someone suing Jay-Z & Bruce Ratner over Brooklyn stadium

Editor’s Note: This story originally reported that the Clive Campbell who filed the lawsuit was the real name of D.J. Kool Herc, a founder of hip hop. In fact, it is a different Clive Campbell. Mr. Campbell is a Brooklyn-based activist. The story has been corrected……..

A man known as the father of hip-hop, Clive Campbell (a.k.a. D.J. Kool Herc), Clive Campbell is seeking $5 billion from rapper Jay-Z, developer Bruce Ratner and Barclays bank, filing a “claim of lien” in property records that seeks the money for slavery reparations.

Mr. Ratner, Jay-Z, and Barclay’s are all linked through the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, for which Mr. Ratner plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed basketball arena for the Nets and more than 6,000 apartments. Jay-Z, a partial owner of the Nets, has been a major supporter of the project, appearing at press conferences to tout its merits. Barclays owns the naming rights to the arena, and has been accused of having links with the slave trade–an accusation the bank denies.

In the claim, Mr. Campbell said that Mr. Ratner and Jay-Z worked “in concert” with Barclays, and “profited from the African Slave Trade…. [NY Observer]