Rapper Jay-Z has just addressed his Cuba-trip critics that include well known Cuban-American politicians, with a rap titled ‘Open Letter’.
The music mogul and his wife Beyonce celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on the island nation last week. The trip was greeted by frenzy in Cuba but criticism stateside as U.S. Congressmen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart Ross questioned the legality of the trip.
Even Cuban-American Senator Marco Rubio chimed in with his scorn, lucky for us he’s not too busy working on comprehensive immigration reform and has time to deal with such critical issues as Jay-Z’s travels. These prominent Cuban-Americans feel travel to Cuba or opening relations with the country will only keep the Communist regime of the Castro brothers in power. Clearly these Cuban-Americans want to give the 53-year-old Cuban embargo policy some more time to work.
Travel to Cuba though more open today than before can only happen through cultural exchange licenses granted by the U.S. government. Those licenses cannot be granted for tourist purposes only as some are alleging the Jay- Z - Beyonce trip was.
Jay-Z’s critics, which may be more Obama critics than anything else, want to know if the President knew about the trip or worse sanctioned it. If you are to believe the ‘Open Letter’ rap lyrics the President ok’d the trip and was going to get ‘impeached’ over the matter. White House spokesperson, Jay Carney said President did not ok the trip just because maybe he is busy with comprehensive immigration reform amongst other things.
The U.S. Treasury Department did a mea culpa and acknowledged that they granted the licenses for the rapper’s group to travel as a ‘cultural learning experience’ but were not aware that the rapper himself and his superstar wife were going to be part of the trip.
The lyrics go something like this
“I done turned Havana into Atlanta,” Jay-Z raps in “Open Letter,” which he released Thursday. “[…] Boy from the hood, I got White House clearance… Politicians never did s—- for me except lie to me, distort history… They wanna give me jail time and a fine. Fine, let me commit a real crime.”
Even if the trip is a bust the song probably won’t be, it was produced by Timbaland and Swizz Beatz.
Click here to listen