dream hampton – a long time writer and filmmaker who co-wrote Decoded with Jay Z – announced on Sunday that Jay and Beyoncé have allegedly donated tens of thousands of dollars to help bail protestors out of jail in Baltimore, Maryland during the recent civil unrest.
Early Sunday morning, dream took to Twitter, after people were critical of Jay Z’s freestyle from his B-sides Tidal concert Saturday night at Terminal 5, and the idea that Jay and Bey have been silent about the social issues taking place in Ferguson and Baltimore.
First he mentions Tidal competitors trying to stop him from starting the company, or trying to convince him to work with them instead: “Jimmy Iovine offered a safety net / Google dangled around a crazy check / I feel like YouTube was the biggest culprit.
“I feel like YouTube is the biggest culprit. Them ni**as pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get. You know ni**as die for equal pay right? You know when I work I ain’t your slave right?”
“So I’m the bad guy now I hear,” Jay said, referring to Tidal criticism. “All because I don’t go with the flow and ain’t nobody taking advantage of me. And I love my ni**as… I don’t know why everyone is acting like this is brand new. They ain’t give me a record contract, so I made my own record company… I’m never gonna go with the flow. I’m never gonna let nobody take over our music. I see s**t that maybe you don’t see.”
“Tidal, my own label, same difference.That leads to a tribute to Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin, which then turned into why people should be supporting Tidal
“You know I came to this game independent, right?” he asks. That’s true. “Tidal, my own label, same difference.”
“You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich / Phil Knight is worth trillions, you still bought them kicks / Spotify is nine billion, they ain’t say shit.”
dream logged onto Twitter Sunday morning to defend Hov.
hampton called Jay and Bey while she was on the front lines in both Ferguson and Baltimore, and, in both incidents, the Carters immediately wired her “tens of thousands” to cover protestors’ bail costs. She also said the Carters donated huge sums to the Black Lives Matter foundation and that their other contributions are “too many to list.”
She followed her tweets in defense of the Carters by saying the state’s financial power over protestors is one of the biggest hindrances to resistance movements: “When they fine and arrest people for protesting, more opportunities for exploitation by the state are possible with each encounter.”