Rap mogul Jay-Z is at the center of a $5 billion dollar “claim of lien” filed against him by Brooklyn activist Clive Campbell and the DA Black Defense League.
The New York Observer originally reported that Hip-Hop founder Clive “Kool Herc” Campbell filed the claim along with the DA Black Defense League.
The paper recently released a correction, noting the error.
“This story originally reported that the Clive Campbell who filed the lawsuit was the real name of DJ Kool Herc, a found of Hip-Hop,” The Observer noted. “In fact, it is a different Clive Campbell. Mr Campbell is a Brooklyn-based activist.”
Campbell claims Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, as well as developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays bank 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.”
As a result, Campbell and the DA Black Defense League seek money for slavery reparations through the “claim of lien” in property records.
A Defense League representative revealed to The Observer that the group is filing an official lawsuit in court today (Feb. 25) for the action.
According to The Observer, Barclays, Ratner and Jay-Z are connected in the case through their ties to a $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, where Ratner and Barclays plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the New Jersey Nets, as well as more than 6,000 new apartments.
The project has received support from Jay-Z, a partial owner of the sports team that has appeared at press conferences to highlight its merits.
Barclays, which owns the naming rights of the arena has been accused of having links with the slave trade.
A recently study released on the 200th anniversary of Britain’s abolition of the slave trade by The Restitution Study Group claims that Heywoods Bank, which through mergers became Barclays Bank in 1969, took part in over 120 slave trading missions, allegedly enslaving over 38,000 Africans.
The bank has denied the accusations, as did Ratner’s development group, Forest City Ratner, which dismissed the claim earlier this month, as not having any legal merit.
A spokesman for the group declined to comment on the case.