JAY-Z, Meek Mill, Sixer’s Co-Owner Michael Rubin and New England Patriots CEO Robert Kraft are creating a criminal justice reform organization. The four are assembling a team of financial bigwigs to assist with their new coalition.
Complex is reporting that the details surrounding this new organization will be revealed next Wednesday, January 23rd, during a press conference. Businessmen, Daniel S. Loeb, and Michael Novogratz, along with African American Billionaire, Robert F. Smith, will also be a part of the venture.
Both JAY-Z and Meek Mill have been very vocal about the need for criminal justice reform in this country. This is a topic very personal for Meek as he has personally battled with an unfair justice system following his very public sentencing of 2-4 years in prison for violating his probation linked to a previous gun and drug conviction that was more than a decade old.
Before Meek’s release in the spring of 2018, JAY-Z penned a New York Times op-ed piece calling for strong public support from both the political and hip hop communities to change the laws that seem to affect black and brown people in extremely disproportionate numbers.
“On the surface, this may look like the story of yet another criminal rapper who didn’t smarten up and is back where he started,” he wrote. “But consider this: Meek was around 19 when he was convicted on charges relating to drug and gun possession, and he served an eight-month sentence. Now he’s 30, so he has been on probation for basically his entire adult life,” he wrote.
The rappers have most recently collaborated on the track “What’s Free,” from Meek’s ”CHAMPIONSHIPS” album, where they rapped about freedom, racial injustices and the perpetual failures of the fractured criminal justice system.
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