Saul Williams took JAY-Z’s views on economic freedom to task in a TV One interview clip, which he recently shared on Instagram. The critique elicited a response from Hov himself, who sent an email to Williams that prompted more extensive commentary in a separate post.
“Somebody had made the mistake of equating money with freedom or money with it being the ultimate power,” Williams said in the clip that started the exchange. “So then you hear an artist like JAY-Z say on The Black Album, ‘Well, I couldn’t help poor people if I was poor.’ Correction: the majority of our leaders and people that have helped over time have not been able to help us because they have money, they helped us because they had vision and desire to do so.”
The video caught Hov’s attention, prompting him to reach out to Williams via email and defend his position.
“Our fight for economic freedom is new, it’s not the same war that Harriet Tubman was fighting,” Hov wrote. “If I used the same ‘weapons’ as them I would be shooting a musket at people with Fully automatic assault rifles.”
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He added, “Although I think it’s a must, we challenge each other, we should be careful it doesn’t come off as judgement.”
Williams posted a screenshot of JAY-Z’s email on Instagram and captioned it with a lengthy argument about why Hov was incorrect.
“I wouldn’t characterize our fight for economic freedom as ‘new,'” he responded. “There have been wealthy black Americans in every generation since the 1600’s, and in Africa since forever.”
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Williams also noted, “Even as we push against the systemic structures in criminal justice, housing, etc. we know that it is not simply a question of money being used against us rather it is the ideology that negates our worth as human beings that seems to justify the constant exploitation of our worth and work. Thus the attack is largely against belief systems, philosophies empowered by money and a corrupted rule of law.”
The veteran artist/activist explained why he took issue with Hov’s outlook too.
“I challenge the messaging through music when I feel it supports the system primarily because I see art and music as tools or weaponry that can be used to destroy it,” he concluded. “The truth bangs harder. We learn that the more we tell it.”
Check out Williams’ full response to JAY-Z below.
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