This month, Oprah‘s OWN network will air a series of programming centered around civil rights legends, as the 50th anniversary of the historic Selma to Montgomery marches approach.
Yesterday (December 4), OWN aired a special “Master Class” episode featuring a montage of firsthand accounts from iconic “masters.”
Rap mogul Jay Z was included in the commentary. A clip from his original “Master Class” episode — which first ran when the network debuted in 2011 — was featured in the video segment.
Within the visual, Jay expresses his “interesting take on the cultural impact of Hip Hop.”
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“I think that Hip Hop has done more for racial relations than most cultural icons and I say, save Martin Luther King because his dream speech we realized when President Obama got elected,” he says within the minute-and-a-half long clip. “This music didn’t only influence kids from urban areas. It influenced people around the world.”
Jay also expands on his thoughts on racism and how the integration of the club scene changed people’s perceptions.
“Racism is taught in the home,” he says. “I truly believe that racism is taught when you’re young. So, it’s very difficult to teach racism when your kid looks up to Snoop Doggy Dogg. If you look at clubs and you look at how integrated they have become. Before people partied in separate clubs — there were Hip Hop clubs and there were techno clubs — now, people party together and once you have people partying, dancing and singing along to the same music, then conversations naturally happen after that.
“Within conversations,” he continued, “we all realize that we’re more alike than we’re separate.”
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Watch the full clip below:
For additional Jay Z coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
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