*Amid claims that Jay-Z has spewed anti-Semitism on his new song “The Story of O.J.,” Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary, who is Jewish, took to Instagram in defense of the track, calling it deliberately “based on exaggerated stereotypes to make a point.”
The song from Jay-Z’s new album “4:44” includes the lyrics: “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/Financial freedom my only hope/F— livin’ rich and dyin’ broke.”
Offended fans tweeted their criticism of the lines, prompting Oseary to respond: “If you read the lyrics out of context I can understand why people are jumping to that conclusion. But if you listen to the song in its entirety you will hear that the whole of the song is based on exaggerated stereotypes to make a point. There are African American stereotypes throughout the song.”
He continued: “Jewish people do NOT ‘own all the property in America.’ Jay knows this. But he’s attempting to use the Jewish people in an exaggerated way to showcase a community of people that are thought to have made wise business decisions.. As an example of what is possible and achievable.. Yes, the ‘rich Jew’ the ‘business Jew’ the ‘Jew that owns the world’ is a stereotype which has been repeatedly used with the wrong sentiment.. meant only to harm the Jewish people. Perpetuating the absurdity that Jews are taking over the world.”
Oseary went on to quote a stat saying that only 14 million people of the world’s 7.5 billion people are Jews — equating to 0.2 percent of the global population.
“In my opinion, Jay is giving the Jewish community a compliment,” Oseary added. “‘Financial freedom. He mentions as being his ONLY hope. If you had to pick a community as an example of making wise financial decisions achieving financial freedom who would you choose? I’m not offended by these lyrics. I hear them the way he intended them to be heard. Giving ‘credit’ to a community that supposedly understands what it means to have ‘credit.’ I’m good with that.”
For the record, Jay-Z told IHeartRadio—where customers could listen to the album with some of his commentary after it was released last week—that “The Story of O.J.” addresses success and how it should be used to do “something bigger”:
“The Story of OJ” is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward. We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger.”
He discusses this idea throughout the song with lyrics that addres credit, wealth accumulation, gentrification and other socioeconomic issues:
I’mma play the corners where the hustlers be
I told him, “Please don’t die over the neighborhood
That your mama rentin’
Take your drug money and buy the neighborhood
That’s how you rinse it
I bought every V12 engine
Wish I could take it back to the beginnin’
I coulda bought a place in DUMBO before it was DUMBO
For like 2 million
That same building today is worth 25 million
Guess how I’m feelin’? Dumbo
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