Jay-Z has been called out on his namedropping this week after referencing US president Barack Obama in a recent verse. The lyrics claim that Obama personally approved Jay-Z and Beyonce’s very controversial holiday in Cuba, a country with strict travel embargo for US citizens. As delighted as Obama usually is with pop culture references, it appears this crossed the line.
You know you’d effed up when The White House issues an official statement regarding what you’ve done or said. Throughout his latest track Open Letter, Jay-Z is very open about his relationship with the first couple, initially stating, “Boy from the hood but got White House clearance” after commenting on his recent Cuban holiday, “I done turned Havana to Atlanta, Guayabera shirts and bandanas.”
This is the first time Hov has actually mentioned the controversial holiday, which put the hip hop power couple in headlines the world over. Normally a very special, hard-to-obtain cultural travel license is required to enter Cuba from the USA – something civilians don’t normally get approval for – so the White House hook-up would make sense, but White House press secretary,Jay Carney has shut the idea down:
“I am absolutely saying that the White House and the president had nothing to do with anybody’s personal … anybody’s travel to Cuba. That is something the Treasury handles.”
He then added, “I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury,” Ba-doom TSSS.
Other suspicious lines in the song include, “Obama said ‘chill, you gonna get me impeached’ / But you don’t need this shit anyway, chill with me on the beach.” Surely someone with such close ties with Obama wouldn’t discuss purchasing “a kilo for Chief Keef / out of spite, I just might flood these streets”. That probably WOULD get the man impeached.
