A couple of celebrities are making it known that they support the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the spin-offs that have sprung up in over 60 cities across America. Roseanne Barr, Tim Robbins, Russell Simmons, Alec Baldwin and, yes, even Kanye (of course) have all come out to say that the problems of the 99% are real, significant and should be addressed by the nation. But what about the biggest name in Hip-Hop today: Jay-Z?
Media mogul, super rapper and daddy-to-be is doing his own “Rich Dad, Poor Dad impression” this Sunday on the Hub network as his Hov-ness lends voice talents to an episode of the Secret Millionaire’s Club. What is the Secret Millionaire’s Club you ask? The SMC cartoon is the creation of billionaire Obama best friend Warren Buffet and is geared towards teaching kids how to invest wisely and become fiscally responsible citizens. This Sunday Jay-Z will explain to kids how they can make positive changes in their public schools and be anything they want to be if they just work hard enough.
I’m not knocking the guy, he’s done plenty of philanthropic work. But, this sounds more like advise that Jay-Z will be giving the billionaire-at-birth baby that he and Beyonce are about to churn out. I’ve never been too caught up in the notion that rappers lose credibility when they move out of the hood, but being out of touch with reality is something else entirely. It smacked me as a little tone def when the Carter and his side-kick Kanye were doing figure 8′s in a Maybach this summer when there are thousands of fans out there who can hardly afford the song on I-tunes.
Now he’s giving out investment advice in a cartoon?
After a couple of years with Beyonce do we need to send a Drop-Squad after J-Hova? The “Hard Knock Life” Jay-Z wouldn’t have anything to do with telling kids some pie in the sky story about investing wisely when public schools are underfunded, unemployment is at 15 million and the price of food, let alone a college education, has outstripped wages by 20% in the last decade. What about telling these kids how you had to struggle out of Marcy Projects and got lucky and that in this world, especially for a Black man, hard work isn’t enough to guarantee success? *Sigh* Of course Jay-Z isn’t thinking about today’s kids – probably just his own. He doesn’t have to really care about the 99′s problems cuz his kid ain’t one.
This article originally appeared on Politic365.com.