Black People Are Not Ending Their Boycott Of Target To Support Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt is not only considered one of the greatest debut albums by any rapper, but one of the greatest albums ever released, period. Though it wasn’t an immediate success upon its release 30 years ago(!), and didn’t really blow up until his following album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, achieved mainstream success, it introduced Jay as someone whose microphone skills and lyrical craftsmanship were impossible to ignore, and is still considered by many rap fans to be his best album, thanks to tracks like “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” “Brooklyn’s Finest,” “Feelin’ It,” and “Ain’t No Nigga.” (Reasonable Doubt also made it easier to ignore the earlier “Hawaiian Sophie” period of his career with his former friend and mentor Jaz-O, much like how Reservoir Dogs made it easier to forget about Quentin Tarantino’s actual debut film My Best Friend’s Birthday.)

For any music collectors who have hoped to add Reasonable Doubt to their vinyl collection in recent years, they have long been aware of the fact that it is not cheap to acquire, as it is considered a collector’s item. That was until it was announced earlier this month that a limited edition version of Reasonable Doubt will be released on vinyl and sold exclusively at Target starting June 26, courtesy of the retailer’s partnership with Jay-Z.

This was an announcement that many Black people were not at all happy about, especially since many of these same Black people are still carrying out their boycott against Target. Ever since the retailer announced last year that, like many other corporations lining up to kiss the ring of President F-ckmuppet Donald Trump, they would no longer support DEI initiatives, and planned to end their support and sponsorship of diversity efforts as well as that of the LGBTQIA+ community, Target saw its stock plummet — literally and figuratively — as it lost $12 billion in market value shortly after the boycott began in February of 2025. Sales and foot traffic also dropped significantly, which helped contribute to Target’s decision to replace CEO Brian Cornell with COO Michael Fidelke so that he could hopefully turn things around for the better. And despite claims from pastor Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant, Until Freedom co-founder Tamika Mallory, and former Democratic senator Nina Turner that the boycott against Target was officially over, there were plenty of Black folk who made it clear that those three didn’t speak for them, and responded to those claims with numerous variations of “I think the f-ck not!”

As for Jay-Z and his questionable decision to partner with Target, it was another reminder of the fact that this isn’t the first time Jay has made it clear that money and cash (no hoes, though) matter more to him than uplifting and looking out for the Black community. This is the same Jay-Z who spoke out against the NFL to show his support for Colin Kaepernick, turned down a performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and told the NFL that they need him more than he needs them, only to turn around and not only begin a partnership with them through his corporation, Roc Nation, but then had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to state that “I think we’ve moved past kneeling, it’s time for action.” The same Jay-Z who once boasted in his track “Murder To Excellence” about how he was born on the same day that Fred Hampton was murdered by the Chicago Police Department and the FBI, as if he was going to somehow carry on the revolutionary work on behalf of Black people that Fred Hampton used to do, even though Jay’s actions have shown that the two men are nothing at all alike.

It also has to be pointed out that 1) Colin Kaepernick has also done his part in making people shake their heads because of his recent actions, due to his decision to start shilling on behalf of A.I.) and 2) There is no denying that the last few halftime shows we’ve seen at the Super Bowl from artists like Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, and Usher since 2020 have all been amazing to watch and to post about with others on Bluesky and Threads, but that has been in spite of Jay-Z, and not because of him, especially since the last halftime show with Bad Bunny was frankly the only thing about this last Super Bowl that was worth watching or paying attention to.

Jay-Z has very little reason to care about what people on and off the Internet say about him, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he would prefer that we go back to focusing on his recent freestyle at the Roots Picnic where he went after Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West while also making us talk about his change of hairstyle and whether it was a subliminal ad for Cecred, and on his upcoming concert tours to honor the milestone anniversaries for both Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint, instead of using this partnership with Target as another reason to point out why billionaires suck and shouldn’t even exist (which is a criticism he doesn’t agree with), how that belief pertains to both him and his wife, Beyoncé (who had been groomed by the 12-years-older-than-her Jay since she was a teenager, and which may explain her reluctance to kick his ass to the curb, but all of that is another story for another day), and that neither he nor his music is a good enough reason to end a boycott against a company who made it abundantly clear that they care more about making racist white people happy than they do about anyone or anything else. But if Jay-Z really wants his fans to stop using him as an example on why we need to eat the rich, he should probably stop saying and doing things that continue to whet their appetites for doing so.