Grubstakers - Episode 85: Shawn Carter (Jay-Z)

Episode Date: August 2, 2019

We discuss the life and times of Shawn Carter. Hear about how he made millions destroying downtown Brooklyn by pushing the Barclays Center, made millions off exploitative labor conditions, and made millions off the least objectionable thing he ever did: sell crack. Check this episode out because just like Jay-z we're retiring so it'll be the last one.

First they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get a start in real estate. I have always had a thing for black people. I like black people. I'm telling you, these stories are funnier than the jokes you can tell. I said, what the fuck is a brain scientist? I was like, that's not a real job.akers, the podcast about billionaires. My name is Sean P. McCarthy, and I'm joined by... Dougie Poywell. Andy Palmer.

And so today we're talking about Sean Carter, Jay-Z, recently confirmed by Forbes that he's worth over $1 billion. Oh! I know when we say that we're doing a Jay-Z episode, you're probably thinking, oh, great, another episode about an Illuminati pedophile. They do a Jeffrey Epstein episode, and they just can't stop talking about the pedophiles who run the world. We got bit by the bug.

Actually, I'm just going to say on that note, stay tuned for the bonus on Sir Paul McCartney, because we got a lot of Epstein connections there. What? Really? And it is something where it's like, well, we'll kind of talk about this a little bit later, but there's a lot of rumors with regards to Jay-Z and Foxy Brown. Like, they recorded a song together when she was like 16 or 17. He was 27.

And there's a lot... She said they had a relationship around that time. So it's a little weird. And then there's stuff where he didn't appear in that Surviving R. Kelly documentary. It it's a little weird, and then there's stuff where he didn't appear in that Surviving R. Kelly documentary. It's not a little weird, Sean. It's rape. It's child sex is what it is.

Did he have to be in the Surviving R. Kelly documentary? No, they invited him to appear because he also recorded a dual album with R. Kelly around 2004, which you will notice is two years after he was pissing on a 14-year-old in a videotape. But so yeah, the Surviving R. Kelly people

invited Jay-Z to participate, and he said no. Well, I'm sure Jay-Z just didn't know about it. It's because so many emails these days, you know, you can't, what are you going to do? Yeah, you can't keep up with everything. Damn dash, tell them about the emails. And I guess we'll kind of go back to that, but I did just kind of want to start with you know when people think of

jay-z we mentioned the forbes the one billion dollar net worth so he's sold over 100 million records he's got 22 grammys and um i just wanted to ask you just both of you but also you the listener when you think about how jay-z made his money you would probably say you know music you might even say you know selling crack right of course but the actual answer is a horrific labor abuses in third world sweatshops wait a second that's every other billionaire's answer yeah and that's just kind of the intro i thought it was the resale value on emmy grammys so i mean essentially on the labor exploitation thing, the example is right there in the numbers

where Rockefeller Records sold a 50% stake to Universal for about $20 million. So a company valued about $40 million. 2007, Rockaware, the clothing line, sells for $204 million to Iconics in 2007. So that's almost a 10 times valuation. Now wait, let's sit back a second. Or five times.

I have no idea the origin of this Rockefeller Records or Rock Aware or any of this. You see, Andy, there's a hip hop musician who goes by Jay-Z. Like the subway line? Oh, exactly. That's right, that's where he got his name. No, he did get his name from a mentor who he would eventually screw over completely named Jazz O.

And this is going to a little bit of the middle of the Jay-Z story, if we're honest with ourselves. But let's go to the beginning then, Andy. And I'm not just saying he's a sweatshop abuser because he has a clothing line. Like there were actual documented incidents, which we'll get back to. But I guess we should kind of start from the beginning here well like was he just like walking into sweatshops and unplugging the ac to save some electricity money you know when he makes that triangle with his hands that's actually it stands for the triangle shirt waste fire and he's he's instructing his honduran uh labor management to burn the workers to death.

It's a vision board type of exercise. You got to see the rock if you want to be the rock. But I guess, so starting with Jay-Z, he's born in 1969. Of course, real name is Sean Carter. Interestingly enough, he's originally born in like a brownstone in Brooklyn, but not when they were worth $2 million. Of course. But early on, his family has to move to the Marcy Houses, which is a housing project in Bed-Stuy.

And Jay-Z's father leaves when he's about 11 years old. Right. And before he leaves, Jay-Z spends time with his dad at gambling tables. tables and apparently according to him learns a lot about taking risks in the industry from that time when he was watching his dad gamble at a younger age he taught he taught him uh son if you just say foxy brown was 17 enough people will believe that and that is the legal age of consent in new york so you know it's like three months to her 16th to her 17th birthday You can roll those dice You can have her Roll your dice But Jay-Z's dad would leave him

Not appropriate for a pedophilia By the way I was looking up Foxy Brown's Wikipedia And she has been in a lot of Altercations with police and other people And it's like, you know, maybe this has something to do with getting raped as a child.

Yeah, of course. We will discuss it a little later, but literally every member of Destiny Childs, the ones that were kicked out and the two people that were brought in, all have had issues of depression, anxiety, and a few of them were molested and also had prison

crime due to DUI activities and stuff. The Beyonce Knowles, Jay-Z clan. That's what Jeffrey Epstein's temple is, is a Destiny's Child recruiting center. Yeah, I mean, crazier things have happened. But his dad walks out on Jay-Z when he was 12 years old. And this is around the time that Jay-Z gets into the drug game as well as his older brother would allegedly be stealing stuff from their house. Jay-Z's dad was like, I heard that verse with Jazzo. That shit was whack.

I'm out of here. Bye loser. Right, right. This is the bullying that was necessary for Jay-Z to become who he becomes. But his older brother is addicted to crack and is stealing stuff from their household and jay-z shoots him in the shoulder to like show to his family like hey like you can't fuck with this type of thing so when it comes to jay-z dealing crack he obviously knows the uh detriment it does to the community because he's got someone in his family addicted to the drug he's selling on the street yeah it seems like the mindset there is like wow my brother is spending a ton of money on crack there must be a ton of money in the crack hustle exactly um but yeah so like yogi was saying uh his mom buys him a boom box for his birthday he's like uh you know making music during that uh he meets jazzo the who was at

the time an up-and-coming rapper right when he's 15 years old jay-z's 15 years old he meets jazzo the who was at the time an up-and-coming rapper right when he's 15 years old jay-z's 15 years old he meets jazzo and then there's like allegations that jay-z took his name from jazzo sean carter to jay-z right you know i mean let's yeah there's not that much to the lines are blurred on that one let's be honest honest. Jaz-O to Jay-Z is not that much of a jump. And how Jay-Z does Jaz-O in the near future is pretty raw. Yeah. Oh, and we should just mention he attends Eli Whitney High School with the rapper AZ, which is a rapper with the letter Z who's released a better album than Jay-Z will ever release,

who also never raped a child, to the best of my knowledge. Do or Die is a great album. If you haven't heard it, it's very slept on. A child, a neighborhood, a community. We're context to use the phrase slept on. Jay-Z also, so that Eli Whitney High School closes down. Jay-Z goes to George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes.

And then he's also in Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey for a minute. But he does not graduate. Oh. Yeah. Well, so one thing I found out was that during his early days of dealing crack, essentially the epidemic being all around the U.S., the further you would get out of New York because the crack would be flown into JFK, the more money you could make for the drugs itself. So he was going as far as like Virginia and back on these drug runs. I mean, you're just making more money the further you go out.

I've heard he goes from like New Jersey to like the like like eastern northern side of philadelphia i believe but i'm not exactly sure how far he went down but i'm pretty sure we got down to virginia he's following the age of consent laws um but yeah no it is something where like uh 50 cent a lot of other uh rappers who were former crack dealers do talk about this where like you were you were saying, Yogi, the cocaine comes in through JFK. So the farther out, usually the farther out you go, the better return you can get. But so it's interesting. He meets, Jay-Z meets Jazzo when he's 15 years old.

And Jazzo releases an album, Word to the Jazz, in 1989, which is, of course, Jay-Z's featured pretty prominently on this. He's on the song Hawaiian Sophie, which is a notable. Number one platinum hit. But the album's kind of a failure. So Jay-Z in 1989, you know, like he thinks his rap career is on the way up, but then this guy's album, Jazzo's album, not really well received. And so Jay-Z's kind of in limbo. And this is where he retires from the rap industry a bit to's kind of in limbo and this is where

he retires from the rap industry a bit to just kind of sell crack. For the first time. Yeah. Yeah, to sell crack for a minute basically. And it is interesting where... It's what we did after Democracy Later fell apart.

There was a lot of crack involved after Democracy Later fell apart. And honestly it did us better We retired from podcasting to sell Andy's antidepressants But so it is something where we Watch this documentary Jay-Z had a childhood friend named

DeHaven Irby who lived down the Hall from him in the Marcy housing project And basically According to this documentary, he taught Jay-Z how to sell crack, and DeHaven later moved to Trenton, New Jersey, so Jay-Z was doing a lot of his hustling out there, selling in Trenton as well as these other places.

Around this time, after him being out in the streets a few years hustling, he gets the attention of this guy named DJ Clark Kent, who was an A&r for atlantic records who wanted to sign jay-z but the label said no uh but this guy introduces jay-z to dame dash to manage him right yeah because dj clark was like like this guy's great you guys are idiots to not want to sign him and so he brought in dame dash to manage jay-z and this is where jay-z gets his bulldog spirit because dame dash is a man that's a mad dog he'll bite your face off if he if he wants if you want if you have what he wants he'll get it from you that's dame and dash's entire deal

in that like ll cool jay was the hottest artist at the time and dame dash would show up wherever ll cool jay was going to be with jay-z and they'd be like, all right, y'all battle right now. And Jay-Z would usually win those rap battles, but LL Cool J would always be like, yeah, but guess who's got the record deal? Like, you might be good in the street, but I'm rich, basically. And this was the beginning of LL Cool J's demise, because Jay-Z said, fuck that noise. And DJ Clark Kent would be the producer on Reasonable Doubt,

Jay-Z's first album. Right. And we should mention for a bit, Jay-Z was Big Daddy Kane's hype man on tour. Oh, really? I didn't know this. So yeah, Jay-Z was like, essentially, he was doing freestyles around this time,

where in the early 90s, before Reasonable Doubt comes out in 96, but he just can't get a deal. We mentioned Dame Dash is managing him. DJ Clark Kent is a real pusher of him. But for whatever reason, and to be honest, he's doing great freestyles. There's a freestyle I heard with him and Big L where he outshines Big L,

which is a very impressive thing. But for whatever reason, nobody will give him a deal. So what Dame did... I mean, he's black. He's black and he's doing rap in the 90s in an era where if Def Jam doesn't want to sign you, probably no one else will. And so Def Jam and...

Well, Atlantic turns him down and Def Jam doesn't see the appeal in him. And so he's fucked. There just weren't enough opportunities for black musicians in that era to be able to prosper even if you were right and so essentially uh dame dash uh and jay-z and uh kareem biggs burke uh set up rockefeller records and kareem biggs burke was a the silent partner and he was a drug dealer he would later

be convicted on drug offenses but he essentially that's where the money came from for rockefeller records was you know jay-z was selling a bit crack, but this guy was a much more big time player who put the money in. They set up this record company in 1995, The Reasonable Doubt. The album finally comes out in 1996. And then there's like discussion on like what finally breaks him, you know, or like breaks Jay-Z into the mainstream. Where it's like they're having trouble getting radio play. And so finally, you know, like according to one story, Funkmaster Flex plays the Dead Presidents, which is a great song on Hot 97. And then the B side of that, I think, is that song with Foxy Brown we mentioned. And that song blows up.

Yeah, that song blows up. And just like random note, the song, I can't say the name of the song. And I think that's intentional to prevent white people from talking about the fact that Jay-Z is a pedophile. Yeah. Because the song is, he does the song with Foxy Brown, Ain't No N Word, you know. And it's like, I guess we could just kind of digress on this thing. So this is the song that made Jay-Z famous.

Right. Because it's the b side for the dead presidents and then people would put it on at parties and everyone would dance you know and so it kind of really took off you know and that's what propelled reasonable doubt to sell over 500 000 records and i mean we're not even discussing the you know east coast west coast uh beef with the notorious big and tupac and so after after their murders, there was a void in New York as to who would become the next type of head rapper. Right, Jay-Z kind of benefited

from the Jeff Ross, Greg Giraldo effect. Well, Reasonable Doubt came out in 96, so Biggie was still alive. But in the years coming up, though, that entire feud would fuel a huge group of people that no longer had their favorite artists. So because Biggie and Tupac were killed a few years later,

the fans of those artists had no one to turn to anymore and because of that, Jay-Z's proximity to Biggie made it so that he could become as popular and gain that audience. Yeah, Biggie and Tupac were killed mere days after Jayay-z made the triangle sign with his hands at a source awards uh show we're not sure if those two events are

related it's weird that uh tupac's uh death certificate rules the cause of death is shirt waist fire so essentially the foxy brown thing she uh signs to def jam when she's 17 years old there's allegations her and jay-z met when she was 16 even 15 i've heard right uh they do this song together that's jay-z's big hit and again jay-z was 27 years old at the time foxy brown has later admitted that they had a sexual relationship um jay-z for his part denied they had an affair on picasso baby on the magna carta holy grail episode but it is interesting where like nick cannon interviewed dame dash and i recommend this one minute clip on youtube because essentially like uh nick cannon asks him like so how old was foxy brown when you guys signed and dame dash is

just like just ask what you want to ask, man. And, you know, even though Foxy Brown is the inception of this act, Jay-Z also signed Rihanna when she was 16. And the story is that when Rihanna came and auditioned, Jay-Z wouldn't let her leave until she finished signing the paperwork. Now you can look at that like, oh, Jay-Z really knew that she was going to be good for the rap label, or you can look at it like Jay-Z was looking to get a piece of Rihanna. But so, regardless, you know, they have these two hits.

Reasonable Doubt sells over 500,000 records as certified gold, and Jay-Z's like, you know, like you just said with tupac and biggie dying you know he becomes like he moves up a couple spots right and uh because they sold 500 000 records they're able to get a distribution deal with def jam who like wouldn't touch them before yeah but uh oh yeah we should mention originally they get a distribution deal with priority records but they're able to you know tell them to go screw off and they get a new deal with def jam with like a two million dollar advance or something yeah so because uh dame dash and jay-z wanted to do all the production in-house the first record label they spoke with they were just doing distribution with them which is a strategy

artists have used time and time again to make independent albums uh popular and the residual amount that was supposed to go to jay-z and dame dash was less than they expected from the original contact they signed so dame dash went in and threatened him and was like you gotta sign this paperwork and and uh did i get that you gotta sign this paperwork or jay-z is gonna show up and battle you he signed his paperwork and then like in this interview he's like yeah and then i called my lawyer and told him everything that happened and then a few weeks later i signed a different deal with him so uh you could argue dame dash didn't need to do that but at the same time had dame dash not intimidated him for that uh it could have been a more slippery process and so it's interesting like around this time in 1997 they he releases this album in my

lifetime volume one which is just like a garbage kind of try to go commercial sellout record wait so how many how many albums that he put out at this point reasonable doubt was his first oh that was his first they also advertised it by saying this will be my only album yeah jay-z and interviews would be like this is the only one i'm doing man Man, he's kind of got a one-note self-promotional strategy. Oh, yeah. So, okay. Jay-Z in interviews would articulate a strategy by which he would be far more beloved today

if he didn't put out 10 subsequent garbage albums. Just not all garbage. So, okay. So, he first breaks through with this B b-side single uh on a dead president's uh single and then uh he puts out an lp with def jam after that one sells a bunch a reasonable doubt is with priority records and then yeah the next album is uh in my lifetime volume one with def jam okay and that's and then he says that one's his last one no i think he only said reasonable doubt was no before reasonable doubt which is his like kind of his street lp if you want to look at

it that way was he was like this is the only one i'm gonna do because at that time you know because i think one thing sean we don't really get to look at is does jay-z ever stop selling drugs like it's pretty assumed that like, okay, after Jazzo, he's doing rap, but he has more money than every other artist. He's always showing up

with nice jewelry. Not every other artist. Well, he has more money than other rap artists in New York at that time. And he's got a connection to a crack kingpin with the third head

of the Rockefeller Records. Does he ever stop selling drugs? I don't think he does. I think it'd be extremely stupid of him. I mean, you all know that story about, like, Biggie was selling drugs even after P. Diddy signed him. And he was like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, you can't get locked up.

Stop this. I will give you money. I mean, but, like, all right, so that's certainly... I imagine when he goes on the road, like, you know, it's just logistically difficult to sell drugs. Okay, but I'm not saying Jay-Z's got a fucking bag in his pocket at all times. I'm talking about he just has dealers in New York

doing the work, and he's funding it via the rep business he's building. I mean, it wouldn't be that hard. Once Reasonable Doubt gets a certain amount, to spend 10, 20 grand on drugs and to supply it through other dealers but especially in the 90s like you're going to be a target by the fbi if you get if you're still if you're a major public figure in the 90s i know like if you're a major public figure and you're

selling drugs like overtly it's going to be uh i think you just described ronald reagan i mean we we can never know for sure, obviously, but it is kind of presumed that he stopped selling drugs, but it's like he talks about owning every car at this time. It was weird that he signed Oliver North in 96. I mean, I don't, like, I think he just exaggerated his wealth, and then eventually he did get to the point with the clothing line, Rock Aware. They started the clothing line Rock Aware in 1999.

And this is where he like actually becomes like extremely wealthy. Yeah. And one of the reasons they started Rock Aware was because they went to a jeans company in New York and went, hey, look, we're like, you know, you can not sponsor. What's the term? Endorse. Yeah, you can. We can do an endorsement deal with us. And they went, no. And they just went, you know what? If people are going can do an endorsement deal with us. And they went, no.

And they just went, you know what? If people aren't going to do an endorsement deal with us, we might as well just start our own clothing label. And that's how Rock-A-Wear was started. Right. You're like, it's just one sweatshop worker. How much could it cost? $10?

Oh, 8 cents an hour. Yeah, and so just before we do Rock-A-Wear, we should just note, essentially Dame Dash was running the business day to day. Like one source said that, I think this is in the early 2000s, there were four straight years where Jay-Z didn't come into the office. And it's just kind of funny where it's like he presents himself as the businessman, but of course Dame Dash is the one who built the company and did all the nitty gritty.

Yeah, eventually when Jay-Z becomes president of Def Jam Records, that job really should go to Dame Dash. But, you know, like a president and general relationship, Dame Dash got too strong, and Jay-Z had to cut that head off. And then the other part of it is, like, Cameron, the rapper, claims Dame Dash was the main person who put out Kanye's college dropout album. You know, of course, Kanye West came up through Rockefeller Records. And then Dame Dash says actually the silent partner biggs was the first one who noticed because kanye was

producing for them and biggs was the one who like yeah kanye can rap we should put out his album you know so it's just something where and you know various people have said like jay-z would like i think cameron's story is kanye was rapping over the phone for jay-z and he just totally ignored it you know so it's like again like these major successes were very much not the design of jay-z which is not really the image he portrays himself and he'll later fuck damon dash over right so he'll just like take credit for someone else's successful idea yeah and i mean he's kind of steve jobs ask where it's like you know i'm gonna i'm gonna be the face of an idea that will change the world but the work will be done by people that aren't me so that the blood on my hands aren't on my hands right uh except for in

this honduras factory where they make rock aware products uh so like i did just want to pause here and do this real quick because uh national the national labor committee puts out an expose in 2003 again rockware found in 1999 in 2003 they uh highlight uh one factory in uh calammo did they discover that the safety standards were freestyle uh yeah the uh there were there were no written safety procedures because that would be whack look that's just how i learned to do it on the street yes uh chardonnay and caviar yes um so many so many people are coming in with these great safety procedures but that shit's all written you know, only Jay-Z can come up with safety procedures off the top of his head.

That's right. That's right. And in like one go. If it's not off the dome, Jay-Z don't want to hear it. Yeah. So essentially, it's this factory. I'm going to fuck up the name as usual. Chelomo.

C-H-A-L-O-M-A in Honduras. Okay. This factory there, the National Labor Committee puts out a report in 2003 where they speak Chelomo, C-H-A-L-O-M-A in Honduras. This factory there, the National Labor Committee puts out a report in 2003 where they speak to workers there. And just so again, Rockworth found it in 99, 2003 this report comes out. Workers at this factory were made to take mandatory pregnancy tests. If they tested positive, they were immediately fired because you can't have pregnant people working there. They were allowed to use the toilet once in the morning, once in the afternoon after they raise their hands to get permission. They are given two minutes on the toilet.

If they are not done in two minutes, they are screamed at and dragged back to their workplace. They are searched before they enter the toilet. They are searched entering and leaving the facility. If they have any candy, it's taken away from them. They make 15 cents for every $40 T-shirt they produce. And anyone who tries to unionize is fired and blacklisted from all labor or any other job in Honduras. And so basically, they also interviewed this woman who was fired for trying to organize a union. They are forced into a non-paid overtime

and well Sean these are the 99 problems I don't know why you're being an asshole about this okay these are the 99 problems a bitch is not one but these are the 99 problems labor standards investigative journalism pregnant women

trying to work at your factories. Pregnant women, people with sticky fingers ruining the $40 t-shirts because they brought candy into the factory. Foxy Brown being who she is. Yeah, Foxy Brown was old enough to work at this facility. And I mean, like we know,

people have talked about the R. Kelly case. Like R. Kelly marries Aaliyah. She's 15 years old and R. Kelly's 27 and gets her pregnant. And there's a story where when Aaliyah would go to sleep and they were living with Aaliyah's mom, that R. Kelly would fuck Aaliyah's mom while he's pregnant with Aaliyah's... So you want to talk about creeps in the industry, fucking this is all what it's all about. And you might think that Jay-Z has got a cute smile and the big old lips that are real seductive-like. But the reality is, is those beautiful lips have been connected to some child pedophilia. One other thing from the factory.

I don't have anything to add. One other thing from the factory was the workers reported that they were made to drink Water containing fecal matter Oh my god Yeah but they later found out it was just Jay-Z branded cognac I mean that's just Hazing it gets people closer together

It's a common team building Strategy Yeah sorry I'm just quoting from laborrights.org 20 workers who tried to form a union were immediately fired uh 11 to 12 hour daily shifts okay but that's that's here's the thing is that when you work in a sweatshop you're a team right and there's a certain level of uh collegiate um demeanor that's expected from the workers towards management. And forming a union is breaking that collegiate atmosphere and really sets a bad tone in terms of...

It's a party foul. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, that's what they said at my office when I tried to collectively organize my coworkers. They said it's a party foul? Andy's boss just made the triangle sign with her hands um oh yeah and so basically at this facility about 80 of the production was for sean p diddy combs sean john clothing line the other 20 was for rock aware so you know oh so

sean john's linked into this uh factory yeah but you know i thought we could trust p diddy just more evidence of jay-Z trying to become Big E. Yeah, of course. Trying to go in on his sweatshop market with his former producer. Right, right. But so, and then, you know, of course, this is back in 2003. So, of course, Jay-Z and Beyonce learned their lesson. Why did they just become obese?

Andy, of course Jay-Z and Beyonce learned their lesson. Yeah, well, they never did this again. In 2003, you know, they were publicly hounded by these labor rights organizations, directly challenged. You know, they said they would do better and all that. And they learned their lesson. And you will not, if you were to Google Beyonce's clothing line, Ivy Park clothing, you would not read about women being locked inside the facility and not allowed to leave this siri lankan prison queen where they uh where workers are paid 54 cents an hour

slay queen to work 60 hour work weeks slay queen and it's slave queen there's a v there oh that's why like when she dressed up as the pharaoh for homecoming, she used Greek letters. Because she's like, no, I'm the one who owns the slaves. Yes, precisely. I'm the outside conqueror here. When she says get in formation, she means get back to work. Yeah.

That's what they shout when they're on a minute two of their bathroom break get back in formation whenever the employees ask for lemonade they just throw an album at their face um but so i guess just kind of continuing with the story of jay-z because like next he fucks over damon dash and uh so of course we mentioned Rockaway. Again, he sells this line for about $204 million to a French company. I believe it was French in 2007. And with this capital, he is what he makes the 4040 Club.

He gets a whole bunch of connections in the Manhattan Socialite Elite Club and continues his reign of New York Empire state of mind. Right. So it's, you know, so he releases a few more albums, not really anything notable until the Black Album in 2003. And the Black Album significance is... I guess the Blueprint. Comes out mere hours before 9-11,

which, you know, chew on that one, Illuminati conspiracy theorists. I mean, there are plenty of Illuminati conspiracy theorists. I mean, there are plenty of Illuminati conspiracy theories with Jay-Z and Beyonce. I mean, so did they might be Giants' main car. So you got to share the responsibility here. I mean, does the black elite trust Jay-Z and Beyonce? Are Jay-Z and Beyonce a part of the black elite?

Of course. Whether it's Oprah or Robert F. Smith, are they at parties from time to time? I wouldn't be shocked about it. Yeah, there's this weird rumor that says the album The Blueprint, Jay-Z released mere hours before 9-11, and then names every single person

who is going to die in 9-11, and also names the people who mysteriously did not show up to work that day. It's interesting how the cover of that album is a blueprint of the World Trade Center with the most load-bearing support beams highlighted. Yeah, if you look through the album notes, you'll see plans for the Tower 7 with diagrams labeling where thermite was

placed. Yeah and he figured it out by folding a $20 bill in two very specific ways that showed him exactly how to do it. Also he typed in the 9-11 airplane ticket number in wingdings. Yeah he tried to hit on you night at 93 because he heard that was its birthday

um but so essentially you know they released the blueprint and then 2003 released the black album and supposedly retires right and like around this time essentially in 2004 he becomes the president and ceo of def jam and this is how he pushes out um damon dash and i guess you were saying something about yogi you were saying something about the retirement being like a bullshit thing so essentially one of the reasons why he does this move is because to when he joins the president's when he becomes the president of def jam he also retains uh ownership of his masters that from the albums right that's jam would produce so he cut out Dame Dash and Biggs from that those royalties so anytime you listen to a track from those albums Dame Dash and Biggs have been cut out of it and at this point I believe Jay-Z's been

dating uh Beyonce for a handful of years and we're only going to cover her a little bit on this episode. We'll probably do another episode on her later. But her group, Beyonce, Beyonce's group, Destiny's Child, is managed by her father. And she becomes the golden child in that group. In one case, because all of the other members of Destiny's Child are forced to tan so that Beyonce looks the lightest. In other ways that in a situation where the R&B soul group Jagged Edge

was opening or they were going on tour with Destiny's Child, two of the Destiny's Child members were dating members of Jagged Edge and telling them about how they were favoritism towards Beyonce and Kelly Rowland. And so one of the mothers of the two Destiny's Child artists who were about to be kicked out was not being let on the tour bus because Beyonce's dad didn't want to deal with her. And Jagged Edge got mad about that. So Beyonce's dad kicked out Jagged Edge off the tour and the two other Destiny's Child members. And after this, they just the two other beyond destiny child members and after this they just hired two

other people and the first song they make in the studio for a video is say my name so they get kicked out right before that first big big hit but also the media because they're like destiny child just got 50 different picked up the song and be like oh this is the new destiny child so it became a controversy that spun them up a bit more because of this uh the two other members that joined destiny child plus the original two would go on to um get uh duis uh one would go to jail for various reasons and uh they have a very difficult and terrible life and deal with depression and anxiety and kelly roland was uh molested as a kid and so she dealt with anxiety throughout the entire time and was depressed while dusty child was big and so

beyonce's dad really does make uh you know mastermind her solo career and with jay-z cutting out damon dash and biggs does essentially the same thing to his past he cuts out the ties that are holding him down to making as much money as possible even though they got them there and um i mean beyonce is in the mastermind of this but jay-z kind of takes a page out of her book and destiny's child to become who he is now yeah i mean so it's basically like uh we mentioned this deal distribution deal they signed with def jam and so it's something where jay-z agrees in 2004 to become the president and CEO of Def Jam in exchange for his master's, the rights to his music, which is worth millions now. And so because he takes this role, he takes Damon Dash out to dinner is the story.

And he says, you know, you and Biggs Burke run rockefeller but he wants the masters and you know dash originally says no but because jay-z becomes the ceo of def jam you know rockefeller is now a subsidiary of def jam uh based on this previous deal so he essentially just says like well tough shit that's the way things are going to be now exactly you know and so it's like day uh damon dash according to like some new york mag profiles worth something like 50 million maybe 20 to 50 like but that's by his own admission but uh so it's like he's not he made money but it's also like okay so this guy built your business and you just cut out his life's purpose and stabbed him in the back like a fucking snake well i mean whether it's biggs it's damon, or Jazzo, his original mentor. We forgot to mention, like, right after Reasonable Doubt hits, he offers Jazzo a record deal that Jazzo turns down because it's such crap.

Right. Like, just like the guy who got you into the industry, and you give him some fucking lowball deal. And, like, according to Jazzo, you know, Jay-Z looks at it like, you know, oh, you won't take my deal? Like, how dare you? And it's like know oh you won't take my deal like how dare you and it's like you're giving me a shit deal why would i take it i mean it's tough because i think that um in like if damon dash wasn't so pushy if if the destiny child members were more subservient you could argue that oh they would get the same success but it's like no that would have never happened beyonce and jay-Z from day one would orchestrate themselves

being the winner in their stories, regardless of the other moves the other players did. Well, it's worth noting that Jay-Z's from the streets. He did get his degree on the streets of Hard Knock. This is true, Andy. That is on his Facebook profile. The streets of the Barclays Center. Right, Atlantic Avenue. Now, where did 99 Problems come out The streets of the Barclays Center. Right.

Atlantic Avenue. Yeah. Now, where did 99 Problems come out in relation to him screwing over everyone he knew who helped him coming up? Kind of right as he was doing it. Okay. Because 99 Problems is on the Black Album, and he goes to death. That's supposedly his retirement album. So the whole Jay-Z's dead i'm now not jay-z

99 problems it refers to every single person investigating the 9-11 attacks who was murdered and when did hard knock life come out oh yeah that was his like big crossover hit yeah that was i think 97 98 okay so this was this that was what launched him into the stratosphere right because it's like before then he was like a rapper but that was like the the song yeah 98 hard knock life comes out and that's what really makes him like mainstream pop music jay-z you know yeah like I like how he would say in interviews like oh man that Annie story really inspired me we're just it's a story about like story about a blonde girl who's adopted by a billionaire.

And it's like, that speaks to me. Obviously Jay-Z's inspired by a story where a young girl is adopted by a billionaire and is forced to live in his mansion and do his bidding. How can you not see that? Jay-Z would love that. I just realized Annie is the Jeffrey Epstein

story. Every movie is when you think about it but yeah so it's like essentially you know so he becomes president of jeff def jam 2004 he steps down in 2008 uh oh yeah he of course he retires after the black album but then releases another album two hour two years later right which is like the normal amount of time between albums. He doesn't even retire for more than that. But it's all just a marketing scam. Yeah, of course. You know, you can, nobody cares.

No one, you know. The idea of this is my last one is entirely to make people think if they don't get it that they'll lose out somehow. So that's all Jay-Z's doing. Yeah, so 2009 he starts he teams up with live nation to start the rock nation uh imprint which we'll kind of get back to in a second here uh but i wanted to mention just a couple quick hits uh in 2016 he signs an exclusive two-year film and tv deal with the weinstein company which which great timing.

And the other thing that we should just kind of mention here is 2006 Jay-Z appeared with Russell Simmons as the founder of Def Jam, and they did a PSA together combating racism and anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism part he would later completely undo with

his hit song The Life of OJ, or The Story story of oj but i just wanted to he just starts reading the protocols of the elders of zion yeah jc's next verse on this song is in german for some reason. He's just screaming it at an auditorium full of people. There's also not really any context to the line. Like he tries to, you know, he does the whole thing where it's,

he has the old kind of Sambo cartoon thing to make it seem like it's a deep commentary on race in america but then he's he throws in this uh anti-semitic line with really no reason to do it um i mean he's just appealing to the all right andy let's be honest here jay-z knows that america is his customer and he'll sell them whatever they want to get his way which we've learned time and time and get because whatever jay-z makes an album there's at least 20 to fucking 70 references to things that he thinks the people that listen to him should buy you know when he makes magna carta holy grail he says tom ford and now people buying tom ford wait does he want people to buy jews well well actually if you go to the youtube music video

the part where he says this is how they did did it, he is actually pointing at a link you can click to a QAnon YouTuber who will explain the Jeffrey Epstein connection. But yeah, so what I wanted to mention was Russell Simmons, again, the founder of Def Jam,

has at least five named women who have accused him of rape. And again, five people willing to come forward and put their name out and say he raped them so you have to imagine this was a very systemic pattern and the guy's worth like 300 million so of course he can defend himself very well against these things and it's just something where you know we mentioned r kelly um and then russell simmons you have to imagine jay-z knew. Well, if you look up Jay-Z lawsuit,

among the several things he's been sued over, one of them is someone that says he's his son. So there are a handful of Jay-Z's yo daddy stories. Well, we're not going to have any of that in the Paul McCartney episode. I'm just imagining Jay-Z looking at some child who looks exactly like the camel cigarettes camel. And like, no, this guy's not my son at all.

But so I wanted to mention one other thing before we go to Barclays Center. So according to Dr. Boyce Watkins, who's a University of Syracuse finance professor, Jay-Z made $63 million in 2012. He gave $6,000 to charity, which like, again, I don't, I don't want to promote billionaire philanthropy as any sort of thing that

undoes the fact that they're hoarding wealth that would much better be spent by public accountability, you know, democratic accountability as opposed to private dictatorship foundations. But again, it's just something so blatant where something maybe we'll close out with is just how much jay-z portrays his own success as like this means something for black america right the fact that i am a billionaire means something well you know sean he's from the streets that's right yeah and so i guess what i wanted to talk about with

barkley center and you know we're recording downtown brooklyn we're very close to it we see it um and it's really horrible what happened there because what we should mention another thing you know we up top we said that season has never been good that's what's going on down at barkley center ladies and gentlemen we're tired it. We talked about it up top where essentially like you think Jay-Z, how did he make his money? Music. But you also think who owns the Nets? Jay-Z. Right.

Oh. The Hasidic owners of Barclays Center. Yeah. Jay-Z has never owned more than 1.5% of the Nets. Right. I think the last, and then he sold a bunch of that stake. His stake in the Nets is worth, I think last I checked, about $350,000.

It's worth less than a fucking one-family house. That's how much of the goddamn Nets he owns. And again, his stake in Barclays Center. Well, yeah, but he's from the streets. His stake in Barclays Center was always less than 1%. And so essentially what happened here is the Barclays Center and Atlantic Yards development was another one of these fucking New York State boondoggles where they gave, you know, $1.6 billion of public money to these developers.

And then it domained a bunch of properties and kicked people out on the streets. And of course, you know, hugely sped up the gentrification of the neighborhood. And they did all that by using jay-z as their front man right where they convinced people and jay-z convinced people that he owned the barclays center or had some major stake in it he owned the nets that were going to play in the barclays center and the truth is he didn't own shit jay-z's actual profit on this was in the neighborhood of six or seven million dollars that's how much he made for the barclays center and that's when he's already a millionaire in exchange for fronting this campaign that horrifically displaces poor people in downtown brooklyn that he fucking

you know cares so much about well i mean here on letterman he's actually got a pretty fun uh uh back and forth with dave about about the whole thing. So I think that's... I understand some Russian guy came in and bought the nets. Tall guy, too. And are you still an owner of the nets? Yeah, even more so. Well, who's the Russian guy? Tall guy.

He's a Russian billionaire. I maintain there are no Russian billionaires. Is he really a billionaire? A couple times over. Really? How did he make his money you see that's cute because it was probably from theft and murder after the fall of the soviet union um you skip the part where he goes hey dave have you thought about getting 16 year old interns and dave's like yeah i have not only have I thought about it, I almost got it done.

You know, with the Barclay deal, he also, in 2013, starts Rock Nation Sports, which is his athletic management line. It's a partnership with Creative Artist Agency, CAA. And, I mean, it's just a management group for football players, baseball players, basketball players, and some boxing boxers as well. One of the boxers sued Roc Nation Sports because he said that, like, I wasn't ready for a fight, but they forced me into it essentially. So, like, you know, who knows? What's the worst that could happen? Who knows what makes a person go, I want to fight. He was ready.

We gave him his two-minute bathroom break. I mean, who knows what makes a person be like, I am ready to fight another was ready we gave him his two minute bathroom break i mean who knows what makes a person be like i can't i am ready to fight another person or not but um if this guy says that like you know i wasn't ready and they pushed me into it i i'm not too inclined not to believe him he wanted his job to be being a boxer yeah and so just a couple other things on this barkley center so jay-z famously takes the subway in 2012, you know, and there's like videos. You can see like everybody staring and pointing because there's a fucking pedophile on the subway. But it's so essentially, you know, we mentioned this 1.6 billion in public money.

Jay-Z was the front man. He makes six or seven million on this. The real people were billionaires, Bruce Ratner, and then the aforementioned Russian billionaire, a guy named Mikhail Prokhovov. So those are the two billionaires who really own the Nets and have bigger stakes in Barclays. And one thing with Bruce Ratner, the MTA, the New York State Transportation Agency that runs the subway, they sold Bruce Ratner an eight and a half acre train yard, which is what the Barclays Center was built on, built on, they sold them this property without opening it up to competitive bids. So they sold it to a massively below market. And then, you know, a bunch of tenants organizations were

protesting, rightfully so, against this, you know, huge public giveaway that was, again, just going to displace people. And they fought it as hard as they could but eventually you know barclays and the state agencies took them to court and they uh got the right to eminent domain so the state in 2014 they seized at least seven residential buildings you know full of people and said hey get the fuck out you have 90 days have you heard of trenton new jersey it's nice there jay-z used to sell crack maybe you can live there there's property available so you know they eminent domained at least seven properties to knock them down and like build these fucking luxury developments which hey big surprise they made promises for affordable housing good luck finding it yeah you know so it is just something

where yeah but i mean on the flip side uh you during hockey season, you get to meet a bunch of Long Island hockey fans on the train. And that's pretty cool. They get to behave like R. Kelly did in that video on the train. But so, you know, it's essentially like, again, at least seven residential apartment buildings just eminent domain and all the tenants thrown out and again kind of what we've talked about here is jay-z you know selling crack when he's poor and has to survive i mean that's excusable but in 2012 he's a multi multi-millionaire and he's destroying brooklyn and throwing all these like poor vulnerable people to the wind for just six or seven million dollars. I mean, yes, he's working with outright criminals who are destroying thousands of people's lives.

But on the other hand, he worked his way up from the streets. In that documentary we saw, Dr. Boyce Watkins says that the negative impact Jay-Z had on the black community is upwards of multiple billions of dollars. So regardless of how much money he personally has, has he taken out billions of dollars worth of. Hey, Yogi, what's better than one billionaire? I don't know,

Andy, what? I don't know. I guess you're supposed to like two. And so, you know, but of course, you know,

this giant campaign where they put them on the face of the fucking billboards in Times Square. So it was entirely like, you know, shady white developer shady russian oligarch like he became the jared fogel of fucking barclay center they wouldn't have been able to get this deal done or at least there would have been a lot more public opposition if they didn't manage to convince people with jay-z willingly going along with it for a small little taste hey this is me i'm bringing brooklyn back you know i'm fucking owning this terrible team that's going over 82 um but you know what of course jay-z learned his lesson which is why there was not a story this year about how he's investing in the fucking carceral state

wow uh the blogger sandra rose broke the story that rock nation and a couple other investors put about $3 million in a startup called promise. And just quoting from Sandra Rose's blog here, promise is a technology software design company that sells apps that help government agencies track people who are released from jail under the First Step Act. That seems completely normal and nice, Sean. I don't know why you're bringing this up.

Promise provides an incarceration alternative by using software that replaces home confinement and ankle monitoring with a smartphone app to track, quote, participants and remind them when they're supposed to appear in court or take a urine drug test. And Jay-Z issued a statement saying, we are increasingly alarmed by the injustice in our criminal justice system money times and lives are wasted with the current policies it's time for an innovation an innovative and progressive technology that offers sustainable solutions to tough problems promises team led by co-founder and ceo uh fedra ellis lamkins is private carceral state there's an app for that is building an app that can help provide quote liberty and justice for all to millions and yeah that's uh that's that's the kind of statement you put up when you invest

three million in the fucking uh palantir app to attract people who uh got like a dui or got caught with like three grams well some of them were dealing crack cocaine shine yeah they need to be tracked at all times and that i mean that just destroys communities so you really need to make sure that anyone involved in that is i mean some of them were dealing near the barclays center i mean that place needs to be safe they rolled it out in trenton new jersey just for for the added irony of Jay-Z's app monitoring his former coworkers. Look, if you let people sell crack and get away with that, before you know it, they'll be working with Russian oligarchs to destroy neighborhoods.

Oh, my God. And so essentially, like, the whole thing is they, you know, take advantage of the fact that people are caught up in this carceral system to make money on it. And, you know, you look at fact that people are caught up in this carceral system to make money on it and you know you look at it just so happens if you were to go to the promise website and look at our team uh you might notice the skin tone of the people who are actually making money off the back of this giant carceral state puerto ricans yeah mostly puerto ricans it's like i think jay-z identified them on a song he released.

Hey, you guys want to hear some funny Illuminati dirt? Yeah. Even Beyonce and Jay-Z's child's name is a reference to the Illuminati. Blue Ivy, B-L-U-E-I-V-Y, stands for Born Living Under Evil Illuminati's Very Youngest. Is that on Snopes? No, this is on romper.com. The real Snopes. Look, Jay-Z's not in the Illuminati.

He's a puppet of the Illuminati, and they forced him to name his child that. That's right. Yeah. Nobody would name their child Blue Ivy willingly. Her middle name is United 93. What if it was Becky with the good butterfly clips in her hair? But I guess, like, the kind of running theme that we've got at here and we've mentioned is, you know, Jay-Z and Beyonce promote their own success as uplifting the community, you know, uplifting black America in particular.

And it's like, again, you can look at their charitable givings. You can look at their sweatshops. You can look at the fucking Barclays Center deal. You can look at Jay-Z's private fucking prison tracking app. Right. You know, like we set up this. I mean, you call it a private prison tracking app right right you know it like we set up this i mean you call it a private prison tracking app i call it black excellence i mean you talk about it not helping the black community it does help the black community only a very small portion of

it named sean carter and beyonce knowles uh and blue ivy and their two twins yeah oh mind you uh by the way uh jay-z uh does not eat butt but now he definitely eats butt i do want to mention so forbes actually went through how they valued jay-z at one billion dollars and he's got like a 70 million dollar art collection which i think he mainly just invested in so that he could write every line on magna carta holy grail it's just like look at the paintings i own and think of a word that rhymes with Basquiat. Just, you see that artist's name on the painting? Just think, take out the rhyming dictionary and flip to that word. What rhymes with Picasso?

But so, and essentially like the song Family Fe feud off his most recent album 444 which is of course uh it stands for uh that the sundial on jeffrey epstein's island when it's pointed at 444 that means it's time for the child sacrifice of course you know we all know this um but so there's this line off it where jay-z says i think it's the hook actually what's better than one billionaire two especially if they from the same hue as you so of course you know what's a good thing for black i think you got that from dr seuss he just wants white people to tan sean he's just tired of all this bad skin in his life and i love that he says especially when they're the same, he was you after what you said, Yogi, about Beyonce,

like her father forcing the other members of Destiny's Child to get down. And then from the same song, another line, pretty much, if anybody should be getting handsome checks, it should be us. And it's all this just conflation where, you know, like why is Jay-Z so promoted by forbes magazine and other you know hyper capitalist propaganda outlets you know if anybody should be getting handsome checks it's us well it's not us it's jay-z jay-z's immediate family and those few

people that he actually took with him and didn't fuck over on the way up right you know like another guy who took a bid for like who claims to v Vlad TV that he took a bid for Jay-Z in like an assault case and Jay-Z just like didn't help him out when he got out of prison. Well, why should he? Yeah.

I mean, like, you know, the billionaire mindset is to, you know, crush and destroy until you get what you want. So, you know, it's very easy to look at Jay-Z's

rise to success and be like, man, the thing that helped him become a successful drug dealer applies to his businessman role now. And it's like, that's not a good thing. We shouldn't celebrate that. We shouldn't look at somebody that is a criminal formally and goes to have wildly, wild success in another field as if doing it illegally somehow is a good thing for society.

Right. And you know, it's something where like Harry Belafonte criticized Jay-Z and Jay-Z said like, my mere presence is charity or something like that. He said he regretted the statement later, but he compared himself to Obama and said like, you wouldn't demand that we do anything

essentially. And it's like that's the whole ideology where it's like clearly Jay-Z believes it at this point, just the fact of his own individual success. But the real problem is— Well, it's a big load off your conscience. Right. Oh, yeah.

It's a great way to fucking do the mental gymnastics of justifying like why I have so much. I'm one of the 2,000-so richest people on the planet Earth. Well, there's starvation and poverty and malnutrition. Some of it I'm causing. Yeah. there's starvation and poverty and malnutrition some of it i'm causing yeah you know and you know fucking uh parolees with my tracking app checking in and it is just something where jay-z's success or the success of really any billionaire it's a fucking lottery ticket jay-z was a talented rapper you know i actually think magna carta holy grail is underrated even though it's like kind of a materialistic album i think it's a i think it's it's interesting it's but the point is you know

it's a fucking lottery ticket that's not a sustainable plan for anybody and yet it's promoted like if you just have the talent and the hard work and the drive of jay-z you too can make something of yourself and you know it's just if you have the fucking wake up at 6 a.m. and scratch off lottery tickets every morning, you can make it too. It's the same fucking message and it's not a solution. And it's just dangerous and irresponsible that he or Beyonce or anybody with wealth uses their platform to promote this absolute bullshit. Well, it's also they like to and they like like to point out that like, oh man, the system

is rigged against us and we still rose above it. But then they kind of use that to say like, I guess we don't really need to change the system. You just have to do what we did. I was just thinking in 10 years, Blue Ivy will be old enough for some crack dealer in Trenton, New Jersey to start dating.

Well, here's the thing. Everyone doesn't realize 4-4-4 is exactly 14 numbers higher than 4-20. 4 minus 20 is 16. And in between 14 and 16 is the age bracket that Jay-Z prefers when he's looking at women to cheat on his wife with. But it is something where, you know, Jay-Z is a fucking snake. Jay-Z is a fucking snake. I actually remember when I worked at Whole Foods,

I worked at Whole Foods in Tribeca, and two of my coworkers were talking about like, yeah, people who knew, like they knew somebody who knew Jay-Z when he was like, before he made it. And they said, yeah, he's a snake. But you know, maybe you gotta be to succeed in business. Right.

And it's like, yeah, that's it. He just, you know, like to be to succeed in business right and it's like yeah that's it he just you know like to get to where he is you have to do shitty snake like things and yet he still promotes himself as a role model and that's clearly the exact opposite of what we want to be doing and i just like like even when it's convenient apparently benny siegel is a rapper according to hip-hop wired uh the judge at when benny siegel had a court case or he was in prison excuse me the judge asked jay-z to vouch for him and uh jay-z was not interested in doing that and could have got him an earlier release from prison well jay-z doesn't want

competition jay-z doesn't want to help anyone out he is the number one he is the alpha, the omega. Because if Jay-Z ain't rising, everyone's gonna fucking die. And, you know, we'll see. Just keep listening to Jay-Z's lyrics if you want to know when the next false flag attack will be coming. If you've got an apartment near, like, West 3rd Street and you hear Jay-Z shout that out in the new single, move immediately.

And with that, this has been Grub Stickers. I'm your LB Paul Ewell. I'm Andy Palmer. I'm Sean P. McCarthy. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.