Anti-Defamation League Criticizes Jay-Z Over ‘Story of O.J.’ Lyrics

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish non-government organisation, condemned lyrics off the artist’s new album that they believe perpetuate anti-Semitism.

In the song ‘The Story of O.J.’, Jay-Z raps, “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.”

The line has sparked debate around his employment of stereotypes regarding Jewish people, and whether the rapper is perpetuating bigotry or merely utilising the stereotypes in order to make a wider social point.

The Anti-Defamation League did issue a statement where they seemed to believe that Jay-Z did not intend to be offensive, but were still critical of his lyrics.

“We do not believe it was Jay-Z’s intent to promote anti-Semitism,” said a representative of the ADL. “On the contrary, we know that Jay-Z is someone who has used his celebrity in the past to speak out responsibly and forcefully against the evils of racism and anti-Semitism.”

However, the ADL do believe that his lyrics perpetuate negative biases.

“The lyric does seem to play into deep-seated anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money,” said the representative. “The idea that Jews ‘own all the property’ in this country and have used credit to financially get ahead are odious and false. Yet, such notions have lingered in society for decades, and we are concerned that this lyric could feed into preconceived notions about Jews and alleged Jewish ‘control’ of the banks and finance.”

Music manager Guy Oseary, who is Jewish and was born in Israel, has issued a statement defending Jay-Z. A manager for Madonna, U2, and Amy Schumer recently spoke out about the song and argued that when taken in context of the entire song, the lyrics are not anti-Semitic.

“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,” Oseary wrote on Instagram, adding, “I’m not offended by these lyrics. I hear them the way he intended them to be heard.”