Jeff Bezos Gets Slammed for New Photos With Katy Perry, Lil Nas X

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posed for photos with Katy Perry and Lil Nas X this week, yet even this could not redeem him in Twitter‘s eyes. The multi-billionaire hosted a concert for thousands of Amazon employees in Seattle on Tuesday, including performances by the two lauded musicians. When Bezos posted a photo with them on social media, however, he was mocked mercilessly.

Bezos threw Tuesday’s concert in honor of his online retail company, celebrating its massive growth over the course of two decades. According to a report by Business Insider, he took the stage before the performances began, introducing Perry and talking up the company’s success.

Later on, Bezos posted photos of himself backstage with Perry and Lil Nas X, the rapper behind the viral hit “Old Town Road.” Lil Nas X wore a trendy jacket covered in graffiti writing to the show, and backstage Bezos somehow ended up wearing it.

The photos began to circulate around Twitter on Wednesday morning, and fans were not impressed. Before long, fans were rolling their eyes and cracking jokes about Bezos’ enormous wealth, and the myriad problems he could solve with it.

Bezos is the world’s first centi-billionaire, meaning he is personally worth over $100 billion — much more than enough to solve the Flint, Michigan water crisis, among other issues. For many, it is irresponsible for one person to hold so much wealth regardless of how they made it or what they do with it. This makes Bezos emblematic of poor wealth distribution, and no amount of celebrity selfies will change that.

“Ew this is so cringey,” one person wrote of the photo.

“You hate to see a great artist canceled so quickly, tweeted another, referring to Lil Nas X. “Either that or you love to see Jeff Bezos agree to fix the Flint Water Crisis overnight and @LilNasX secure his position as an American hero.”

Others referred to numerous reports about the working conditions inside of Amazon warehouses, as well as the relatively low wages and benefits afforded them compared to Bezos’ own wealth.

“Why don’t you pay your workers a living wage instead of throwing them a concert?” wondered one person.

“[Jeff Bezos] is a billionaire and instead of having his employees have healthcare and a decent living wage, he throws them a damn concert…” another marveled.

So far, Perry and Lil Nas X have not responded to the backlash to Tuesday night’s show or the ensuing photo shoot. However, they did joke about it on Instagram.

“I am now the new owner of Amazon and I stole Katy Perry’s dog,” Lil Nas X wrote alongside the photos.

“Never forget when our buddy Jeff borrowed your coat,” Perry commented.