Capitalism and the Black community do not exactly constitute an “acceptable” (and certainly not “safe”) topic to talk about. Least of all by a white person. But hey, we’re all anonymous on the internet until someone becomes enraged enough to dox us (but joke’s on them because nothing and no one is real). What’s more, someone has to point out that just because a person is Black does not make them immune to being called out for being a capitalist pig. And no duo better embodies that than Jay-Z and Beyoncé (as primely illustrated by their ad campaign for Tiffany’s). Obviously, this is where the “uncomfortable” conversation must arise for those who like to paint the rich whites of this world as the sole enemy. Yet why are rich Black people left out of the vilification that has come with the “eat the rich” philosophy?
The obvious answer is because Black people who rise to millionaire and billionaire status are more likely to have worked genuinely hard for that cash (none of it being liquid once a person actually gets rich). And, of course, were working at a greater disadvantage than any white person could ever fathom. But let us not exclude one of the most forceful sources of propaganda within the Black community for the worship of money: rap music. The very thing Jay-Z recently spoke about as a way for Black people to carve out an “alternate route” to wealth by “creat[ing] this music.” Discussing it in reference to his lengthy feature on DJ Khaled’s “God Did” during a “conversation” on Twitter Spaces moderated by Rob Markman, Jay-Z side-stepped any addressment of the fact that rap, especially his own verses, has consistently held capitalism up as a beacon—the only beacon/means of escape from a life of so-called mediocrity (in his case, remaining in the Marcy Projects to sell crack). The end all, be all for gaining “respect” through financial clout. And when the government expects you to make money “legally” by shilling more socially acceptable drugs, that’s what you do.
In the late 80s and throughout the 90s, rap and hip hop had at least some telltale signs of a more socially conscious message. But with the advent of the 00s, something shifted (including in Jay-Z’s own work once he got rich). Increasingly, the messaging of rap and hip hop, falling under the umbrella of “Black excellence” for celebrities like Jay-Z and Beyoncé, has been ceaseless in its obsession with talk of “bags” and “bands.” Every song and “musician” endlessly parroting back the same mindless catch phrases that do nothing to elevate the spirit, only further rot it with propaganda about money being “the anthem” (as Lana Del Rey would say). Megan Thee Stallion’s Traumazine has also freshly contributed itself to that pile, ever-growing with each new generation of rap.
Elsewhere, Saucy Santana is a case in point of the aspiring Black “rapper” (if one can call repurposing more talented people’s work rapping) loathing the rich person until he actually becomes one. As though crossing over to a dark side that one cannot fully embrace until the zeros in their bank account are coordinated to do so. Which begs asking the controversial question: does a Black person become essentially “white” when they transcend to the upper echelons? Is that the only way in which the rigged system in place can truly “erase color”—through class?
To this end, one of the primary reasons capitalism continues to thrive without being stopped is because it succeeds in distracting the masses from the fact that it hurts everyone while helping a select few. And its purpose is to divide and conquer. Pitting races against one another as they compete for resources like it’s goddamn Squid Game (and it is). This is most true of Black people forced to compete with ten times as much ferocity in order to secure the bag, as it is said repeatedly. Even “socially conscious” Beyoncé can’t help placing her focus on money, with a song like “6 Inch” touting, “She stack her money, money everywhere she goes.” But one thing that “6 Inch” is certain to make clear (stripper/prostitute metaphor aside) is that, unlike these “legacy” white boys of the Ivy League, “She works for the money, she work for the money/From the start to the finish/And she worth every dollar, she worth every dollar/And she worth every minute.” In effect, “She works hard for the money/So you better treat her right.” Not that Jay-Z bothered to do that… and Beyoncé still stuck around, so what does that tell you? Humans fundamentally get off on suffering. Yet another reason why capitalism has not been eradicated despite all the glaring evidence regarding the harm it has done to the environment, therefore humanity at large.
So it is that Jay-Z’s Republican-leaning sentiments on capitalism and how he won’t “accept” the “eat the rich rhetoric” that has been “trending” (as though it’s a “trend” to want to be able to try to survive when an elitist cabal is sucking up most of the Earth’s resources) are not exactly, well, kosher. For one thing, he said, “They start inventing words like ‘capitalist’ and things like that.” “They,” of course, must be the white folk threatened by his presence in “their” arena. But anyway, sweetie, darling, you do know the word capitalist has been around since long before you ever became rich, right? How narcissistic can you be to think that the word “capitalist” was invented just to target you? Then again, it is easy to be paranoid about how capitalism has fallen out of fashion even in America right as Black people are “allowed” to become billionaires (which, as Jay-Z points out in “God Did,” essentially amounts to Rihanna, LeBron and Ye). The same tragic irony goes for how we’re facing environmental collapse right around the time some governments are “warming” (pardon the pun) to the idea of reparations for Black people who were subjected to the cunty behavior of their white forebears.
But to a capitalist (that’s right, capitalist!) like Jay-Z, none of that matters from his convenient and gilded station. Especially since he prefers to play the victim and say that people calling him a capitalist is tantamount to the “N-word.” This is how you know rich people really do live in their own alternate reality. Obviously, Jay-Z is a capitalist in the very literal sense of the word: “a person who uses their wealth to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism.” What George W. Bush called, right after the 2008 financial crisis, mind you, “the greatest system ever devised.” Yet it’s a system that deliberately leaves out most of Jay-Z’s Black brethren.
This is possibly why Jay-Z has an air of superiority about his own wealth and how it embodies the “American dream” in the true sense. For the difference one will find between white billionaires and Black billionaires is that the former group inherited their wealth, while the latter group had to painstakingly build it from the ground up. And yet, as this becomes more common for POC communities, it will technically create the privilege Black people “formerly” despised in white people among future generations (as Beyoncé puts it, “My great-great-grandchildren already rich/That’s a lot of brown churrin on your Forbes list”). Maybe that’s another aspect of Jay-Z being so overly protective of his wealth (you know, more than the average rich person). He knows that despite being a “sign of hope” to those at the bottom, he’s also a source for stoking venomous rage among those who can’t understand why him and not them.
Because capitalism should force everyone who thinks they made it “on their own” with nothing more than “blood, sweat and tears” to ask themselves: is that what really happened or was I just luckier than ninety-nine percent of other people pursuing the same dream? People who were likely just as, if not more talented, but didn’t know how to “hustle”—which is the number one requirement for succeeding at capitalism, not talent. Madonna is more shining proof of that, for there’s no denying that she clawed and schemed her way to the top with as much ruthlessness as any aspiring rapper in the projects.
At another point in the aforementioned interview, Jay-Z got defensive about being made to feel guilty for his success by noting, “All these lies that America told us [read: Black people] our whole life and then when we start getting it, they try to lock us out of it…” Here, the Tulsa race massacre comes to mind, with white mobs burning what was called Black Wall Street to the ground in 1921. Jay-Z continued, “We’ve been called n-gger and monkeys and shit. I don’t care what words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come with stronger words. We’re not gonna stop. We’re not gonna be tricked out of our position. Y’all locked us out. Y’all created a system that, you know, doesn’t include us. We said fine. We went our alternate route. We created this music.” “This music” being one of the single greatest proponents in the modern era of the very system that fucked Black people over.
In any case, Jay-Z wants everyone to know that sticks and stones may break his bones but the only word that will ever make him bristle is “capitalist.” For it’s this “thing” that Black people want to attain—extreme wealth—while also knowing better than anyone that you have to be a monster to exist at that level. Sure, maybe there’s the hope that, the more Black people become rich, the less chance white men who have historically held that “title” will have to be pricks with their own money. And then there’s the constant talk of various “foundations” formed by people like Megan Thee Stallion designed to help Black youths “pick themselves up” by their own bootstraps. But it’s likelier that a disparity in wealth between different classes of Black people will eventually cause the same resentments that exist between poor and rich white people. Because sure, right now, it’s “great” for the Black community to see others “like them” rise up. But the more that happens, the less “exciting” it is, and the more the question is asked: but why am I still here down at heel?
Or as City High would say, “For you this is just a good time, but for me this is what I call life.” Incidentally, “What Would You Do?” might be among the last of the socially conscious hip hop songs… and ended up losing to Beyoncé via Destiny’s Child at the 2002 Grammys. The single The Recording Academy preferred was “Survivor,” an undercover anthem about capitalism’s ability to mutate and “rebrand” in each new decade in spite of being loathed by most. But, from Jay-Z’s cush vantage point, he would like to provide the conservatives of America with a wet dream platform to target Black voters in the next election: “We not falling for that trick-nology, whatever the public puts out there now. Before it was the American Dream: ‘Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You can make it in America.’” Or rather, Jay-Z and Bey’s children can make it in America.
