Jay-Z has explained that “capitalist” as a word has become a derogatory term intended to bring down the black community.
Yesterday, the 52-year-old rapper joined a Twitter Space hosted by journalist Rob Markman to promote his recent single ‘God Did’ with DJ Khaled. During the discussion, Jay-Z addressed people who have criticised his business ventures in recent months.
“We not gone stop,” he said. “Hip-hop is young. We still growing. We not falling for that tricknology 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****s and monkeys and s***. I don’t care what words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come with stronger words.”
In defence of his ventures and the music industry as a whole, he added: “We went our alternative route, we made this music, we did our thing. You know, we hustled, we f***ing killed ourselves to get to this space, and now it’s like, ‘eat the rich.’ Man, we’re not stopping.”
Later in the discussion, many fans became confused as Jay-Z asserted that “capitalist” is a “slur.”
