So as a few of you probably heard, Jay-Z sort of became the anti-Occupy Wall Street after he decided that a rally to raise awareness of rampant corporate greed and encourage stricter government mandates meant to curtail the exploitation of the poor by the richest members of the world (that’s right, I watch The Daily Show. I can be political.) would be the perfect place for a billionaire with his own island to sell t-shirts. Guess how well that went over with everyone? Anyway, in a new artpiece by Daniel Edwards, that guy who keeps making statues of famous people, Jay-Z is depicted as a member of the 1% alongside such financial luminaries as Scrooge McDuck and Mr. Burns. XXL magazine reports:
The rapper was verbally attacked by OWS protesters a couple of weeks back when reports surfaced on the net that his Rocawear Occupy All Streets T-shirts would not monetarily benefit the movement. Now, an Occupy Wall Street artist has used Jay-Z as the muse for his latest creation: A stack of faces that includes Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, Scrooge McDuck from Disney’s Christmas Carol, Richie Rich and Jay-Z at the base, sporting a slew of chains around his neck and a money sign medallion. “I think Jay-Z has made himself a face of [the] Wall Street that Occupiers are protesting against,” Daniel Edwards, the artist, said about the piece which he’s dubbed the Scrooge Totem Pole. “Maybe Jay-Z is striving to be in the one percent? Which is why I chose the composition of a totem pole because I thought it would resemble the number one. Rap stars who turn ‘Scrooge’ have to suffer some damage to their street credibility.”
Here’s the thing: I get that Jay-Z selling shirts at Occupy Wall Street is a pretty blatant misreading of the movement, but really? You’re going to make him the figurehead of the 1%? If you’re going to try and come up with a cogent face for the 1%, how about guys like Bernie Madoff? Someone who bilked people out of millions, if not BILLIONS of dollars? The idea of Occupy Wall Street isn’t that you’re just indiscriminately attacking the rich, so much as you are attacking those who exploit the working class and refuse to pay their fare share. Selling shirts was a dipshit move, but ultimately, you have bigger fish to fry.