Jay-Z prior to the UEFA Champions League 2023/24 final match between Borussia Dortmund vs. Real Madrid CF at Wembley Stadium on June 1, 2024, in London, England. | Source: Sebastian Frej/MB Media / Getty
CORRECTION: 9:50 a.m. ET, June 27, 2024 — A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Roc Nation was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success program. This article has been updated to reflect the correction.
The man who is widely considered to be the greatest rapper of all time isn’t helping to refute the narrative that he’s moving closer to conservatism following a recent string of events.
Just days after being accused of supporting a Republican-led effort to gut public education for low-income students, Jay-Z took to the stage for a rare performance at the New England Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony for NFL legend Tom Brady, who is a longtime friend of former President Donald Trump.
While Jay-Z has never particularly been a political figure – he was an influential endorser of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns – those two recent instances have prompted questions about his partisan leanings, if any.
Jay-Z’s surprise performance came Wednesday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. He performed his fan favorite track, “Public Service Announcement (Interlude),” in which he raps: “Fellow Americans, it is with the utmost pride and sincerity that I present this recording, as a living testament and recollection of history in the making during our generation.”
Jay-Z encouraged the audience: “Put one hand in the air for the GOAT, Mr. Tom Brady, tonight.”
To the uninitiated, the performance was simply a tip of the cap from one GOAT (greatest of all time) to another.
But some skeptics wondered why Jay-Z, whose performances have been few and far between in recent years, would lend such a hearty co-sign to an admitted friend and fan of Donald Trump during an election year. Some fans asked that question while also noting that Jay-Z didn’t even perform at any of the dozens of high-profile celebrations of hip-hop enjoying 50 years of existence.
That the performance came on the heels of Jay-Z and Roc Nation backing a program in Pennsylvania that Democratic critics say aims to gut public education certainly didn’t matter, either.
In case you missed it, a new campaign underway in Pennsylvania is aiming to get students from low-income households in Philadelphia into the city’s private schools. The Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) program is spearheaded by Jay-Z and his Roc Nation entertainment company, which also refers to the PASS grants as “Lifetime Scholarships.”
Roc Nation is supporting the legislation and, if it’s passed, up to $300 million in government funds would be allocated to help students from low-income households attend private schools.
“PASS – which is also known as Senate Bill 757 – is legislation aimed at increasing education opportunities for underprivileged youth attending the state’s lowest performing public schools,” a press release by the group stated.
But critics, including teachers’ groups, have called out the campaign for being heavily influenced by Republicans to gut public education and pointed to Jay-Z’s friendship with a key figure of the campaign.
“This ain’t it,” wrote the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “And for good measure, here’s a still of @sc and Jeffrey Yass, PA’s richest man, potential Trump Treasury Secretary, and the force behind the voucher push in PA.”
The push comes as House Democrats are advancing a bill for $5.1 billion in school funding, capping charter schools’ annual tuition fees.
Yass, a billionaire, is the largest megadonor to Republican federal campaigns this election cycle, according to CNBC, totaling over $46 million to date.
Roc Nation’s managing director of philanthropy rejected the criticism as invalid.
“Philly in particular, or Pennsylvania in particular, what’s alarming is the proficiency stats. 75% of (eighth-grade) students aren’t proficient in math, and 47% of (eighth-grade) students aren’t proficient in language arts, and when you look at the bottom 15% of the school system, the lowest performing schools, those numbers become even more dire,” Dania Diaz said this week. “We are supporters of the public school system … But numbers don’t lie, and the data shows that there must be another avenue for success for the state’s most vulnerable students.”
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