.

Jay is a rich capitalist but the U.S. is part of the reason Cuba is in the state its in. Tell Phil Lord to write them a letter first, since they actually have the power to make change instead of trying to get some Hollywood "street cred" for going after Jay-Z.

Identity said:

Fox Fascist Propaganda News wouldn't give a flip about Jay-Z or his vacation destinations were he not a big Obama supporter and campaign donor.

A couple of years ago, Jesse Ventura (then-Governor of Minnesota) visited Cuba, and no one on Fox News gave a damn. But yet, Jay-Z & Beyonce (recording artists) visiting Cuba is controversial?!?

The question that should be asked is WTF is wrong with Rupert Murdoch for allowing HIS Fox News to be this petty?

Identity said:

Yeah, another day, another manufactured political scandal to keep us from discussing the real issues facing this nation.

.......yes, like drones spying on us in the USA for example!

TonyVanDam said:

lastdecember said:

mjscarousal said:

Jay Z doesnt have any problems with politicians. Jay Z has a problem with anybody fucking with his money That is the ONLY thing he cares about.

I dont see why he thinks he is so special because he knows the president.

MJ was invited to the white house multiple times during multiple periods of his career and meant 3-4 presidents and had the keys to all their white houses but he didnt make songs about it.. I mean come on He acting like he just won the lottery just because he knows Obama

Plenty of people have meant Obama and have worked with him closely.

Even people who arent millionaires or celebrities.

Jay operates on a double standard is basically my point, if you wanna talk about politicians, OBAMA is one of them, just because this is linked to the Treasury Department dont mean nothing, he is the president he knows what is going on in all avenues. That is why you had the White House Press sec come down and talk on this, WHICH brings up another good point, North Korea is about to start firing off weapons at South Korea etc...and your white house is issuing a statemtent about Jay Z? Really? Priorities, whos running that show there, not good.

President Obama is more at fault for NOT dealing with the issue concerning North Korea. All Kim Jong-Un wanted was for the president to pick up the smartphone and call him!

(playing Prince's Ronnie Talk To Russia while saying THAT.^)

BlaqueKnight said:

Its easy to scapegoat Jay-Z but the American government is to blame for sanction and the embargo on Cuba while while maintaining such a relationship with communist China.

Jay is a rich capitalist but the U.S. is part of the reason Cuba is in the state its in. Tell Phil Lord to write them a letter first, since they actually have the power to make change instead of trying to get some Hollywood "street cred" for going after Jay-Z.

Bingo!

Graycap23 said:

TonyVanDam said:

A couple of years ago, Jesse Ventura (then-Governor of Minnesota) visited Cuba, and no one on Fox News gave a damn. But yet, Jay-Z & Beyonce (recording artists) visiting Cuba is controversial?!?

The question that should be asked is WTF is wrong with Rupert Murdoch for allowing HIS Fox News to be this petty?

His association aw Obama

It was OK for Elvis to have an associate with Nixon, but not OK for Jay-Z to have an associate with Obama?!?

Racism. That's figures.

BlaqueKnight said:

Its easy to scapegoat Jay-Z but the American government is to blame for sanction and the embargo on Cuba while while maintaining such a relationship with communist China.

Jay is a rich capitalist but the U.S. is part of the reason Cuba is in the state its in. Tell Phil Lord to write them a letter first, since they actually have the power to make change instead of trying to get some Hollywood "street cred" for going after Jay-Z.

I agree but Jay Z has some fault in it as well.

He made a big ass deal about going to Cuba to the media and all the media did was exploit it. He got mad at the criticism and made a dumb song about it. Thats HIS fault and if he doesnt want people criticizing him than he should keep his business to himself

In Nov 2008, actor Sean Penn went to Cuba, interviewed Raul Castro, Fidel's brother, over tea and dinner and no one cared. Where was the angry backlash then ?

Sean Penn didnt make an abundance of tweets about it though or made a big deal about it to the media.

mjscarousal said:

namepeace said:

He has every right to "clap back" at his critics, that's the American way for anyone with the platform he has.

But I can't help but imagine the results if he would use that platform in a similar way on issues of the day NOT involving him directly. Certainly, he doesn't have to. But still.

Because he is not a real MC and he does not care about social issues or norms that affects people or the world. He just cares about money and his own reputation, fuck him and his corny ass rhymes.

How true- him and his wife are the biggest narcissists in show business- and that is saying a lot !!

mjscarousal said:

Sean Penn didnt make an abundance of tweets about it though or made a big deal about it to the media.

There was media coverage; however Penn's motives were never questioned and no one inquired as to whether he'd received proper government clearance.

TonyVanDam said:

Graycap23 said:

His association aw Obama

It was OK for Elvis to have an associate with Nixon, but not OK for Jay-Z to have an associate with Obama?!?

Racism. That's figures.

WELL!!! WELL!!!

And Elvis was a junkie trying to stop drug wars

mjscarousal said:

Sean Penn didnt make an abundance of tweets about it though or made a big deal about it to the media.

But then again, Sean Penn don't give a flying f*** what anyone at Fox News thinks.