Here are some photos of Jay-Z and Beyonce out and about in NYC on Wednesday. Beyonce’s really bringing the banana realness, right? Yikes. My eyes hurt from this ensemble. I do kind of love Jay-Z’s “I FEEL LOVE” t-shirt though. Except they look like they’re heading to completely different events, but that’s pretty normal for them.
Earlier this week, artist Marina Abramović talked some trash about Jay-Z. Jay famously asked Marina to be a big part of his music video for “Picasso Baby” with the understanding of a quid pro quo: Marina would appear in the video as long as Jay contributed to her institute. First, here’s the music video:
Well, Marina told Spike Art Quarterly that Jay had not contributed to her institute after that performance and she felt “totally used.” She also said: “I will never do it again, that I can say. Never. I was really naive in this kind of world. It was really new to me, and I had no idea that this would happen. It’s so cruel, it’s incredible. I will stay away from it for sure.” Except… Jay-Z did make a big contribution to the Marina Abramović Institute just after the performance. Jay-Z literally showed the receipts!!! And Marina’s people issued this apology-tweet:
Marina Abramovic Institute apologizes to Jay Z (and Marina Abramovic) for saying he didn’t donate for “Picasso Baby” pic.twitter.com/W1dpxPacaI
— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) May 20, 2015
So her excuse is that no one told her that Jay-Z made a substantial donation to her institute, as he promised? This story makes me question Marina and how her “institute” is run and organized. But for Jay… he’s a man of his word and good on him for following through, donating and keeping that receipt.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Women’s face in first pic is everything.
She looks like me when someone talks smack about Kit.
So basically your permanent face then. HODOR!
ahah! Exactly!!
Ha, I had to scroll back up, but yep!
that’s her assistant, sam. i like to think she shows all the expressions / bitchyface that Bey is feeling behind the smile 😀
Men lie. Women lie. Numbers don’t.
I’m not a huge fan of Jay and Bey, but I do sometimes think the charges and complaints leveled against them are because of their status, position, and race in pop culture.
They’re not the most intelligent or the most political but they’ve got a boat-ton of money and they do what they want with it. Good and bad.
This woman shouldn’t have insulted him since the contribution was made. That’s horribly unfair and only feeds into the ongoing culture myth about these two.
eh, unless she was right and camp jigga reached out with hush money. never take these two at face value
They showed the DATED receipts,if anything she should be worried how she was not informed by her people especially on such a fat contribution.
Ironically you’re kinda proving the point. Jay shows receipts -which are dated- and the first reaction is to assume that he pulled something because…I’m not quite sure why.
Damn. You would think she would confirm that he didn’t follow through before sounding off on him😑. I hope she talked to Jay Z personally to clear the air and her “institute” for fudging up.
I agree. I would make sure I’m 100% in the right before I start talking shit about somebody. And it’s not like it wasn’t possible for her to confirm wether Jay Z gave the money or not.
If I was a potential donor to her institiute I might reconsider reading about stories like this.
noooope, that’s not Marina’s world darling….
her own institute apologizes too her for getting a substantial amount of money and not telling her….. and then of course when they get around too it, the institute will apologize to Jay….
Basically, Marina isn’t wrong people. It’s her people who kept quiet for two whole years and allowed her to sound off on how she felt “used” and was so “naive to this kind of world” that is “so cruel it’s incredible”….
Marina sounds like a blame shifting child, and this is coming from someone who loves her art. Loves her work and was obsessed with it at one point in university.
But today….
I’ve never loved Jay Z more in my life.
i’m amazed that she bore that grudge for 2 years!
This is one of those times when you gotta make sure your ducks are in a row before you open your mouth.
Yeah, really. She messed up big time. I wonder if she felt slighted in some other way by him and therefore unconsciously blocked out the fact that funds had been received.
Also, performance artists are very much in their own world and often occupy a mental state not aligned with normal consciousness. Which is a good thing. But it means they should have accountants and spokespeople handle practical matters if they care about keeping up appearances at all. Lord knows what state of mind she was in when she said that
A part of me thinks she might have been talking to those within the institute asking if JayZ did donate. And when it was thought he didn’t bad feelings were nurtured until she had enough and spoke out in a public platform.
Hmm… MAI appears to be run so poorly.
Yikes. If you are going to go public and trash another public figure, you better be sure you have your facts straight. Not sure why you would burn that bridge AND do it publicly though. Seems that she is still naive. Yeah good luck with the fallout
Okay that video is fun as hell!
I’d never seen it before and I’m shocked something as interesting as that, that did end in a big donation for her institute would be ignored and sullied.
I’d LOVE if we could get more art and experimentation in hip-hop but feel like this woman made it into an ‘us against them’ and ruined it for other people.
One thing good about him, at last!
The criticism is rich coming from Abramovic, who’s been criticized for exploiting workers and not paying workers and interns. That’s another level of mismanagement if she didn’t know about the donation.
Good on Jay Z for showing the receipts.
Really. Given her history, she shouldn’t be calling anyone out.
If he’s like most wealthy people, his donation probably wasn’t in his name, but the name of a company he owns (for tax reasons). Probably not a company anyone’s heard of or that does much of anything.
Years ago I worked for a charity that received a lot of large donations, and it was hellish trying to figure out who exactly they’d come from, as it was always some random company I’d never heard of that the person wasn’t always publicly linked too. I was seriously having to make FOI requests in my efforts to find out who I needed to send thank-you’s too.
Abramovic should have looked into it properly before calling him out though, I’m just saying it probably wasn’t as easy as looking for the check from Shawn Carter.
Hahah yeah, she probably looked and didn’t see any donations under Z, Jay Mr.
And she just blew any chance of any future donations from him, and potentially turned off new benefactors. Good one. And how. could she not know that? I don’t like Z or B, but at least call them out on something for real. Like the 20 grand champagne in the hot tub….
See my issue with the champagne is that if its true that they used their money to bail out protestors in Baltimore then how or why am I going to be mad about what they do with their property from a company Jay is part owner of.
My beef is when rich people don’t spend their money helping others, if they’re helping people then on some level I don’t care if they set fire to Birkins or smash expensive guitars or pour out champagne in their own free time. It’s when its nothing but slave labor and underpaying employees while living lavishly that bothers me.
Agreed @Amy. If a person uses their wealth for good, too, then why do I care what else they spend their money on?
They say he is part owner of the champagne. So, it was probably FREE besides for that product placement they would pay Beyonce for that. Regardless, how other people spend their money is their business. Lord knows, I spend mine in ridiculous ways.
How embarassing. I hope she called him to apologize.
Waiting to see how many comments this post gets👀
You and me both, haha.
My eyes are peeled lol
Oh it won’t be many, lol.
Where’s the fun in giving credit to Jay Z and Beyoncé for actually doing something good?
Right 😂 You always make good points, Anna. Too bad people are dead set on being against everything you say.
Agreed, I was really liking your comments on the other Jay Z post.
Wow! She must feel stupid….and perhaps a little scared. I would. And, this is why we should all keep our receipts for 5-10 years.
Um. He and his wifey faked a pregnancy – receipts can be backdated.
Jeez. 1) their pregnancy has NOTHING to do with this and 2) Why is it so hard to believe the guy donated to an institution he collaborated with?
I’m not Jay-Z fan, like at all. And I’ve side-eyed their pregnancy too but c’mon…he obviously proved his donation enough to get them to backtrack like that. I don’t believe he’s the greatest human being but I certainly don’t think he’s the worst either. Fact is, plenty of people I don’t like do good things & I have to respect that as a reasonable individual.
Of all the things you could fault Jay Z for, charity giving is not one of them. Who runs this woman’s institute? And why didn’t she actually make sure of the facts before sounding of?
Day-um that is embarrassing. You WOULD think, even if they hadn’t told her, she’d have checked up on it herself. What an ass.
Well…let’s just say that Marina Abramovic got her donation.
Whether she got it 2 years ago and her people “forgot” to tell her,
or she got it this week (and her foundation gave a backdated receipt & apology in return.)
You know Picasso Baby got a LOT of clicks – so Jay’s happy.
Slow Clap.