Jay Z – Self Equanimity http://selfequanimity.com Current Affairs Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:36:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.4 https://i0.wp.com/selfequanimity.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SE-Copy.png?fit=32%2C32 Jay Z – Self Equanimity http://selfequanimity.com 32 32 176655959 Can’t we say anything these days ?? The Trick Daddy Chronicles http://selfequanimity.com/cant-we-say-anything-these-days-the-trick-daddy-chronicles/ http://selfequanimity.com/cant-we-say-anything-these-days-the-trick-daddy-chronicles/#respond Sat, 26 Jun 2021 07:08:52 +0000 https://selfequanimity.com/?p=1356 Did anyone hear about Trick Daddy???? I mean what he said about Jay Z and Beyoncé, According to People magazine, this is what he said, 

 

“Beyoncé don’t write music and barely can sing her motherf—ing self,” he continued. “Beyoncé can’t sing.”

“Man, I watched my godmama train Beyoncé, vocal lessons all her career,” Trick Daddy added, before mentioning JAY-Z within his rant. “I’mma give an unpopular opinion right now – Beyoncé is to R&B what JAY-Z is to New York. That’s why they together. JAY-Z ain’t never won the greatest rapper alive. Whoever put him on a level like that?” 

These are some of what he said against Jay Z and Beyoncé, of course, there was a lot more but you get the picture.  I don’t know what the topic of conversation was before he decided to go on a rant,  and I don’t know how this was leaked to the media,  but I’m not really worried about Trick Daddy as  I  am about the psychology of people. Regardless of what you think about what he said, or how you feel about Jay Z and Beyoncé,  we can respect someone’s opinion can’t we, ??   as a normal society we should,   everything he said was his take on Beyoncé and Jay Z,  The funny thing is that because of what he said, his business was targeted, specifically his restaurant in Miami  Gardens. Some say the food is NOW disgusting ???? They flooded review pages with negative comments, which to me is scary.  We are almost at a  point where people will pretend to like everything for fear of the backlash. 

A question I will ask is that, for the people who decided to go after his business, Are they trying to say that everyone in the world loves Beyoncé and Jay z, or are they trying to say that they are unpaid bodyguards of Beyoncé and Jay  Z and they will attack anyone who doesn’t feel the way they feel, especially about their idols? Our differences should make us individuals and not just group thinkers.  Are we saying that all will be well if he hasn’t given his honest opinion ???? Note that he never said he was better than Jay Z, ( even though he was a rapper) he only said he doesn’t think he is the best rapper alive, just like some don’t think other artists are the best, some don’t think thriller is Michael Jackson’s best album when musicians win grammy’s, not everyone agrees with the vote, some think other people should have won.   some prefer the rolling stones to the Beatles and think the Beatles don’t deserve the fame they got, some might go as far as calling other artists overrated, but they don’t go after businesses like that,   I think we should celebrate differences, it is the differences that make us great. if he doesn’t think Beyoncé can sing or think that Jay Z is the greatest rapper of all time, we should remember that these are his opinions, I don’t think anyone should attack his businesses for his opinions.

There used to be a time when we can just give opinions about musicians and artists and we don’t go any further than that, after all the music industry is competitive anyways, there was a time also when we as a people knew how to trash talk and welcome healthy competition, Not anymore I guess, if we care about each other we should realize his business employs people and if his restaurant doesn’t make any money, he will have to close his doors, adding to the unemployment problem. Let us not forget that Trick Daddy has actually helped his community, in 2020 he teamed up with the Youth Community Help Service Inc, for a Christmas toy drive, at that time he was trying to start his foundation by the name of “Trick Luv Da kids foundation”

 

 

 

He also did a back-to-school party to give back to the kids in his community, are we going to say all these things are useless just because he stated his opinion???? and now we attack him because we don’t like what he said ???

I don’t think we as a people should go that far …… We can always disagree with his opinion.  let us watch how we react to opinions. After all Art, ( music, acting, painting, etc) is relative! 

 

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Oh the Hypocrisy PART 2 http://selfequanimity.com/oh-the-hypocrisy-part-2/ http://selfequanimity.com/oh-the-hypocrisy-part-2/#respond Fri, 22 Jan 2021 05:59:42 +0000 http://selfequanimity.com/?p=1204 Let me start by saying Happy New year, 2021 is going to be an interesting year, 2020 was a year I witnessed how the mainstream media can control people into thinking whatever they want, and it was funny and sad at the same time. How our so-called celebrities are part of the puzzle. I keep on waiting to wake up from this dream!!. Oh the Hypocrisy…  let us start by saying since Day One in Trump’s presidency, he has done things that benefitted the black community,  Like “The first Step ACT,  like Pardoning of boxer Jack Johnson. 

Now Joe Biden has taken office, so Trump is out of the door,  his last days in office were quite interesting, to say the least, we all agree that he didn’t have to do what he did, which is pardon more black folks, he could have been very very petty and pardoned just white folks since he is accused of being a racist mostly by black people and white liberals.  He could have shown black people how racist he really was, personally, I wouldn’t do what Trump did, he has a big heart I must say. Usually, I wouldn’t care about these names on his list but I had to ask when I saw certain names on the list.

On the list of his pardons was a guy by the name Michael ‘Harry-O’ Harris. This man was the co-founder of DEATH ROW records where snoop made a name for himself, why is this man important? because snoop asked Trump to pardon this man, the story is that this man has been locked up since the 1980s, he would have been released in 2028. This means he was locked up during  Bush 1, Bill Clinton, Bush 2, and Obama. One begs the question why didn’t snoop Petition Obama to do this ?? Surely the first black president would have granted clemency to this man, wouldn’t he???  Racist Donald Trump wouldn’t do it would he ??? Actually, Biden was vice president for 8 years, he could have asked him….  We shouldn’t forget that snoop after being Trump’s friend, spent the last 4 years insulting Trump and telling us why he is a racist. Today he asks the racist to pardon one of his friends,( who happens to be black and locked up for breaking the law) and the racist president did just that … WOW!! I’m speechless!!!!! For those who say, oh that doesn’t matter he is still a racist,  well to them I say, he didn’t have to do it, actually, this was his chance to show people how racist he can really be, he could have said snoop, F— YOU!!!.but he didn’t. In my opinion,  I think snoop knows that Trump has been around hip hop since the early years, and he would be the one to pardon a man like this, why am I saying this ? well he didn’t ask Obama…  The Hypocrisy!

On his list of pardons was another interesting name, by the name of Desiree Perez.  For those who don’t know who Desiree Perez is, she is the CEO of Roc Nation,  YES Roc nation owned by Jay Z. She was arrested in 1994 on drug charges and that case has been over her head since. Again, this means she had this over her head since, Clinton, Bush 2 and of course Barack Obama,  let us not forget the fact that Jay Z campaigned for  Obama and hosted an event where 100 people attended the event, each person at this event paid $40,000.00. Jay Z raised $4million for Obama. Obama didn’t even grant a pardon for Jay Z’s employee as a thank you,  and he was in office for 8 years. Let us not also forget that Jay Z called Trump a “joke”. Let us say the “joke” of a president pardoned his CEO for free, if I was Trump I would find a way to charge for this, being that he raized $4million and couldn’t even get a free pardon. Jay Z didn’t even show up for the signing of the music modernization ACT, something that benefited the artists through streaming services. ( Tidal!!)

He did pardon Lil Wayne and Kodak Black but that is not surprising at least they supported him. A lot of people do not know but Trump while in the office took a salary of $1. Yes, ONE DOLLAR.

My dear friends the hypocrisy runs deep, and now there is silence everywhere because Trump who is supposed to be the racist did these things, he helped those who insulted him. WOW personal opinion again, I wouldn’t have done it.

 

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Contracts and Entertainment http://selfequanimity.com/contracts-and-entertainment/ http://selfequanimity.com/contracts-and-entertainment/#respond Mon, 21 Sep 2020 05:34:54 +0000 http://selfequanimity.com/?p=917 I’m sure we all have heard about Kanye West’s rants, these are new, happened a few days ago, it’s interesting how everything unfolded. There are mixed reactions on what he had to say, mostly about the entertainment industry. People have mixed reactions about his dealings with rap mogul Jay z.  

Kanye West 

The funny thing about all this is that most people see the glamour and the glitter and they equate everything to it.

Jay Z

No matter how many times this is said, people will still get the wrong misconception. Being Rich, being wealthy, and being famous are 3 different things.

 

Sometimes these 3 intersect, sometimes they don’t.  Most people think that once you get fame everything else is added to it which could be further from the truth. They think once you are famous, you get the women and the money.

With this issue, people will be dismissive and say, “Oh, Kanye is crazy, he doesn’t know what he is talking about, but he posted a contract for us to read,  I must say it is a 100 page contract, so no one is really going to spend time reading it. The few who read it know it was almost an unfair deal. The more important question should be, is Kanye telling the truth? YES!!. It is said that Jay Z had to “sell out” his own brother in order to get his own masters back.  Jay could have got his masters back by other means,  like re-recording his music so he can own them, (Prince said he was going to do that, on an interview with Larry King,  I don’t know if he actually did it, Taylor Swift also said she was going to do the same thing). As far as the contract, I will leave that part to you the reader. Year after year the story seems to be the same,   a lot of people don’t know that  Notorious B.I.G ( Biggie Smalls), and Tupac Shakur, died broke, they didn’t make enough money, from their own music. 

The question we should all be asking is, “is it worth it “?  Is the music industry really as shady as they make it out to be or are some of the artists just overspend money that is recoupable?  Do these artists really possess the talent and creativity to produce and write their own songs, or we just see them as something they are not? Take a case like R Kelly, despite what you think of him, just based on creativity alone, he shouldn’t be broke! Sadly he is because he trusted the wrong people after all.  Mc Hammer shouldn’t be broke, he is one of the few rappers that actually sold  10 million copies, and above(diamond amongst people like Tupac,  Notorious BIG, and Eminem, just to name a few.  For those who don’t understand how important diamond status is, this means the album or single sold 10 million copies and above. We have people like the Beatles and Elvis in that category, and a few African songs like ” sweet mother” which sold more copies than the Beatles best seller. This is how rare and important that is.

At the end of the day, we can’t blame the industry too much for what they do, after all, they are in this to make money, they could care less about fame.  Personally I think it is up to the artist to learn as much as they can, so they can start making their own money. If that doesn’t happen we will hear the same story again and again.

There have been a few people that have actually helped musicians and the music business as a whole.

Michael Jackson,  Master P, Wendy Day,  and believe it or not Donald Trump.  yes, our 45th did more to help musicians even more than Jay Z ever has, by signing  The MUSIC Modernization ACT.   He used executive privileges to sign this into law. This targets the streaming services, of course, they didn’t like that.

The signing of the Music Mordenization Act
The signing of the Music Modernization Act

That ACT forces, streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify to pay royalties to the artists/songwriters/engineers,  back then Streaming services including Jay-Z’s Tidal were not paying artists/songwriters/engineers, when their material is played on streaming services. Spotify tried to retaliate by suing songwriters, I’m yet to be updated on that particular lawsuit.

One of the ugly truths also is that most people don’t know that they make more money in their 9-5 than their favorite artists. You can read Kanye’s contracts by clicking the link below

KanyeContracts(Full)

 

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Wealth, what is it? Wealth and Black people and the transfer of wealth http://selfequanimity.com/ealth-what-is-it-wealth-and-black-people-and-the-transfer-of-wealth/ http://selfequanimity.com/ealth-what-is-it-wealth-and-black-people-and-the-transfer-of-wealth/#respond Fri, 24 Apr 2020 06:30:59 +0000 http://selfequanimity.com/?p=189

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH


According to Investopedia 

“Wealth is an accumulation of valuable economic resources that can be measured in terms of either real goods or money value” 

This is a very fascinating subject because a lot of people swear they have a clue about this but they do not. Our society is full of catchphrases, and these catchphrases have an emotional reaction instead of a logical one, especially in the black community, you hear things like, oh we need to practice group economics, we need to start businesses and it goes on and on. We also have the media being used to confuse us on what wealth is. A lot is demonized that shouldn’t be. Economics is very boring for our race, but spending money and celebrity culture aren’t.

I support the advancement of the media, we are in a very connected world. I also support technology and its advancement. I think technology can help us a lot, it has done amazing things for businesses. 

Let’s start with the problem, the average black child is not taught about hard work from the get-go, they are taught that you wake up one day In your life and you would be a “star”, and being a star comes with the good life, you know spending money, buying all sorts of clothing, this is what they call the good life., but then is it though ??? first of all to be able to spend money like that, means money has to flow like water., no one seems to make that connection. The interesting thing about people in a group is that people tend to do things in common. That being said, by definition alone, culture is rewritten multiple times, so everyday culture is changing, culture is dynamic, and also it is self-correcting, but it has to be initiated by someone else. Again the average black child doesn’t want to struggle, but somehow feels entitled to get money, when that doesn’t happen he or she blames the system. This is not to say or to deny everything that happens to black people as a whole, but the first thing we have to understand is that this is a very selfish world and most people tend to do things for their survival, so what it takes to survive Is what is usually proposed through the culture. There is such a thing called benefit analysis, where what one does must have some sort of benefit for the common good. The average black child wants to be a basketball player, a rapper, a model, an entertainer, very rare do black children want to be anything else. I for one I’m not against what anyone wants to do with his or her life, it is good that one knows what they want to do, but we have to ask the question, why does this happen, why do so many children want to be what they see on TV, and what is the reason?? One thing I can say for sure is, it’s not about what you do, it is about what you can make out of what you do. In anything, you do you can create an industry out if it keeps on making money. You just have to know how to do it, which most people do, not.

      Let us look at a typical example, anyone looks at March Madness????/ well most of the players are black, in an event as branded as the NCAA, you would think at least the players get paid. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet none of the players get paid. They sign a contract before they are allowed to participate in the tournament, the contracts state that they are student-athletes so they cannot get paid.. you would think that since all a black kid wants to do is to be a basketball player, ( among other things) black people would protest this and do something to get this changed, but no that doesn’t happen they are rather encouraged to do this hoping they make it to the NBA in future. The players are not getting paid, they are not even allowed to take gifts or receive a gift from anyone. The only thing they get, when they participate in the NCCA tournament is a scholarship for their education. The funny thing is that black people are satisfied with this. They advise their children to get with the program in the hopes of making it big later in the future. an industry has been created which generating billions of dollars, and black people have no idea, how it functions, how much money it generates, and say hey our children are not getting paid, so our children are going to sit home till they get paid, This is one of the largest forms of wealth transfer in history. This doesn’t tell a lot about “them” it does, however, tell a lot about us, Black people don’t understand wealth, let alone how it functions. There is an institution that followed the same principle, in history…. Ahhhhhhh you guessed it, SLAVERY!!!!.

 

Oprah Winfrey $3.5 Billion

 Institutions of wealth have always been created, they are as old as the civilization itself, these institutions generate wealth for the ones who created them. Slavery was an institution, and if you go far back in history slavery was an institution that generated wealth for someone else, as for the slave, well we all know how that story ends. This is why when free black people became wealthy, they also joined in the institution of slavery, to generate wealth, there were a few black families that owned slaves. Natives also joined in the institutions of slavery where they sold slaves. Institutions are designed that way. All races benefitted from slavery including black people in America. This is just one institution that is designed to make money. Another institution is marriage, as a friend said to me one day “ what does marriage have to do with love “? that was a tough question, marriage is an institution that has at its very core, wealth transfer, if you don’t believe me, study a little accounting and see what happens when one gets married, what happens to wealth, then we have an almighty divorce, this is, in fact, of of the greatest wealth transfer in human history. According to Wokwicz Law Offices, Estates, heirs are expected to receive $30 trillion before the year 2061, Also according to Investopedia $30 trillion is set to change hands in the next 4 decades. Interesting isn’t it? In this piece that I’m writing two keywords stand outlets look at them closely. Industry and institution.

Let’s take a look at the definition of industry and institution according to webster dictionary is 

 

Industry,” A distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises.

 

Institution “ established organization or corporation.

David Steward $3.5 Billion

 

The interesting thing about these two words is that they are sometimes interchangeable. For example, a bank is a financial institution but falls under the banking industry. These two words I would say are key to understanding the concept of wealth, and wealth transfer.

Some common institutions that are industries too are 

 

NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE, WBC, IBF, UFC, just to name a few, billions of dollars are generated from these organizations and generates a lot of wealth to those it serves. 

 

Michael Jordan $1.9 Billion

 

There is always the saying that but black people started with nothing, so, since black people started with nothing, blacks have to “catch up”. As false as this statement is, many don’t realize the implications of it, it is saying that black people started with nothing, so that simply means someone owes black people something. and then the excuse is born  If anyone dares attempts to take black people away from that mindset, black people always say, Oh you don’t know what it is like to be black, starting with nothing. This is why I say it is false, let take a look at what they used to call “Black Wallstreet”. Black Wallstreet. It was a place in Tulsa Oklahoma where black people built that City from the ground up, I will also say it is one of the many affluent black neighborhoods in history, there are many, but I choose this because it is the most common. There was a race riot that destroyed the place, but that is just half of the story, after the riot, Tulsa had so much wealth that it was able to rebuild within a short time. It came up better than before, soon the riot was a distant memory, they chose to focus on what they could do and they were very successful at doing it. Even when laws were made to make it difficult for them to rebuild, they still did. So one will ask, what happened? Well, it thrived for a long time, but as the rules/laws of segregation began to ease, black people started spending money in white establishments, stores, so money that will usually go into the banks in Tusla ended up on Wallstreet, no society, institution, organization, the establishment can survive that. That part of the story is never told because people are always looking for someone to blame. I’m in no way saying the blame shouldn’t be put where it belongs, but black people take that as an excuse and run with it. Lastly, I want to talk about one establishment/organization/institution. 

Jay Z $1 Billion

There is a reason why the catholic church is one of the wealthiest in human history, another rare piece of information which is usually conveniently left out of a conversation, is that the Vatican is also a bank and it runs like a country. This brings me to our institutions the black church, wealth is transferred from black neighborhoods to churches every week. The very people the church is intended to help are oblivious about this whole situation and think that all this is somehow sanctioned by God, which is a talking point from the catholic church. Black people don’t question anything religious leaders tell them, they just go with it. This is one institution that can help black people but chooses not to as long as black people have agreed to stay poor at their own expense, church leaders are going to be rich. Now let us look at a list here, Creflo Dollar, World Changers Church, his net worth, $27 million, the average annual income in his community $29,000,  we have TD Jakes His net worth $18 million, ( the last time I checked )surely these guys have benefitted greatly from the church and started businesses and made money, I’m going to be very generous here, let’s say the money they have wasn’t from the church, let us say that  they made this entirely on their merit. Here is the problem with that, to start a business ( which is the church is no exception) they had to come by some capital, does anyone believe that the church had nothing to do with them obtaining capital? I commend them for doing so, but the problem I have with that is they don’t tell people the truth, 

 

 

Kanye West $1.3 Billion

 

All I’m saying is we need to understand the concept of wealth transfer, especially when it is taking place under our very noses. 

Robert F Smith $5 Billion

In conclusion, I think we are dealing with misplaced emotions. I don’t expect any industry or institution to be fair to me and my children, I cannot force anyone to love or like me, but I won’t blame anyone else for my own failure as an individual or failure as a collective

 

 

Aliko Dangote $8.2 Billion

 

Mr. Aliko Dangote takes the price, with a net worth of $8 Billion, he is the richest black man, in the entire world, He is a businessman from West Africa, Nigeria

A few of us are proud of black success, it is something to be proud of but we all know that black wealth hardly exists in America

 

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