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(JTA) — Jay-Z defended his decision to include a lyric in a song on his latest album that has been called anti-Semitic, saying he exaggerated images of black people in the same song.<\/p>\n
The rapper was discussing his song \u201cThe Story of O.J,\u201d which appears on his “4:44” album, during an interview with the Rap Radar podcast last week.<\/p>\n
The song lyric says: “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit \/ You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This is how they did it.”<\/p>\n
Following the release of the album, the Anti-Defamation League expressed concern about the lyric, but emphasized it did not believe Jay-Z intended to promote anti-Semitism. The ADL said that \u201cwe know that Jay-Z is someone who has used his celebrity in the past to speak out responsibly and forcefully against the evils of racism and anti-Semitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his podcast interview with hosts Elliott Wilson and Brian “B. Dot” Miller, the rapper said of the accusations: \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to take that serious because I\u2019ve exaggerated every black image in the world.\u201d He added, referencing the song\u2019s music video, \u201cIf even you, as the Jewish community, if you don\u2019t have a problem with the exaggerations of the guy eating watermelon and all the things that was happening, if you don\u2019t have a problem with that, and that\u2019s the only line you pick out, then you are being a hypocrite.<\/p>\n
“Of course I know Jewish people don’t own all the property in America. I mean, I own things! So I know that they don’t own all of the property in America. It was an exaggeration.”<\/p>\n
He added that \u201ccontext is everything,\u201d explaining further, “I pretty much said, ‘If you want to be good at property and things like that, follow this pattern.’ It’s almost like saying, ‘Kobe Bryant shot a lot of shots. If you want to be good at basketball, practice your thousand shots and do what he did.’ And then Kobe Bryant comes out and says, ‘Whatchu trying to say, all black people play basketball?’ That’s how ridiculous it is. \u2026 C’mon, you know I didn’t say that. Context is everything.”<\/p>\n
The ADL said in its statement released last month, \u201cThe idea that Jews \u2018own all the property\u2019 in this country and have used credit to financially get ahead are odious and false. Yet, such notions have lingered in society for decades, and we are concerned that this lyric could feed into preconceived notions about Jews and alleged Jewish \u2018control\u2019 of the banks and finance.\u201d<\/p>\n