By: Imran Siddiquee
Published: Jan. 31, 2007 - New York, NY

In 2004 rap mogul Jay-Z (Sean Carter) teamed up with real estate tycoon Bruce Ratner and others to buy out the New Jersey Nets basketball team.

Recently, Jay had poured further money into the franchise by securing 400 million in funding from British bank Barclays to build a new stadium for the team, to be called the Barclays Center. Yet, soon after the deal was announced on January 18th, reports began to circulate that Barclays was founded by a family of slave owners.

According to various reports the Barclays family owned and profited from slaves in the 18th century and was involved in some unspecified "controversial dealings" with the government of South Africa. While the bank has not denied their history, they insist that it is just that - history.

Just last year Jay made headlines when he banned Cristal from his various clubs and events after the champagne company's managing director made some troubling comments about the hip-hop community. No word yet from Jay on this current controversy.

In related news, a brief snippet of a Super Bowl halftime advertisement featuring Jay-Z has been released by Budweiser. The commercial also features legendary football coach Don Shula. Take an early peek at it below: