JAY-Z’s verse on DJ Khaled’s “GOD DID” had some fans calling the billionaire mogul a “capitalist,” a term he believes is equivalent to the N-word.
During a Twitter Spaces conversation with journalist Rob Markman, Khaled and several others on Wednesday (August 31), Hov was asked about line: “Please, Lord forgive me for what the stove did/Nobody touched the billi’ until Hov did/How many billionaires can come from Hov crib? Huh/I count three, me, Ye and Rih/Bron’s a Roc boy, so four, technically,” in which he essentially takes credit for making Kanye West, Rihanna and LeBron James billionaires, too.
JAY-Z responded by addressing his critics who try to shame him for the inordinate amount of wealth he’s accumulated over the course of his career.
“We’re not gonna stop,” he said at the 3:15 mark. “Hip Hop is young. We’re still growing. We not falling for that trick-nology, whatever 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-gger and monkeys and shit. I don’t care what words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come with stronger words. We’re not gonna stop.”
He added: “We’re not gonna be tricked out of our position. Y’all locked us out. Y’all created a system that, you know, doesn’t include us. We said fine. We went our alternate route. We created this music.”
JAY-Z Responds To LeBron James' Praise Of 'God Did' Verse Following Ari Melber's Meticulous Breakdown
Hov’s sentiments elicited instant backlash with comments such as, “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.”
JAY-Z’s “GOD DID” contribution prompted MSNBC‘s Ari Melber to do an entire segment on The Beat dedicated to breaking down the verse. Melber’s meticulous dissection of Hov’s verse focused on the corruption in America and how JAY-Z was able to beat the odds, becoming Hip Hop’s first billionaire.
Check that out below and the Twitter Spaces conversation above.
He’s just wrong. I don’t think capitalists are evil, they provide the jobs and opportunities people rely on to live. However there is a staggering wealth inequality, and wealth buys options. Whatever racism Jay-Z has endured, he has a myriad of options that most people will simply never have, due to the very nature of the system in which he’s complicit. There is no way out unless you want a full on revolution against global capitalism, and something tells me Jay isn’t for that. He can’t claim to be different from any other business owner.
Sorry to inform u but capitalism is how slavery got started do some proper research
I know that, and I’m also not sure how it relates to what I said. Sorry to inform you but you don’t write clearly.
You don’t know what capitalism is. It is physically impossible for capitalism to have anything to do with how slavery got started. Slavery exited far before money existed.
You missed his point. You should direct that ire at the people he is talking about who created the system. He’s simply saying he played in that system and won. I agree with you on the larger theme of accumulation of wealth being a moral dilemma, but that wasn’t what he was talking about.
That begs the question – who created the system? Because the idea of money, debt and exchange are universal human concepts that date back thousands of years. The system wasn’t created by one man or any secret powerful group of men, it was a societal global evolution. Its meaningless to direct anything at any person or people who created the system, because we all have a hand in it.
But certain people have created it and then made sure that they win. If you saw some of the schemes hedge fund managers for instance use to essentially make sure they never lose, it would blow your mind. The shell companies and tax shelter countries that rich people use to hide their money while people are out here starving. It’s all disgusting. Jay is just in that room now. So he’s right that he’s just playing in it and don’t criticize him for that, but the system is fucked top to bottom, and that’s the conversation we the people need to be having, not taking shots at one entertainer who doesn’t have any influence or ownership of the system.
The “system”, referring to wealth accumulation, isn’t really bad but I feel most people don’t know how to work it properly. The hardest part is getting that foothold because it requires 80 hour work weeks and sacrifice. Once you get that first home if you learn to leverage equity and maintain that frenzied work pace you can start seeing real results. It isn’t an overnight process and it isn’t fun either but it can be done
But not everybody can do it. The whole system would collapse if nobody did grunt work, or nobody took leisure time. By the time the workforce gets replaced by robots its too late.
Without serious handicap I believe most can. Now if a person buries themselves with credit card debt and kids before having stability then probably not, however thats the person’s fault not the system. Of course not everyone will do it or wants to and that’s fine. It’s up to an individual to dictate what will be happiness for them. Me personally I like financial stability and knowing I’m laying the groundwork for generational wealth
It’s the definition of unfair. If you don’t know the right people, you could never accumulate that kind of wealth no matter how hard you work. Dre and Jay Z became billionaires when they met the right people, not because they were a dope producer and rapper. That’s the definition of unfair, especially when 99.9% of people can’t get in those rooms.
True but that’s hard work is what gives those people reason to even deal with you. Nobody is giving g hand outs so you need to bring something to the table. Dre and Jay brought their fans and fan bases to the table which in turn promoted brand awareness
That’s the sad part is that you don’t understand that it has nothing to do with hard work. It’s literally just knowing the right people and being in their favor, and who knows what you have to do to get in that favor. Do you think all of these terrible white people who get invited in those rooms worked hard? Dre has barely made commercial music going on 20 years yet his wealth astronomically grew because of Beats and other business ventures because he got in those rooms. Same with Jay. He’s mainly been a guest appearance rapper the last ten years, yet his wealth has grown ten fold. Doesn’t sound anything like hard work but rather the opposite.
Jay is so far removed from reality. Around a bunch of “yes men”. He’s a billionaire and wants to repurpose words for the “message.” Still acting like a victim in the most prosperous country in the world.
Just suburban white people trying to take away from what he said that was right. Black people were literally told they couldn’t do the same things as white people by the actual government less than 60 years ago. I hate that most of these guys got it through entertainment (I think there are only two non-entertainment black billionaires and Jay is wrong about there only being four), but it just lets you know how inaccessible they make it to us. Like if you black people aren’t entertaining us (and they probably use more colorful language), we won’t give you anything. We won’t even let you sit at the table while random goofy white people are granted access to all of those rooms. At the same time though, accumulating that much wealth is always morally questionable to me no matter what your race is because as stated, you have access to ways to make it and then keep it that the average person doesn’t. It’s not an even playing field.
Compton is a suburb so whats your point
Also imagine assuming that someones viewpoint determines their skin color
Also less than 60 years ago dont mean its happening today
You generalizing and stereotyping
I understand you’re white and ignorant. Get some help to understand how this country has always shit on black men on every level.
capitalism only work for 1% of the population which means its a failed ism until an ism comes along that benefits 50.1% of humans they all failed, jay the same greedy pig the whi te man is hoarding instead of creating his own system a billion rebuilds alot of hoods and buys a lot of land but he chooses to be a puppet for the real billionaires
Provide the breakdown of what the brother provides to his community in terms of jobs and financial stability. Even the most selfish do it for tax purposes. Please provide me with what this successful brother does to pay it back to the ignorants supporting his career. I’m ignorant, enlighten me
Cherishes wealth not the opportunity to save his people. And that may be fine. But don’t act like you stand for change, don’t draw comparisons to Bob Marley, Malcolm X, BPP. Focused on your own personal gain and there’s nothing objectively wrong with it. But stop acting like that pursuit helps others.
The man literally works on one of the greatest causes of our time after the likes of Clinton and Biden threw 700,000 of us in prison and most were nonviolent offenders and you say he doesn’t care about saving his people?? Wow, it just goes to show that no matter how much good a person does, there will always be people like you who think because they didn’t do it all, they did nothing at all.
There is no “his people”
Black people arent a tribe
“I am a hustler baby, I’ll sell water to a whale.”
“Put me anywhere on God’s green earth and I’ll triple my worth.”
Capitalism at its finest!
Jay Z has been fortunate to catch a few breaks in his professional life but he’s always been one of the best even when he was guesting on Jaz O album tracks. It’s not like he runs any essential services people can make their free choice whether to listen or not. However now that he’s a billionaire he has to answer to the same criticisms that other billionaires must answer to. I’m sure in many ways it’s very stressful to be that rich and even giving money away to strangers isn’t easy. Might be rich man problems but they are still problems.
Jay z is a smart dude but he is talking like only black people struggle to make it. Blacks are just the most recent, but whites fought through the revolution war and all races went through the Great Depression. Just gotta take advantage of opportunities
go troll somewhere else – just straight fcking bs. say that to any black man face and get punched in the face. “just gotta take advantage of opportunities” don’t worry I won’t hesitate
Yeah keep complaining instead of taking advantage. Obama, Holder, Clark, and all the blacks that are going to college or starting businesses. If you are in a bad situation, get out of it instead of complaining. People move to our country for a better life. You can move to a different state for opportunities
He’s talking about black struggle bc blacks were the original slaves. You want him to start spitting about stuff he’s not related to? Blacks were put on the forefront of wars due to their lives being thought as less valuable, these wars you speak of, just to be criminalized and attacked at the end of the day. You telling me a white man ever got told to use a specific bathroom, eat in a secluded place, stay in their place, worry about burning crosses on their lawn or being addressed as the N word? YOU’RE the problem. And it hurts bc you’re being exposed. Such comments are a testament to why Hov spits for us. Go back to the suburb hip hop sites.
Dude everyone goes through struggles. We were slaves, Native Americans got slaughtered, Mexicans were killed and California, Nevada, and other states taken from them. Can’t stay living in the past forever. Gotta use your brain (listen to Tupac “white mans world)
“Spits for us”?
Sit the fuck down lmfao
Black people aren’t a monolith and jay z dont speak for all black people
This isnt jim crow, just because back then black people had laws against them doesnt mean they do now
Also compton is a suburb so whats youre point
Uh, yes lol. Do you understand at all that nearly every race of people have been enslaved? I’m Italian and Irish. My people were enslaved throughout history. You know black people had white slaves long ago? Slavery isn’t a skin color thing. It’s an availability thing. Slaves are still for sale in Libya and parts of Asia. Don’t pretend you have good morals and are against human abuse if you knowingly purchase anything that comes from China. Because deep down, let’s be honest, you don’t care that slaves exist if they’re making the things you have.
Louis Armstrong was one of the richest men in America at one time – did that mean there’s no racism? everything all fair? it’s a fucking joke the way they operate. These evil people get so brazen with their trolling because we don’t protect our own. So that’s something maybe Jay Z can look at fixing. Maybe fix the algorithm
Wow! The Hov hater commenting under many names. Get a life. Jay said it best. What you eat don’t make him ish…get a life. Always some troll trying to pollute the sirs. Eff off
biggest capitalist is ConYe punk ass trolling hipster white bisexual folks into buying into his bullshit homeless attire and atheist sermons…this is a capitalist cock suckery at it’s finest. Delivering a watered down fake ass product attached to his big mouth. Jay z? Jay z can eat a fat dick because ConYe gets a hard on burping his shit out, jay z on the other hand is a sly snakey thief muthafucker…just as dame. The biggest thieves and liars are the most delusional FOH
Jay stupid af for this. Black or white. A capitalist = a capitalist. All the same.
I won’t hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity to break a troll motherfucker’s face in America today. Is everyone happy now
This dude is a real life clown. The only people that bitch about capitalism are the same politicians he tells you to vote for. Republicans been about getting money and capitalism. These weirdo Democrat Socialist’s/ Communists are the one that say liking money is evil. Even though they are about just that. They just want to keep it to themselves while having the working class hooked on programs that keep you needing help. Being a capitalist isn’t a slander or bad term. But SJW Jay and the rest of these progressives want to keep pushing a narrative that simply isn’t true to the extent they pretend. This is some nonsense.
Lol. I don’t know what’s funnier, that you believe that bullshit or that you typed it.
Jay Z is right. When whites are wealthy it’s no issue, but he is shamed for it? F that!
What? The little Kardashoan gets. Jeff Bezos and Elun Musk gets shamed. Haven’t you heard of the occupy Wall Street? Some people play the victim card too much
The jiggerman always going to be yup that’s right guys you guessed it the jiggerman, regardless…