It has been more than a week now since Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé were first criticized for spending their fifth wedding anniversary in Cuba. And now that the Treasury Department has confirmed that it authorized the trip, Jay-Z has released a controversial song implicating the White House (and the president), and the White House has reiterated that the Treasury issued the pair the appropriate license—in the immortal words of White House press secretary Jay Carney—the Jay-Z and Beyoncé Cuba-Gate criticism continues!
Today, however, the criticism stems not from a Republican politician but from 21 Jump Street director Phil Lord. The son of a Cuban refugee, Lord eloquently communicates his feelings on the subject in an open letter, written in reply to Jay-Z’s new single, “Open Letter.”
I just heard your new track, “Open Letter,” released today. It’s got everything I love about your music: looping internal rhymes, an infectious beat, and imagery that draws me into a kind of swaggering, defiant fantasy.
Speaking of defiant fantasies, I’ve been following news of your recent trip to the island nation of Cuba. As the son of a Cuban refugee, and cousin and nephew to many Cubans on the island, I cringe when Americans visit Cuba for a fun island vacation. For one thing it’s illegal (which nobody seems to care about), but more importantly, it’s either ignorant of or calloused to the struggles of Cubans on the island. I actually encourage my friends to travel to Cuba, to bear witness to one of the great tragedies of our time, to learn about the real Cuba, to put a human face on the caricature of Americans that the Castros propagate. Exchange and travel between our two nations should be a catalyst for change, as it has been even in my own family. But for me, Cuba is not the place to have a fun, sexy, vacation. Because for Cubans on the island and living elsewhere, it’s not.
So when I heard of your visit, I thought to myself, Jay Z seems like a smart, thoughtful guy. He doesn’t realize what he’s walking into. He probably just thinks Cuba is a chic place to relax with the family. He probably just doesn’t know the things I know.
Lord’s complete letter is available on The Wrap. In his “Open Letter,” Jay-Z seemingly makes light of the controversy by rapping, “I done turned Havana into Atlanta” and “Boy from the hood, I got White House clearance . . . Politicians never did shit for me except lie to me, distort history . . . They wanna give me jail time and a fine. Fine, let me commit a real crime.”
Earlier this week, the Treasury confirmed that officials there had authorized an “educational exchange trip” requested by a travel organizer but without knowing that Jay-Z and Beyoncé were the travelers in question.
