If you haven’t heard: Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney announced that, following this year’s Made In America Festival (which — sidebar — no longer has Budweiser as its sponsor because Hip-Hop doesn’t drink their beer, apparently), the event that Jay-Z built will no longer be able to use the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Making the decision worse is the fact that no actual reason was given; Kenney essentially claimed that the area didn’t need MIA for tourism anymore:
“This is the last year MIA will be held on the Parkway. It’s unclear how MIA will want to proceed in the future but the City is interested in discussing alternate locations within Philadelphia for future years. When the festival first started, it was intended to provide a unique attraction to the City on the otherwise quiet Labor Day weekend. Over the years, tourism has grown overall and the need for an event of this scale at this location may no longer be necessary. We are interested in discussing the festival’s future with the producers and look forward to continuing a partnership.”
Jay-Z isn’t letting this announcement go by without a hard-hitting response, either — the Hip-Hop mogul delivered his to Philly.com, which you can see in full here. A snippet is below:
“We are disappointed that the mayor of the city of Philadelphia would evict us from the heart of the city, through a media outlet, without a sit-down meeting, notice, dialogue, or proper communication. It signifies zero appreciation for what Made In America has built alongside the phenomenal citizens of this city. In fact, this administration immediately greeted us with a legal letter trying to stop the 2018 event.
…
Our question is, ‘How do you think that tourism grew, Mayor Kenney?'”
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