Some Dude <s>DJ Kool Herc</s> Wants Billions In Slave Trade Reparations From Jay-Z And Associates

Yes, you read that right: a man named Clive Campbell the hip-hop legend has filed a $5 billion “claim of lien” against Shawn Carter, real estate magnate Bruce Ratner, and international financial institution Barclays. Herc’sThe tangled legal claim connects Jay, partial owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team with Mr. Ratner, with Barclays, a bank that’s been rumored to have “links with the slave trade,” according to the New York Observer. The main point of contention is Ratner’s proposed new arena for the Nets, a project which has received Jay’s blessing, and since Barclays has “naming rights” for said arena, Herc Campbell implicates both men in profiting from a centuries-old cycle of oppression.

In the claim, Mr. Campbell said that Mr. Ratner and Jay-Z worked “in concert” with Barclays, and “profited from the African Slave Trade and continue to profit from these gains, through a conspiracy dating back hundreds of years and continue to date to oppress Black people, enslave them, unlawfully deport them to all corners of the Earth…”

Well, this should make things interesting backstage at the next Hip-Hop Honors. Naturally, Ratner is brushing off Herc’sthe beef as a bunch of hooey, and though it remains to be seen how the suit will progress, it’s unlikely the currently mum Jay-Z legal team will let such claims stand unchallenged. Whatever non-rap ventures he’s undertaken post-Black Album, it’s doubtful Jay wants “accused slave trade profiteer” as a bullet point on future resumes.

UPDATE: As a few eagle-eyed commenters have noted, the Observer has since updated its story to reflect that the man who has filed the lawsuit is “a different Clive Campbell,” this one a “Brooklyn-based activist,” than the Campbell we know and love as DJ Kool Herc. Apologies to Herc for repeating the error.

Hip-Hop Founder Filing $5 B. Claim Against Jay-Z, Bruce Ratner [NY Observer/Photo: AP]