Jay Z goes down the tube with Timbaland and Chris Martin

www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/13/jay-z-tube-london-timbaland-coldplay-chris-martin#start-of-comments


The above is a link to a guardian article from last night of Jay Z, Timbaland and Chris Martin taking the tube from London Waterloo station to the O2 Centre.

You know how they say the early bird catches the worm.

I caught this story early enough to see the negative comments. Then they got deleted. From what I made out, people were calling it a publicity stunt. One persistent Jay Z defender gave it away when he responded with a threat to report negative comments. And when I checked this morning, the most critical ones had disappeared. So basically, the negative comments are disappearing because they are being reported (I’m guessing over zealous fan.) To me, this proves the commenters calling it a publicity stunt were right. Who gets that upset over criticism?

If you read this part in the article:

It is not known if Jay Z used an Oyster card or a zone 1-2 day travel card, or if he allowed other passengers to alight before boarding the train, but he did, according to other passengers, demonstrate a worrying lack of knowledge of underground etiquette, refusing to keep his eyes focused on the floor and remain silent. Instead the rapper interacted with fans, talking and looking around the carriage before alighting at his stop.

Reading between the lines and the amount of work he had to do, it doesn't look like Jay Z got the reaction he was expecting. Being a Londoner, I know the last thing I want to do after a tough day is entertain some celebrity on my commute home. I also suspect the picture in the article was taken by someone in his crew and loaded to a fake Twitter account in the hope the media picks it up, so the public can gush about how normal Jay Z is.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting insight into the Carter/Knowles publicity machine. Or maybe not.