Water For Life or Rocawear?

Hip hop's President and CEO of Def Jam Records, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, is seen in this image walking through the roads of South Africa. With a model of one of his hoodies from his clothing line, Rocawear, Jay-Z has been captured around Africa appearing to be focused on more than just his Whater For Life campaign. This pushes forth my argument that Jay-Z may not only be devoting his time to the Water For Life project, but also to the South African look for his Rocawear campaign as well. Although Jay-Z has been successful with the Water For Life campaign, he also has a buzz from his Rocawear campaign that has both wardrobe and photos pertaining to African culture.

Jay-Z has a video/diary that shows the struggle in which young African children go through pertaining to trying to get healthy and clean water. Research says that nearly two million children die from unhealthy water and inadequate sanitation. This caused Jay-Z to get involved with this issue that is big in Africa. He states, "It’s the most basic element on the planet. It gives life to everything and it’s seemingly plentiful. But more than a billion people can’t get clean water for cooking, cleaning and bathing. 2.6 billion people don’t have access to adequate sanitation and 2 million children die every year from diseases caused by contaminated water." Jay-Z show his concern by teaming up with MTV and UN, in which he manages to tour several developing countries meeting with young people who do not have access to clean water. The campaign itself is a successful operation, but as my argument states there might be another reasoning behind his visits through the continent. Africa was one of the rapper/entrepreneur's tour stops and he says that at his stay there he was struck at how many of the world's poor lacked such a basic necessity. Did Jay-Z actually see the need of this continent or did he see a good advertising establishment? This would be a good rhetorical question to be asked to those who really may not know which to beleive.

In this image Jay-Z is presented as a leader of the young african communtiy where he has children following behind him. It is a known fact that the rapstar is a Godfather in the HipHop world, but it appears that he also wants be recognized as a top icon throughout Southern Africa. Not only does the picture present this type of image, but he is also wearing his Rocawear clothing which appeared in magazines for his company's advertisment. Jay-Z stairs into the camera, while the youth following behind and along him stair away. Noticing this in the image it makes the thought of Jay-Z seeing where he is going with his Rocawear campaign while others stair away withought the knowledge of what is going on in order to sell his product. He may have good intentions with is Water For Life campaign, but as some Europeans used highlights on Africa in order to sell a certain product or image he his doin the same.