Carmen Bryan, the mother of Nas’ daughter, is reportedly homeless. After their daughter, Destiny Jones turned eighteen, she allegedly hasn’t had a stable living condition.
According to sister site Bossip:
Nas’s first baby’s mother Carmen Bryan is homeless. Carmen has been homeless since last summer when Nas stop sending her monthly support checks. He continued to send her support checks after their child was eighteen and she believed that he would send them forever since she was the mother of his child. After she decided to put lies out about him on social media he cut her off. She has never spent a dime out of her own pocket to support her daughter because except writing a tell all book, she has not had a J-O-B since giving birth.
She’s been here in Queens all year squatting from house to house telling old stories from the late 90’s. When she wears out her welcome she gets buddy passes to mooch off of people in LA and Atlanta.
Well damn…I hope this isn’t true.
However, this brings one to ponder about the ever-ongoing debate about child support. The consensus from many men is that the money is called child support, meaning that it’s purpose is to purchase needs and a few wants pertaining to their son or daughter. Once the child is eighteen, dad (and I say dad because more often than not the father is paying child support) has fulfilled his financial obligation. Of course, it isn’t this simple.
Many times it seems as if there is a misconception in which part of-or all of the money-is used as additional income as if it is some kind of alimony. There are people who take advantage of the system. It’s easy money. I personally know a few mothers who live with their parents that collect exorbitant child support checks, live beyond comfortable lives, and could care less just to stick it to their baby’s father/ex-husbands. It sucks; but it’s reality.
While many of us have tried at some point, most black fathers aren’t rappers who have made millions. We are living check-to-check. Sometimes that child support payment holds the whole family down in between paychecks. While I don’t receive child support in the traditional sense, my daughter’s survivor’s benefits from her mother passing away come through in the clutch for everything from “Damn, I left my wallet at home,” to buying a monthly train passes when starting a new job. For the most part, I would “replace” the money. I say that in an attempt to be transparent and suggest sometimes things happen and we all have to survive.
What about the mother? Sometimes that too can be complicated. I think that’s contingent on the relationship between both parents. Many feel it is within their moral compass to take care of and assist outside of the child. And why not? That’s the person who carried their offspring and probably have primary custody.
In the speculative case of Carmen Bryan, one can’t help but wonder what happened. We know Destiny’s monthly deposits were more than enough to take care of her. We are pretty sure that he has done more for his daughter than write a song and have a fixed amount deducted from is account every month. I’m sure Carmen wasn’t completely irresponsible with the money. She could have been saving the money. Maybe she had a hard time getting gainful employment because of who fathered her daughter? There’s a possibility that she had been living off of the residual checks from her 2007 tell-all book, From Nas to Jay-Z, from Seduction to Scandal–a Hip-Hop Helen of Troy Tells All. We know that she and Nas haven’t always seen eye-to-eye and she’s been vocal about that from time to time.
I’m pretty sure Carmen Bryan is doing just fine and these are just rumors. As soon as these reports surfaced, Bryan posted a picture of herself in Instagram holding a stack of $100 bills.
…then again we know people do nothing but lie on social media.
