Damn, anyone else wanna be friends with Beyoncé and Jay-Z now?
This week, various celebrities received some pretty pricey gifts from the power couple. Some were overjoyed — and some were super over it.
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And the Internet? Well, the Internet lost its mind.
Jay-Z is rap’s first billionaire.
Which means he has the room to flex.
He achieved his billionaire club status through multiple business ventures, including music, streaming services (ie, Tidal), liquor (he owns his own label, Ace of Spades champagne), real estate, art, and investments.
He also started his own foundation.
Called the Shawn Carter Foundation (Jay’s real name), it was founded to help those struggling economically to gain access to higher education.
The foundation is about to hold its first gala, and that’s where our story starts.
The VIP invitations went out this week.
Unlike regular VIP invitations, in which you might get a lanyard, or an elaborate gift box with a paper invitation in it, Jay-Z decided to go big. Like, “money is no object” big.
Meek Mill revealed it all on his Instagram.
Meek Mill, who it should be noted is a close friend of Jay-Z’s, received his invitation and immediately opened up Instagram.
“Hov sent these as vip passes smh this rich [expletive] getting out of control lol,” the man wearing Louis Vuitton slides wrote. “I’m not joking lol[.]”
Swizz Beatz also got a watch.
“Levels [facepalm emoji] Hov is on another level with the invite game [facepalm emoji] it came with a Daytona Rolex [film emoji] and a bottle of Ace.”
So, who wants to do some math that’s going to really bum them out?
I am: jealous.
The champagne alone costs around $300. Jay-Z actually owns ACE, so this is a pretty big no-brainer as a gift.
Like, if the gift box was just this and an invitation, I’d kinda get it.
But no!
The second item was, as Swizz said, a Daytona Rolex.
At minimum , it’s worth over $35,000.00.
Yup, that watch is worth $35k. And Jay-Z sent it out as a VIP gala invitation. I gotta get richer friends.
The Internet lost it.
“if its a fundraiser for the underprivileged then maybe give that rolex money to them and not the already [expletive] rich…cannot tolerate rich ppl they have worms for brains,” @90ssiren wrote.
I mean…are they wrong? About the money, not about worm brains.
One person pointed a key detail out.
Even though there’s no evidence that Beyoncé isn’t involved, neither Meek nor Swizz mentioned her in their captions.
And Jay only buying 2 watches for his closest friends would make sense. Well, rich people sense, anyway.
Some people had some harsh criticisms for Jay-Z.
They followed this tweet up with: “Even the notion of having VIPs for what is being positioned as a “charitable” endeavor? No imagination whatsoever.”
It did not occur to me until right now that having VIPs at a charity gala would be weird. Of course that’s weird!
But others pointed out the obvious.
No matter how the rest of us feel, at the end of the day, it is Jay-Z’s money. And he can spend it how he pleases.
If he wants to spend at least $70k on watches, that’s up to him.
Someone else had a theory.
Celebrities do get freebies all the time, and we don’t know if Rolex is sponsoring the gala or not.
Is it likely that they gave away $35k watches? No. Is it possible ? Yes.
Truly ahead of his time.
Imagine walking into a party and your ticket is just the gold jewelry on your wrist? My feelings on this are complicated. I think it’s ridiculous, and I also want to live that life.
This. This right here.
Ah, that uncomfortable intersection where you want friends who give you free Rolexes, but you also don’t want to contribute to this whole discussion because you’re just not equipped for it.
Or is that just me?
This is probably how it all works.
Give a little, get a lot kinda thing? Regardless of what the actual truth is, it’s good to hear both sides and get an understanding of how wealth distribution works!
