14 DAY TRIAL // Rapper, music mogul and designer Jay-Z got himself in quite a pickle with his latest line of designs. All bearing the caption “Occupy All Streets” and taking inspiration from the Occupy Wall Street movement, the items have now been pulled from the Rocawear website.
Jay helped create a new line of tees where the “Occupy Wall Street” motto was cut and replaced with “Occupy All Streets.”
The clothing thus branded was available on the rapper's official Rocawear website, but has been pulled since fans complained that he was shamelessly making a profit off the movement, the Wall Street Journal informs.
“For Jay-Z, the week started out with acclaim, and ended with a controversial product vanishing from the website of his clothing line,” WSJ says.
“Photos of Jay-Z wearing an 'Occupy All Streets' t-shirt were posted on the Rocawear site with close-ups of the shirt and a statement that it was going on sale on Friday,” the same publication reports.
Several media outlets contacted the rapper to see whether he was planning to use the money from the sales of tees to help the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Gawker got the following statement from Rocawear, which made it very clear where the company stood on directing money towards the movement:
“The 'Occupy All Streets' T shirt was created in support of the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement. 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.”
Understandably, fans were outraged because Jay-Z was using a hot topic and an ongoing movement for profit; in other words, to further distance himself from the 99% protesting under the the motto “Occupy Wall Street.”
“By Saturday morning, the shirts had vanished from the Rocawear site. Tweets from the Rocawear and Roc4Life Twitter accounts published Friday touted the sale of the shirts, but the links to the retail page point to an empty page,” WSJ says.
Rocawear is now on radio silence.