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Jay-Z’s Company Sells Occupy Wall Street Shirts, Chooses Not To Give Any Money To, Y’Know, Occupy Wall Street

» 76 comments

Right now there is a slightly heated debate going on in the Abrams Media office as we’ve found a story that somehow intersects the purviews of three of our different sites; Jay-Z’s company, Rocawear, is now selling a t-shirt that says “Occupy Wall Street” with graffiti style lettering modifying the message to read “Occupy All Streets.” A mini scandal has brewed over the shirt as it’s become clear that Rocawear, currently, has no plans to give any of the procedes to the occupiers themselves.

Is this a brave show of support or a cynical commodification of a genuine cultural movement? Here’s a Mediaite take.

At first, this writer didn’t see much of a problem. The changing of the text is important to my initial feelings. By making it say “Occupy All Streets,” the shirt could be seen as a parody of the OWS slogan and, as such, owed as much monetary compensation to the occupiers as Mad Magazine owed Shepard Fairey. However, I changed my mind when I read a statement from Rocawear to Business Insider:

“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.”

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.

One of the Jay-Z defenders in our office pointed out that, by symbolically using his voice through the shirt, the monumentally influential rapper and entrepreneur is doing more to help the cause than nearly anyone can. That may be true. However, why should he profit off his support?

An analogy I used here in the office was of the canned food drive we have for Thanksgiving. If I were to walk in one day and say “Hey, that canned food drive is great!” or, more aptly (and cryptically), “Hey, all food drive!,” that would be all well and good. But, if I were to say that while not putting any cans in myself as well as taking some of the cans that come in back to my house, people would think I was being, well, kind of d*ckish.

And I think that’s the point. 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 like his friend Kanye West. 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.

Honestly, I think this whole controversy will be over in hours. The story will become enough of a PR nightmare that, by the end of the weekend at the latest, Rocawear will have released a face-saving statement reversing their earlier position. Still, this is a story that sparks an interesting debate about what happens when you find the intersection of politics and cool.

Check out Styleite’s take here and Mogulite’s here.

Update: Well, that didn’t take long– the shirts are being taken off the market. The full report from Styleite here.

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  • Anonymous

    HAHA

  • Anonymous

    This is not funny. I am a Jay-z fan and parody or no parody, some of the profits should be donated or used to support the OWS. 

    Greed is the problem with politicians and wall street. Jay-z is not helping the already tarnished image of rappers.  

  • Pablo

    There’s one born every minute.

  • Anonymous

    ?????????????

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Snicker.

    Next thing you know, Moore will be making a movie about this.

    He will use non union labor and probably sue the producers for a larger percentage of the cut.

    Hypocrites by thy name. And the useful idiots fall for it again.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Also, since Mediaite never covers all of the media. Did you hear about OWS protesting Wells Fargo and then depositing 20k into Wells Fargo. The very same branch they attacked just a few days earlier?

    Also, who is taking 7% of their 500k that they put together? That is just funny right there. Will link if you want it.

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Jay-Z should reconsider his decision!!

  • Info

    Jay Z and his ilk have no depth. they are actually republicans and don’t even realize it that’s how confused they are. You can’t rap about nothing but how much YOU have and how little everyone around you has and then try to be part of a counter movement to that culture. Corporate culture is CELEBRATED by his type of artists. Jay Z, Steve Stoute Beyonce, Kanye exemplify the OPPOSITE of what OWS is about and they’re just too uneducated and shallow to get it. It’s kinda sad. They treat politics as fashion cause they’re too stupid too know better and so rich noone tells them how tacky and offensive they are.

  • Info

    that’s a lie. They use the Lower east side Credit Union

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1572984371 Cindy Nowicki

    You don’t think Jay-Z and his ilk are greedy too?….You are either naive, or ignorant!

    Time to protest at the homes of celebrities, athletes, CEO’s, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Target,  and ALL who make a living AND a profit, off the backs of the 99%!

    Why just Wall Street? 

    When does the redistribution start? What happens when “WE,” the 99%, run out of  “other peoples money?” Where do we turn then? Who will support us? Do we protest and riot again? But, riot and protest against WHO?

  • occupy the GOP

    You use an article about the greed of Jay-Z to attack Michael Moore? Geez, you’re an idiot. Try and stay on point.

  • occupy the GOP

    I guarantee that after all of this negative publicity, he’ll be wise to donate a percentage (albeit a small one) to OWS. 

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Nice info… “Info”!!   =)

  • Anonymous

    Maybe Jay-Z could donate condoms, penicillin and a kilo of pot…

  • Anonymous

    Bill O’Reilly gives away the latest Lis Wiehl book when people buy Factor gear.
     
    Jay-Z could give away Ed Schultz’ latest best seller with each purchase.
     
    He could also make some Occupy tent door welcome mats and maybe some Occupy Rape whistles and Occupy Molotov cocktail kits.

  • Anonymous

    What sizes do they have?

    If Michael Moore wanted to show up wearing one of the t-shirts, would that be possible? Bob Beckel?

    Maybe they should make Moore an Occupy baseball cap and Beckel some Occupy suspenders.

  • unmutual

    Meanwhile this creep is throwing people out of their homes so he can make millions of dollars on a basketball stadium in Brooklyn. 

  • Michelle

    If you don’t like Capitalism, you don’t have to live here.  Oh wait, you don’t!

  • Michelle
  • John Brunner

    Oh, so the OWS crowd can run out and deposit the money in the nearest Wells Fargo branch? Jay-Z is only doing the jobs the OWS folks don’t want to do.

  • John Brunner

    Most of Jay-Z’s money comes from spoiled white kids that live in affluent suburbs – you know, the same spoiled white kids from affluent suburbs that make up 99% of the OWS movement. I don’t see what they have to complain about – if they don’t want to make Jay-Z rich, they should stop buying his stuff.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PKEQSTA4WOBYU5Z7QNSBUR2LXI MASSMURDERMEDIA

    jay-z does not have controlling interest in the soon to be brooklyn nets…  it’s a 1%’er from russia…  but it’s still a fair point you make, and i’d like to hear his stance on that…

  • John Brunner

    Yeah, it sure must be rough to find yourself enslaved by Jay-Z and NBA. I mean, how can you ever free yourself from the shackles of a lifestyle in which you spend your own money on stuff you want?!?

    If you figure out the answer, post a response from your Mac Book Pro.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PKEQSTA4WOBYU5Z7QNSBUR2LXI MASSMURDERMEDIA

    it’s all the more ironic, as jay-z came up hustling CD’s from his car trunk…  he was out making it on his own as an entrepreneur…  yet he supports dismantling a system that served him quite well because a bunch of whiny ass hippies don’t have enough stuff…… 

  • Anonymous

    idiot, I live and make money in a capitalist country.

    Since, you have never been out of America, you probably think the whole Europe is socialist

  • Anonymous

    He is making money off the OWS. Simples

  • Michelle

    Though I don’t like him, I sure hope he doesn’t back down to you thugs.  Why don’t you get a job and make your own money, losers!!

  • John Brunner

    Why don’t they make their own t-shirts? All they need is a loom, and then they could weave together the back hair from all the aging hippies in Zuccotti park…

  • Michelle

    If you understand Capitalism, I’m confused why you believe OWS’ers are OWED peoples money. 

  • John Brunner

    Hey, don’t hate on Michael Moore – he’s a hero to the OWS crowd, mainly because of his efforts to put McDonalds out of business by single-handedly eating every hamburger that comes off the line. He made good progress, initially, but he doesn’t know that McDonalds built out a separate meat-packing plant within three weeks of the initial assault, so now they can feed him from that one plant, and the rest of America from the other.

  • EponymusRex

    CLUE to pandering, greedy opportunists:    C-H-A-N-G-E starts in the W-A-L-L-E-T.  
    You can expect that IF these guys are shamed into contributing, change is all they’ll give. 

    Rocawear, it’s not to late to GROW a heart:  but that options requires GIVING! 
    It goes a LONG way towards encouraging buyers to pick your shirt.

    UNTIL Jay-Z antes up for real, treat him as a POSER, and don’t buy this shirt. 
    If you do, you just encourage more businessmen to act like lying, scheming politicians. 
    Haven’t we had enough of THAT?   STARVE  GREED  OUT !!!

  • John Brunner

    Hey man, the OWS folks are all equal – it’s just that the ones on the “finance committee” are a little more equal than everyone else. The OWS fools ain’t going to see that $500K ever again, LOL.

  • EponymusRex

    Maybe he could send them mosquito nets as taser defense, or those plastic FEMA coffins for those unexpected sudden deaths.   You’re just full of great ideas, aren’t you Gloves? 

    As far as Republican “gifts” go, they only give away what they don’t want and consider worthless and unsellable.  Like their opinions and advise, for instance.

  • Anonymous

    Jay-z used the OWS name to make money from shirts. Intellectual rights go with capitalism.

  • John Brunner

    Michael’s kind of hard to accommodate, but it can be done – I’ve heard that the trick is to just get two of the 4XXL shirts, then cut a sleeve off of each one, split the seam, then stitch the two shirts together and he can usually wear them – it’s still a little snug, but he can take it off after the photo op and then put his muumuu back on.

  • Anonymous

    LOL, Even Jay-Z is taking advantage of the useful idiots of OWS. Such gullible, mouth breathing fools!

  • http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

    Commodified dissent… from Levi’s, to Beck and now “occupy all streets”. Dissent is in demand.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Just came across it surfing the BlogCon infiltration. You have to see that, they invaded with about 20 OWS fools and got thrown out. One of them commenced to being arrested and the women that attacked a person was also there.

    I say let them camp out til next year election time. If the murders, diseases and other attrition does not take care of them, their idiocy will make the Reagan victory look like a regular election.

  • norbit

    These Democrat-supported OWS goons are ruining they’re own message!

    It figures, one thing that the libs get right – the Wall Street/Washington corruption – and now they’re screwing that up! 

  • Anonymous

    Good luck with that.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Really, can you provide any proof of that? I will supply mine as soon as you show yours.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    No, he is NOT a Republican. He is a Democrat.

    See, Republicans do not mind people making money, that is just capitalism.

    Democrats mind people making money, if you are not politically connected. That is called corporatism, crony capitalism, state capitalism or communism.

    Now, I sad Rep and Dem, that would better be described as leftist and conservative respectfully. See, leftist like the blurring of government and business where us righties like individualism and free market capitalism.

    So quit attempting to throw your hypocrites like him and Obama our way. That is YOUR party there little fella.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Hey there little fella, the NBA and other major league sports get the government to get the taxpayers to fund 100 Million dollar projects. So you can take the NBA off your list. What are you? Ignorant or something?

    Do not take that as a hit, but professional sports screw over the taxpayers all the time.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Hey, I am setting up a corporation to take donations and to do work for the OWS. I only charge 15%, and this way you folks do not have to do any business with those evil banks. I will take all deposits immediately and then dish out the money to whom I see fit. LOL

  • Anonymous

    Rather than whining, the head dope fiend/thug from Zuccotti Park can walk to the bank, take out some donated money, walk over to one of a hundred t-shirt printers in NY and tell them what you want. Then sell the products at the park.

    Bada bing.

  • Anonymous

    OWS gave 50k to occupoop Oakland, who deposited it at Welss Fargo, that is the story.

  • http://gawker.com/5482474/the-mysterious-case-of-toure-praising-raped-slaves-for-seducing-massa Touré’s insane mf cousin Phd

    “Occupy Jay-Z’s Wallet”

  • http://gawker.com/5482474/the-mysterious-case-of-toure-praising-raped-slaves-for-seducing-massa Touré’s insane mf cousin Phd

    That’s not how Jay-Z rolls brotha!
    He’d most likely enter into a licensing agreement with Coleman camping equipment and come out with a blinged out camping tent called the “Muthaf*ckin’ OWS Pimped Out Crib”.

  • http://gawker.com/5482474/the-mysterious-case-of-toure-praising-raped-slaves-for-seducing-massa Touré’s insane mf cousin Phd
  • http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

    Markets reward dissent. Limbaugh’s large oil portrait and Savage’s pampered poodle products of the appeal. Jay Z understands the game.

  • OCCpUY

    you sir are a loser

  • Anonymous

    Why?

  • Anonymous

    JayZ was always a scumbag. But did anyone hear about the teaparty scammer who was bilking the movement with his so called network? At least JayZ is being upfront about it.

  • Anonymous

    Norbit the Dense, you missed the whole point! JayZ was never involved with the OWS movement, he’s just cashing in on the fashion trend like he did with gangster cRap.

  • Anonymous

    Figures Gloves would “like” that. But at the last Palin-Beck rally I saw some steers than would make Moore look like a meth addict

  • Anonymous

    More like your stupid kids who eat up all the rest of his cRap.

  • Anonymous

    Nope.  No possible media tie in to rapes (and now murders) occurring at occupy sites across America.

    Mediaite’s white washing of the gross excesses of such disturbingly violent mobs continue; instead, here’s a little hypocrisy thrown the way of the casual reader with the strong intonation being, of course, that he should be all for those beautiful people representing the country at occupy x street.

    How many articles were written regarding potentially offensive signs known leftist infiltrators brought to tea parties at the behest of easily re-searchable sabotage orientated websites again?

  • Robert Bayden

    Glad that you are concerned about rape. I believe that rape happens more among the general population than at these encampments. You should be outraged about rape, period.

  • Robert Bayden

    How many rapesin Occupy encampments have been reported?

  • Anonymous

    SMH and LOL at all of you who are acting surprised that the man who would “sell ice in the winter,” “water to a whale,” and “fire in hell,” would pull something like this. I even saw one comment that said Jay-Z came up by hustling CD’s from his car trunk. LMAO.

  • proud2teabagu

    Your mom was at the Beck rally?

  • Anonymous

    Do you think a lame comeback like that qualifies as humor

  • Mrprogreso

    No, I didn’t.  Provide a link, hotshot.

  • Mrprogreso

    So you’re saying that there is an acceptable theshold number of rapes that you will accept before condeming rapes at squatter sites?

  • Anonymous

    Disturbed that you’re not concerned about rape.  The sample size of occupy crowds of several hundreds or thousands are extremely small in comparison to the general population of 300 million   So congratulations.  There are more aggregate rapes in the world outside the limited sphere of the encampments.  That’s kinda like you saying to people in your presence they should be thankful you’re not currently raping them.  A statistical breakdown would prove that one is far more in danger of being raped there than in many other similarly sized communities and assuredly than at any other political demonstration in the world. 

    You should be outraged about occupy x city rapes, but instead you wish to divert from them, explain them away or otherwise cover up the problem.  You’d fit in nicely with the leadership trying to keep rape victims from interacting with the police so that their attackers might be brought to justice.  After all, to recognize police as proper authorities would completely sabotage the cultivated, projected adversarial positioning of the occupy crowd.

    By comparison, of course, there were no rapes at tea party events, a legitimate demonstration, ever.  No gunplay either.

  • Anonymous

    Its becoming evident that nobody on the left does.  As many rapes as it takes, I guess.

  • Anonymous

    …reported…

    I see what you did there.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    Have you ever had a point? JayZ is just like Moore if you did not get the inference. Both use the useful idiots to make money. Oh, but you did not get the inference, sorry you will need to purchase more IQ points at your local dealer.

  • http://www.davidjkramer.co.cc// DavidKramer

    I am assuming that is a Nelson reference?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObZaVgoX0zM

  • Anonymous

    Occupy Portland organizer tells protesters to not inform police if they witness sexual assault because of ‘confidentiality reasons.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T1BWETV75hU

    Or in other words ‘Don’t report crimes because we don’t want our movement to look bad – even if people are breaking the law and assaulting others’

  • Anonymous
  • TUPAC1 JAYZ 0

    JAY Z is ILLUMINATI LOOK IT UP HE IS A DEVIL WORSHIPER AND IS TRYING TO CONFUSE MASSES FROM THE PRIMARY GOAL!

  • http://www.sarainitalyblog.blogspot.com/ sarainitaly

    I don’t get how that message is supposed to be in support of the OWS movement…. It sounds more like something from the 60′s during the civil rights battles. 

    How does Occupy All Streets make sense in support of a movement to oppose Wall Street? Jay Z opposes all streets? Main street? Cherry Hill Lane?

    It is a stupid slogan, and seems like they don’t even get the whole OWS movement, and just wanted to profit off of it.

  • http://twitter.com/Screaming_Head The Screaming Head

    UMMM POINT OF NOTE: JAY Z SOLD OUT OF ROCAWEAR YEARS AGO

    getcha facts straight…Jay Z isn’t the one profiting off of this…although he may have maintained an interest in the company, so he does kind of, but it probably wasn’t his ideahttp://www.purplefastballs.com/2011/11/is-purple-politics-just-blue-dog-in.html

  • http://twitter.com/kaib0rg kai

    My sentiments exactly. The reason Jay-Z’s company is profiting is because Jay-Z’s company is producing. Want to make money off of t-shirts? Make them and sell them. Stop asking for (MORE) handouts.

  • http://spacegod.tumblr.com/ spacegod

    Yeah, I’ve seen all those ridiculous YouTube clips about everyone from SpongeBob to the Pope sporting the “devil’s horns.” What bs.

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