With rumors of anti-Semitism abound, Jay-Z made it clear on the RapRadar podcast that his lyrics on “The Story Of O.J.: from his colossal ‘4:44” release, had no malicious intent toward anyone of Jewish descent or of the Jewish faith.
The Anti-Defamation League did make a statement asserting “that they did not believe it was Jay-Z’s intent to promote anti-Semitism” in his lyrics on the controversial song, but argues that his words “does seem to play into deep-seated anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money”.
Jay-Z adamantly denied any accusations of that type, stating, “It’s hard for me to take that serious because I’ve exaggerated every black image in the world,” he explained. “If even you, as the Jewish community, if you don’t have a problem with the exaggerations of the guy eating watermelon and all the things that was happening (in the “Story of O.J.” music video), if you don’t have a problem with that, and that’s the only line you pick out, then you are being a hypocrite.”
Jay went on further to argue his case, saying, “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… C’mon, you know I didn’t say that. Context is everything.”
