Yes, this is happening in 2012.
After championing the move of the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn, Jay-Z recently spearheaded a change in look-and-logo for the team. The black-and-white overhaul has sparked a surge in merchandise sales and team interest, but also this invective from New York Post sports critic Phil Mushnick.
It was published May 4th, 2012. Here it is, word for word.
Nets on Jay-Z track
As long as the Nets are allowing Jay-Z to call their marketing shots — what a shock that he chose black and white as the new team colors to stress, as the Nets explained, their new “urban” home — why not have him apply the full Jay-Z treatment?
Why the Brooklyn Nets when they can be the New York N——s? The cheerleaders could be the Brooklyn B—-hes or Hoes. Team logo? A 9 mm with hollow-tip shell casings strewn beneath. Wanna be Jay-Z hip? Then go all the way!”
Predictably, a backlash has ensued, yet the Post has not pulled the article in question (after more than three days) or issued any rebuke on Mushnick. And later, when pressed on the remark, Mushnick firmly defended the statement…
“Jay-Z profits from the worst and most sustaining self-enslaving stereotypes of black-American culture and I’m the racist? Some truths, I guess, are just hard to read, let alone think about.”
It’s not about skin color, it’s about gangsta rap stereotypes, as Mushnick has mentioned. If today only blacks can criticize their culture, we live in a very strange society.
P.S. I really like hip-hop.
It amazes me how people make generalizations on
Hip-Hop and it usually comes down to two words bit*** and h***and most people who are the critics haven’t even listen to enough of Jay-z’s music too make a educated opinion.
Look how many people Johnny Cash has killed or hurt in his songs but his career doesn’t get dumbed down to that.
For the record I don’t like the design of the new logo and I defintely think Jay-Z could have done better but this guy made stupid statement and that’s that..
America still is a very racist place and the internet shines the light on that more, reading all the ignorant stuff on these blogs and sites..
By the way I don’t hide behind fake pen names ….
Have anyone of you heard the Jay-Z feat Eminem called “Renegade.”
” Do you fools. Listen to music or. Do you just skim. Through it?”
“I killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die. ”
That’s one example of him singing in the first person about a prisoner doing hard time and how lonely it becomes.
Please give us your numerous examples of where he hurt or killed someone. You won’t find it. Or where he offended someone.
Do you even no Cash’s music? If you really did, you wouldn’t have even made this comment
“Look at how many people Cash has killed or hurt in his songs.” (Note the italics.) Do you read comments or just skim through them?
Cash shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. He also took a shot of cocaine and he shot his woman down (and called her a “bad bitch” in the same song). Later on, he tied Delia to a chair, shot her in the side, then finding “hard to watch her suffer,” shot her again, and she died.
All in songs, of course, just like the people Jay-Z killed in his songs. Seems a valid argument to me.
Honestly, I think the black and white reference for the uniforms is kind of silly and does open him up to putting these comments in terms of black vs white but overall I can’t call this racist and I do strongly criticize racism in all forms.
He’s taking Jay-Z’s artistic brand, which is at the center of his success and the basis for his ability to do business, and applying it to a sports team co-owned by Jay-Z. In so doing he does a pretty straightforward job of pointing out that a whole lot of big brands are aligning themselves with an artist whose body of work is about drug dealing, killing, bragging about using women as sex toys and helping keep the N-word alive.
He just does it very artistically to expensive beats so it’s all good?
When I think of The Black Album, which is one of my favorite hip hop albums up until the filler material at the end, the first thing that comes to mind are lyrics about shooting people for real cause he’s not a movie director and bitches not being his problem.
This is the guy that said hip hop did more for race relations than the Civil Rights movement?
As a black woman, I feel that this statement couldn’t have been more true. There is absolutely nothing inherently racist about what he said. Mishnick did a great job of throwing a staple of Jay-Z’s success right back at him. Well done Mushnick!
For the record I don’t like being referred to as a bitch or a hoe, and I damn sure don’t like any man that continues to perpetuate the message that it is okay.
I would be willing to bet that there are quite a few team owners out there that don’t want to discuss how their money (or family money) was made. Mushnick’s statement is racist. The defense he made of his statement is not and is what mushnick should have said first and last.
straight up shameful!
Another reason not to ever read the NY Post.
Could this be considered a “teachable moment”?
Lyrics that abuse the “N” word and refer to women as “bitches & hoes” are not my favorite. But I support the right of entertainers and other business people to lawfully seek success in our free-market society.
This discussion is definitely worth pursuing.
The problem with Mushnick’s statement, is that it’s not clear Mushnick would not approve of the naming choices he suggests.
I agree with the point of his criticism, but as a modest proposal, this excerpt falls flat. But then a lot of sports *cough*hacks*cough* don’t seem too well-read.
If Mushnick were really making a nuanced point about Jay-Z’s music and lyrics, I’d be willing to consider his point of view. But he’s not. He’s just pitching a hissy fit over the fact that no one consulted him before moving the team to Brooklyn and changing the team colors. I don’t know if he’s really a racist or just using the “N” word as a desperate cry for attention, but either way, he’s an idiot.
Wow this guy is talkin out of his ASS. Smh
This just in: Some NY Post writers are fucking idiots.
…EXTREMELY Racist Jay-Z Article.
Of course they are IT’S THE POST!
in my opinion, facts were stated. Was it the right forum?
smh
Not a loaded or rhetorical question here, just genuinely curious about what the board thinks: if I am not an African-American, am I culturally allowed to use/make reference to the N word? I never know the answer to this and it makes singing a number of hip hop tracks out loud tricky as I end sounding like the radio edit :)
Seems to me that half of the response against the NY Post comment was the fact that the comment/criticism of Jay-Z, including the reference to the N word, was made by somebody who is not African-American. For clarity sake, I am not commenting on the validity/veracity of his comment and its subject matter, just noting that perhaps this is why there has been so much backlash against it.
Said differently: if the same comment was made by an African-American man or woman (let’s go with man to keep apples to apples), would there be the same backlash here?
Again, not commenting on the issue itself, asking about whether the context is playing a part in the response.
You lost the majority of readers when you used the word “rhetorical.”
My comment addresses the bigger picture. RACE as well as RACISM is just an idea. The ideaology of both is about control and division amongst human beings. His comment was made due to his conditioning and miseducation. I do think it was disrespectful and stereotypical however, I understand why HE made it. I also understand why the New York Post ran and has yet to retract the story…controversy sells, or in this case, hope will sell their product. How can human beings end racism…stop talking about it. Only then will it truly cease to exist.
i like the logo. Done.