S. Samuel
The Miami Police Department has addressed using Jay-Z's semblance to illustrate a perception of a gang member on its website, retracting the depiction as a mistake.
According to one of the department’s officers, Jay wasn’t targeted intentionally.
“It was something that was inadvertently done,” the Miami Police Department’s Officer Kenia Reyes tells EW. “It was a mistake.” Reyes blamed the mix-up on the Miami PD’s computer department and declined to comment further. A representative for Jay-Z had no comment on this story. (Entertainment Weekly)
Reports on the Miami Police Department’s faux-pas circulated online yesterday.
What do gang members look like? A bestselling rapper and music mogul with 10 Grammys under his belt and millions of dollars in his pocket according to the front page of the Miami Police Department’s website. The Miami New Times found two graphics of Jay-Z that the Miami Police Department seems to have used for a banner on its website. (Gawker)
Following Thursday’s reports, the Department has since replaced the poster.
We’re still waiting for official comment from the Miami Police Department as to why they think Jay-Z makes a good criminal prototype. But after a blog we wrote this morning was “forward[ed] to the IT commander”, according to spokesperson Napier Velasquez, the department has removed the offending art– a painting of five apparent gang-members, two of which were modeled after the rapper– from the gang unit banner on their website. (Miami New Times)
Over the summer, Jay made headlines after being named Forbes‘ top “Hip-Hop Cash King of 2010”.
Forbes released their annual hip-hop cash king list today and at the top of the pile is Jay-Z. They estimate Hov grossed $63 million last year. Rounding out the top five are Dr. Dre ($17 million), Lil Wayne ($20 million), Akon ($21 million) and Diddy ($30 million) (Rap Radar)
Check out Jay-Z performing at last year’s World Series below:
