While Jay-Z is scoring
major promotion during his overseas
outing, an old video clip of the rapper allegedly pushing a woman backstage
has been stirring controversy in South Africa.The
infamous three-second video appears to feature Jay-Z assaulting a young woman.
But the validity of the clip, which is from Jay-Z’s 2000 documentary Back Stage,
was debunked in June 2004 after it caused a similar uproar. Still,
according to reports, an email is circulating around South Africa, accompanied
by the statement: "For all you Jay-Z fans. Is this the way we want our South
African women to be treated? How would he feel if his mother/sister/or his precious
Beyonce were treated in this fashion? A room full of ‘men’ and nobody does anything.
This is surely going to taint his image. They said that he tried to pay the lady
off quickly so that it didn’t get out. Guess they were too late!""The
person in the video is an executive at Roc-A-Fella and a friend of Jay-Z’s. What
you see in the video is a scene from Back Stage," a Roc-A-Fella representative
told AllHipHop.com at the time of the initial controversy. "The scene is
derived from Chapter 14: ‘Two Months Too Long.’ The context of the play fighting
is the tour has gone on too long and she is making fun of Jay-Z and if you listen
you hear her teasing [like] "Gimme elbow room, gimme elbow room, I’m the
Jigga man."Meanwhile,
Jay-Z’s trek around the globe continues to make headlines. Reports
state that the rapper and his girlfriend, Beyonce, were forced to charter a private
plane during a two week trip, after discovering they could not fit all their baggage
into the luggage hold of a Boeing 747.Still,
the rapper seems to be enjoying his time abroad. In addition to performing, he’s
also shooting Jay-Z: Water for Life with the U.N. and MTV. The documentary
aims to raise awareness about the global water crisis."I’ve
been in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is beautiful and I’ve been in the shanty
towns in Angola and Tanzania," Jay-Z said in published reports. "To
see people living like that in 2006 is hard, but I’m loving the way I’m being
embraced out here."To
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