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‘The Daily Show’ Does Jay Z’s Barneys Beef Wrong

Jay Z Daily Show Barneys Jon Stewart Racial Profiling Shop Frisk

Jay Z’s beef with the world over his Barneys associations has hit The Daily Show. On Wednesday night, Jon Stewart spent nearly seven minutes on the subject, echoing others’ criticism that the Magna Carta Holy Grail MC wimped out in his response to the upscale retailer following reports of young African-American customers being singled-out for suspicion by Barneys and New York police — a policy of “shop and frisk,” if you will.

The grumbling (and petition-signing) directed at Hova stems from the fact that the rapper had already teamed with Barneys to create a special collection due to hit shelves on November 20. What’s been consistently overlooked by most critics is the fact that proceeds from the BNY SCC line will benefit The Shawn Carter Foundation, which helps young people without means achieve their goals of a higher education.

Disappointingly, The Daily Show omits this bit as well. After pointing out that Jay has been vocal in the past when it comes to issues of race (Trayvon Martin, the Grammys, Cristal Champagne), Stewart shouts, “Tell ’em Hova!” before sharing the part of the man’s statement where he says that if he makes a snap judgement against Barneys, isn’t he “committing the same sin as someone who profiles?”

It’s a funny bit, and Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore drops some highly quotable lines, from renaming Mr. Carter “Jay Z Penny” to that ace Breaking Bad reference: “He is the danger. He is the one who frisks.” Plus, Stewart gets points for “Guess who’s coming to Barneys” and quoting Jigga’s classic “business, man” line. But really, it’s a couple of comics mining a week-old story for gags based on a stale assumption.

In other News of the Jay (see, we can do it too), Hova has been hit with a new copyright infringement suit alleging 2009 megahit “Run This Town” illegally samples a ’60s song called “Hook & Sling” by Eddie Bo and producer Al Scramuzza. Play us out, Eddie:

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