The short answer: probably. A few days ago, photos surfaced of Jay-Z and hanging out with Russell Simmons at his show at Madison Square Garden. As it turns out, the shirt that Jay-Z was wearing at the time — which inspired Simmons to tweet “Jay-Z just took #OccupyWallStreet to a whole new level. Wowowowowowoow” — is part of a new line of Rocawear tees that will be available for purchase beginning today. According to the product description, the $22 shirt draws its inspiration from the “Watch The Throne” Concert Tour, but it’s obviously a nod at the Occupy Movement. So will the profits, or at least a portion of them, be going toward the cause? According to what a company spokesperson told Business Insider, it seems pretty unlikely.
“The ‘Occupy All Streets’ T shirt was created in support of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement,” says the rep. “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.”
While Jay-Z is certainly far from the first person to cash in on the OWS movement, it seems like a bad PR move to us, especially coming from someone who Forbes estimates made $37 million last year alone. What do you make of this? [via The Daily What]