From the Marcy Houses to chart-topping success, Jay-Z was minted the first hip-hop billionaire in 2019. Now worth $2.8 billion, according to Forbes, the star is calling out blanket hate against billionaires.
In a recent interview with GQ, the billionaire rapper said lambasting the whole billionaire class is a distraction from fixing the structural forces that lead to extreme wealth in the first place.
“It’s almost like a cop-out,” he said. “You get to demonize this group of folks without fixing the actual system that exists, that’s in play.”
The comment comes in response to a brewing distaste for the ultrawealthy across the U.S. A Pew Research survey released last week found that nearly one in five Americans, or 18%, think that being a billionaire is “morally wrong.” Among young Americans, that figure rises to about one in three. Politicians have seized on that sentiment: California has a ballot proposal for a one-time billionaire tax, and more recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced a national billionaire tax bill.
For Jay-Z, who may have 99 problems, his net worth isn’t one. He rejected the idea that being wealthy corrupts one’s character. “[Money] may enhance it or may cause you to act in a way,” he said. “But you was going to act like that anyway.”
