Read More: Jay-Z Calls to End Mental Health Stigmas in Public Schools It’s when other people get involved, he said, that real change is possible. As JAY-Z said in an interview with New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet, he can only do so much by himself. These productions are as much about clearing up disputed narratives as they are about informing people so that they can get involved and take action. JAY-Z’s next venture, out this summer, is a miniseries that explores the murder of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Browder died by suicide a year after being released. Then he produced a miniseries on Kalief Browder, a man who was arrested at 16 on a false accusation and forced to spend more than 1,000 days in New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison, more than two years of which were in solitary confinement, which the United Nations considers a form of torture. He released a short animated documentary in September 2016 through the New York Times, called “ The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail,” in which he describes the racist patterns of the criminal justice system. More often than not, his art and activism have been intertwined. Take Action: Sign the Year of Mandela Declaration and Commit to Be the Generation to End Extreme Poverty While JAY-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, was busy exploring his inner life across dozens of songs, he was also furthering his philanthropic work and speaking out politically. In 2016, he released the soul-searching 4:44, named for serendipitous moments in his life, and this past June he joined his wife Beyoncé for Everything is Love, a boastful, steely, and fun album that showed the two superstars at the height of their skills, mastering new sounds and techniques, and surveying their careers and relationship with the confidence of Marvel superheros. JAY-Z released his first album in 1996, and more than two decades later the hip-hop legend has entered an artistic and political renaissance, releasing in recent years some of his sharpest verses and building an empire of social justice along the way. You can join us in taking action on these issues here. JAY-Z is a committed advocate and philanthropist, championing causes ranging from universal access to water to fairness in the US criminal justice system.

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