Rappers Delight, A Humanist Plight

Please Jay-Z don’t be another hollywood hypocrite. I am begging you.

Oh, crap, it’s too late.

I know that you rose to fame using misogynistic lyrics, curses, and catch phrases. But you’ve grown as a person. At least it seems that way.

Let’s back up. Jay-Z was interviewed on CNN’s Van Jones show. He denounced President Trump’s “s**thole” countries comment, by essentially calling him a super-racist. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter went back in time to the Donald Sterling saga, when Sterling owned the LA Clippers and was caught on tape making racist remarks about his own players. He said the Sterling matter was mishandled in 2014, and likened that mishandling to spraying a trash can with perfume. But then he continued on, saying, “You don’t take the trash out. You keep spraying whatever over it to make it acceptable and then, you know, as those things grow, then you create a superbug. And then now we have Donald Trump, the superbug.”

Jay-Z, you can’t really mean that. This is you right? In your recent video for your song Family Feud?

“Fuck rap, crack cocaine Nah, we did that, black-owned things Hundred percent, black-owned champagne And we merrily merrily eatin’ off these streams Y’all still drinkin’ Perrier-Jouët, huh But we ain’t get through to you yet, uh What’s better than one billionaire? Two (two) ‘Specially if they’re from the same hue as you.”

And you filmed the video for this in a church with your daughter as she looked on admirably.

I get it. Your work is filled with the world you grew up in. Back then it consisted of drug dealing, guns, girls, and cars. And it still consists of discussions and awareness of race. It’s all you knew, and you used it to tell your story through song.

Listen, my understanding comes from a childhood filled with some similar items. My dad was a drug dealer, I was used as a drug mule. I saw the terrifying way he treated women and animals and the horrifying way he spoke about women. Watched as his fists connected with my stepmothers face, and she recoiled in fear. Heard the words he used to sling at her, those words are similar to yours. I knew deep down, he was a survivor and he too grew up on the streets with little formal education and a father that beat his mother. But I also knew there was another side to him. I saw his good side, the sweet side, the giving side. I knew he was ultimately a hurt and broken human.

So despite your lyrics, when I hear them I do not think you are a misogynistic, racist, elitist. I think you are just another flawed billionaire with a big mouth, who has said horrifically awful things about women. You have called them bitches and hoes. You have bragged about drugs. You’ve talked about people being stabbed and shot. But you’ve also grown up. This is your path, and that path has provided some of the words little kids repeat. Your songs are ingrained in the minds of millions, filled with words they repeat to their friends and their family members. I know they don’t really mean harm. I mean, this is how you make your money and spread goodwill, so it’s all good. Right?

To top it all off, you too could become President!

At least thats what Kendrick Lamar would want, as he made clear before leaving the Grammy stage after accepting an award for best rap album.

Jay-Z, I watched the whole interview with Van Jones. You did mention that the President is human. You explained his comments, “Somewhere along his lineage something happened to him… and he’s in pain and he’s expressing it in this sort of way.” So, pretty much what you did, and do? You clearly get it. I see you were trying to be humorous in calling him a “superbug.” But that admission, that the President is human too…I wish the media ran that as the headline. And if they did, I don’t think you’d mind at all.