There are plenty of creative ways to say that someone is, well, messing up: “Got caught slipping.” “So-and-So fell off.” “He took an ‘L’ (loss) on that one.” All of these, and more, could be applied to the recent behavior of rapper Shawn Carter, a.k.a Jay-Z.

The whole issue started just a few weeks ago, when The New York times reported Jay-Z’s new alliance with the NFL. The 49 year-old hip-hop mogul will work as an entertainment consultant who will secure artist by Jay-Z’s imprint, Roc Nation, to be a part of the league’s new social justice initiative, Inspire Change.

Once seen as a vocal opponent of the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick’s silent, knee-down fist-up protests of the National Anthem and American flag in the wake of ever-increasing police brutality against unarmed black citizens, Jay-Z appeared to do a full 180: “I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items. No, I don’t want people to stop protesting at all. Kneeling — I know we’re stuck on it because it’s a real thing — but kneeling is a form of protest. I support protest across the board. We need to bring light to the issue. I think everyone knows what the issue is — we’re done with that. We all know the issue now. OK, next.”

What exactly are we “past”? Isn’t Kaepernick still out of uniform? Aren’t there still police officers shooting unarmed black suspects, while white mass shooters are brought into police custody with Burger King sandwiches and not as much as a hangnail?

Carter was also heavily criticized for taking time to skin and grin with NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, while reportedly not approaching Kaepernick about the deal beforehand. Some were willing to give Jay-Z the benefit of the doubt, proclaiming the alliance as a way to re-attract the urban crowd, give the appearance of increasing diversity and making some extra money in the process (Roc Nation, of course, and the NFL’s Inspire Change promotion/merchandising). But others disagree, with good reason.

Though Jay-Z was once seen as thumbing his nose at the establishment, his “I’m not businessman, I’m a business, man” stance makes him seem willing to overlook the social crisis of police brutality and people like Kaepernick being forced to choose between their First Amendment rights, their dignity and their jobs,as long as money is involved.

An earlier statement by the Brooklyn native quote that Jay-Z made months ago has resurfaced that seems to correlate police shootings of black people to their being raised in single parent homes. While on a social justice panel in January, Jay-Z implied that a lack of male role models could be behind many of the fatal encounters that black people have with law enforcement: “You think about the idea of growing up in a single parent house, which I grew up in….And having at first a feeling for authority, right? Your father’s gone. So you’re like, “I hate my dad.” Nobody tells me what do do…..that interaction causes people to lose lives.”

Those opposed to that ‘respectability politics’ mindset had some compelling questions: when did systemic racism and proven cases of racial bias stop being a factor and those fatal incidents? What’s the excuse if an officer kills a suspect who has both parents at home? Did Carter blame his early hustle as a drug dealer on his divorced lesbian mother, who obviously eschewed the “ideal” nuclear family dynamic?

Despite his visibility and wealth, it appears that Shawn “I’m a business, man” Carter still need to learn that not every issue can be resolved with conjecture and cash. If a society doesn’t acknowledge its issues it can’t get ‘past’ them, and all the attention fun concerts and fly sports goodies won’t mean much if the very group he shares ethnicity with is still being profiled and dehumanized.