Boy from the hood but got White House clearance, Jay-Z raps on "Open Letter," his "Bow Down" moment from this morning that also jokingly suggests President Obama might want to leave his job and come relax with Jay-Z on the beach. But the White House did not clear Jay-Z and Beyoncé's recent vacation to Cuba, Obama press secretary Jay Carney said today when prompted by a reporter in an afternoon briefing. "I am absolutely saying that the White House, from the President on down, had nothing to do with anybody's travel to Cuba. That is something the Treasury handles," he explained. Indeed, New York nonprofit Academic Arrangements Abroad helped Bey and Jay get their trip licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department as a people-to-people cultural tour, according to Reuters. Jay-Z and Bey supposedly received "no special treatment" in the permit process. "OFAC, Treasury: these are tough words to rhyme," Carney hypothesized. "It's a song. The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip."
