The husband of Beyonce faces intense backlash on social media after speaking out about capitalism and defending his billionaire status during a Twitter Space session.
- Sep 2, 2022
AceShowbiz - Jay-Z seemingly successfully pissed off critics after he spoke out about capitalism and defended his billionaire status. The "Empire State of Mind" rapper has been slammed online for saying being called a "capitalist" is a slur.
On Wednesday night, August 31, the "N***as in Paris" spitter joined a Twitter Space hosted by journalist Rob Markman along with DJ Khaled to promote the latter's recent song "God Did" from the producer's new album of the same name. In a snippet being circulated on social media, the husband of Beyonce Knowles addressed those who have criticized his business ventures and pro-capitalist approach to activism throughout his career.
"We not gone stop," Jay-Z said. "Hip-hop is young. We still growing. We not falling for that trick-nology the public puts out there now. Before it was the American Dream. 'Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You can make it in America.' All these lies that America told us our whole life. And then when we start getting it, they try to lock us out of it. They start inventing words like 'capitalist' and things like that. We've been called n***as and monkeys and s**t. I don't care what words y'all come up with. Y'all gotta come with stronger words."
Jay-Z went on saying, "We went our alternative route, we made this music, we did our thing." He added, "You know, we hustled, we f**king killed ourselves to get to this space and now it's like, 'eat the rich.' Man, we're not stopping."
Unfortunately, not everyone finds Jay-Z's comments impressive, particularly his belief that "capitalist" is some illegitimate or derogatory term invented to bring down the black community. Additionally, the Internet users pointed out the disparity between Jay-Z's conservative economic views and his admiration for radical, anti-capitalist black leaders such as Malcolm X and Fred Hampton in his lyrics.
"Jay Z talking a bunch of nonsense. Man implied that 'capitalist' and 'eat the rich' are words/terms that were created to keep black people down. Very unserious," one critic tweeted. Another chimed in, "i find it funny that jay z is so cultured that he can rent out art galleries and owns all these obscure items and has such an extensive knowledge of music and film but is somehow incapable of reading any literature involving the black panther members he enjoys mentioning lmao."
Someone else opined, "Jay Z really was on that Space crying about us calling him a capitalist (he is). Then tried to say that calling black rich folks capitalists is similar to the n word. LMAOOO." A separate Twitter user posted, "When Jay Z said on Murder To Excellence 'I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died, real kneegas just multiply!' & Then Fred Hampton Jr responded back with calling Jay Z, 'Slave Z'.. What a prophet!"
