By: Amanda Anderson-Niles
Jay Z has managed to create an empire with his dominance in Hip Hop and it’s pretty clear he’s now one of the most successful rappers in the game. Not only can he still go platinum almost two decades in the business, but he’s also proven himself to be a very successful business man. However, all of his success doesn’t mean he still isn’t a target of criticism, and he gets slammed often by his own peers for his business decisions and the kind of music he’s cranking out in the studio. Regardless, Jay Z is a very opinionated person too, and he recently opened up about his views on racism, what President Obama symbolizes to him, and Trayvon Martin in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1.
On racism and Trayvon Martin, he says:
“Everyone outside of America was like, ‘Wow.’ There was a time when people were getting this sort of aversion to America like, ‘You preach these ideals but you don’t really practice them.’ You know? That was a major turn for us to be like, ‘Maybe it is the things that they profess, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Everyone’s getting a shot, any color or creed.’ We dealt with racism in America, in that way, that there’s a Black president.
“It still exists, as we see with Trayvon and Zimmerman trial that’s going on. Of course it exists but we’ve dealt with that in some way. We have to deal with sexism of course. That’s the next thing.”
Jay Z also says the real reason he support Obama isn’t because of politics, but actually because he feels Obama is showing young black boys that they too can achieve the American Dream:
“My thing is about hope, hope that a person like Obama inspires in an entire nation and even outside of the nation. What I support, other than Obama is a great guy, a more than capable president, is the hope that he represents to a generation of kids who grew up like me, that they can achieve this American dream. I’m pretty much into that idea. The politics part really bothers me because, for the most part, these people are putting up arguments against each other and there’s ego and there’s all these things and it’s about everything but people.”
Check out the clip below:
Quick question…anybody see all those black people criticizing Bey and Jay for showing up to that Trayvon rally? Smh.
Oh yeah. I expected it though. They can’t win with some people. But I don’t think they care anymore. Lol.
Honestly, it’s like who cares at this point. Bey and Jay will always be criticized because they invoke the highest levels of jealousy from people. That’s what happens when you’re always winning. But I’m glad they showed up and hopefully they donated some money so Tray’s parents can move forward with that wrongful death suit.
I love what he said about Obama. Too bad some black people just don’t get it.
I feel the same way about the Obama’s. I feel like a lot of black people just got inspired by seeing them in the White House. We needed to see that. All of us.
Great interview. He always says things to make me think in his interviews. He’s a very smart dude.
Love this man.