JAY-Z is facing claims of antisemitism following a lyric on the track “The Story of O.J.” off his latest studio album, 4:44. Hov states, “You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit… You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.” Well, this line has garnered JAY-Z some backlash from the Jewish community prompting Russell Simmons to come to Hov’s defense. In a series of tweets Uncle Rush laid out how he believed JAY’s lyric was taken out of context. According to Simmons, JAY-Z was alluding to the black community modeling itself after Jewish community in terms of practicing “good business and financial well-being.” Russell Simmons ended by saying that JAY-Z should in no way apologize for what he said and that we shouldn’t engage with such a “silly narrative.” This all on the heels of JAY-Z and Russell Simmons participating in a PSA against, ironically enough, antisemitism in 2006. Was Hov’s lyrics taken out of context? And what about Russell’s interpretation of those lyrics?

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