Jay-Z has decided to support the Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) movement with a new shirt that his clothing brand Rocawear will distribute; Hov recently wore the Occupy All Streets shirt at the MSG Watch The Throne performance.  Jay-Z getting behind the Occupy Wall St is sort of a BIG DEAL; this attention will bring a crowd not typically interested in social issues.  Of course the attention will be superficial at first as people will be more into looking cool wearing the t-shirts, but there will be an effect (positive and negative).

BUT, I do have 1 problem with Rocawear’s Occupy All Streets t-shirts

“The ‘Occupy All Streets’ T shirt was created in support of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement. Rocawear strongly encourages all forms of constructive expression, whether it be artistic, political or social. ‘Occupy All Streets’ is our way of reminding people that there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street. At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement.” 

Sooooooo, you support #OWS, BUT you only support to a certain point????

Come on Rocawear, you have to do better than that; the #OWS movement is about the 99% tired of the 1% building their fortunes on the backs of the working man.  And here we have Rocawear profiting off the backs of #OWS!!!

Hmmmmm…….

As Jon Bershad wrote in an article on Mediate

If the shirt is just designed to be cool and “of the moment” or something, then, fine. Do whatever you want. However, if they actually intend it as support, then they should be supporting in a more tangible way.

What Jay-Z’s doing isn’t wrong, per se, it’s just kind of tasteless and jerky seeming. If he wanted to lend his support, he could have shown up at the protests…  Or he could have made the shirts say something clearer like “Jay-Z, a rich man, should pay more taxes!” Or he could just give the movement some of the darn profits.

I agree with Bershad on these points, basically Rocawear is profiting off the backs of #OWS!  Jay-Z needs to call up whoever at Rocawear and tell them to do the right thing.  I realize there is a cost of production, Rocawear should keep what money they need to cover cost and give the rest to support #OWS.

Put the mic down for a second Hov and do the right thing!!

If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!