Music, Cuba | featured news

Jay-Z has finally broken his silence over the controversy about his trip to Cuba -- and of course he did it in rap. In a new song, "Open Letter," released via his Web site Thursday, the superstar is defiant, self-pitying -- and eager to let you know how cool his vacation was.

It's official, Beyoncé and Jay-Z's trip to Cuba was legal. Musical power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z traveled to the Communist island legally on an authorized educational trip, the Treasury Department said Tuesday in a letter obtained by the Miami Herald. The trip was organized by a group called Academic Arrangements Abroad, Reuters reports.

Beyonce and Jay-Z’s paparazzi-trailed trip to Havana has prompted questions from two members of Congress. Thousands of Americans every year get around the U.S. embargo on tourism to Cuba with waivers for academic, religious or research work — or by sneaking in through a third country.