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October 26, 2009
Big Pimpin’: Will Jay-Z Shill For Atlantic Yards Project?
AllHipHop.com, Editorial
by Tolu Olorunda
Tolu Olorunda calls Jay-Z on the carpet for selling out, but that headline is a bit behind the times — Hova has been shilling for Atlantic Yards for nearly six years.
On August 11, 2004, Jay-Z became minority-owner of the New Jersey Nets. With a measly 1.47% to his name, it made no sense why more successful, majority-owners like real estate developer Bruce Ratner included Jay-Z in the dream team that acquired the Nets. Then, as with everything else, truth crushed to earth began to rise. The reason(s) why this famous Brooklynite was chosen started surfacing. Shortly after, Ratner presented his plan to relocate the Nets from East Rutherford, New Jersey, to Brooklyn, New York. And who better to use as the public face for this transaction than the Brooklyn-born Jigga man himself. (Plus, he, and only he, could help put King James in a Nets Jersey!)
So, when Jay-Z took Oprah on a tour around his old neighborhood a couple months back, and some Hip-Hop observers couldn’t keep from salivating over, as they saw it, how far Hip-Hop had come, a few of us were forced to admire from a distance—and with a sense of suspicion. One or two questions had to be answered, we figured:
Why would Oprah want to tour Brooklyn?
What’s in it for Oprah?
What’s in it for Jay-Z?
Who really orchestrated this event?
What connection does this ostensibly spontaneous, Hallmark moment have with the ongoing public relations campaign, geared in full-throttle mode, to convince Brooklyn residents that the demolition of sacred, public property is, in fact, in their interest (!), and that protesting the ambitious, $4 billion, 8-million square feet Atlantic Yards Project (AYP) would cause more harm than good?
...But what influence would Jay-Z have on the protesters who refuse to eat the bread crumbs being provided them by Forest City. Would Jay-Z be a shill for Ratner? Would he be asked to restrain his people from raising hell? And what consequences would his participation in this land grab bear on Hip-Hop—itself a product of resistance and grassroots struggle?
Posted by eric at October 26, 2009 2:10 PM