On the day after President Obama published his fiscal year 2014 budget, and with the U.S. Senate debating gun control legislation, a White House press briefing turned to an even more important topic: a new, and not that great single by Jay-Z.

In the song, “Open Letter,” Jay-Z raps about his recent trip to Havana with his wife, Beyoncé. The vacation prompted phony outrage from Sen. Marco Rubio and other members of Congress from Florida.

The United States has long banned travel to Cuba, but occasionally makes exceptions for educational and cultural exchange programs. However, those exceptions are not overseen by the White House, but by the Treasury Department.

Jay-Z today released one of the apparent results of his cultural foray—”Open Letter,” in which he brags about bringing his swagger to the island nation. “I done turned Havana into Atlanta/Guyabera shirts and bandanas,” he begins.

He also drops in a reference to the president: “Obama said ‘chill, you gonna get me impeached’/But you don’t need this shit anyway/Chill with me on the beach.”

Those lines were quoted at today’s press briefing by Politico’s Donovan Slack, who used them as the basis to ask Press Secretary Jay Carney if the White House had played any role in getting Jay-Z to Cuba.

“I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury,” an incredulous Carney said. “I am absolutely saying that the White House, from the president on down, had nothing to do with anybody’s travel to Cuba. It’s a song, Donovan.”