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.”
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.
