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White House Is Like, ‘Yeah, No, We Didn’t Send Jay-Z to Cuba’

jay-z, obama, cuba, beyonce

You know it’s a slow day in Washington D.C. — thanks, Windows 8! — when the White House is sitting around responding to Jay-Z lyrics. This morning, in Jay-Z’s Cuban travelogue “Open Letter,” the rapper bragged that he received “White House clearance” to visit the embargoed nation of Cuba. Jigga’s claim no doubt infuriated conservatives who thought Jay-Z and Beyoncé received Barack Obama’s blessing to gallivant freely in the Communist island nation, or that Jay-Z even had an open line of communication with the President that he could ask permission in the first place. However, White House press secretary Jay Carney was quick to correct Jay-Z and his iffy understanding of the branches of government.

“The White House, from the President on down, had nothing to do with anybody’s travel to Cuba. That is something the Treasury handles,” Carney told the press (via USA Today). It was previously revealed that Jigga got the okay from the Treasury to vacation in Cuba, but the lyric “boy from the hood but got U.S. Treasury Department clearance” just doesn’t carry the same swagger. “It’s a song. The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip,” Carney continued, which also means Jigga’s claim that Obama said “you’re going to get me impeached, you don’t need this shit anyway, chill with me on the beach” is also likely bogus.