Saul Williams Shares JAY-Z Email in Debate Over ‘Economic Freedom’

*Saul Williams is not fond of the Black Friday frenzy, so in an attempt to urge others not to participate in the official shopping day after Thanksgiving, he shared a clip on Instagram from an old interview in which he calls out JAY-Z’s idea of economic liberation.

In the clip, Williams references a lyric on Jay’s “Moment of Clarity” track:

“Get your freedom by any means necessary had now shifted to get money by any means necessary until somebody had made the mistake of equating money with freedom… So then you hear an artist like Jay-Z on ‘The Black Album’ say ‘Well, I couldn’t help poor people if I was poor.’ Correction: The majority of our elders and people that have helped us over time have not been able to help us because they had money. They helped us because they had vision and a desire to do so.”

Jay-Z caught wind of Saul’s critique and issued a response to the artist via email — read below. 

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Joycelyn Savage’s Parents Threaten Legal Action Against Blogger Accusing Them of ‘Drug Abuse’

 

View this post on Instagram

 

“Correction.” #blackfriday #robeson #fbf

A post shared by saulwilliams (@saulwilliams) on Nov 29, 2019 at 9:08am PST

“Our fight for economic freedom is new,” Jay wrote in the email which was shared on IG by Williams on Sunday. “It’s not the same war that Harriet Tubman was fighting. If I used the same ‘weapons’ as them I would be shooting a musket at people with fully automatic assault rifles. Although I think it’s a must, we challenge each other, we should be careful that it doesn’t come off as judgment.”

Saul noted in the caption of the post why he still feels some way about the rapper’s stance.

“I wouldn’t characterize our fight for economic freedom as ‘new’,” he wrote. “There have been wealthy black Americans in every generation since the 1600’s, and in Africa since forever. During segregation accumulated black wealth and black-owned business were at a peak. Black newspapers, magazines, schools, record labels… Yet psychological freedom from hard taught capitalism is hard to earn. African billionaires, for example, have brought little relief to the continent of Africa. The seduction of power and the systemic constraints of white supremacy will take more than money to burn.”

Williams’ full rebuttal can be read in the IG post below, and peep the old interview clip above.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I wouldn’t characterize our fight for economic freedom as “new”. There have been wealthy black Americans in every generation since the 1600’s, and in Africa since forever. During segregation accumulated black wealth and black-owned business were at a peak. Black newspapers, magazines, schools, record labels… Yet psychological freedom from hard taught capitalism is hard to earn. African billionaires, for example, have brought little relief to the continent of Africa. The seduction of power and the systemic constraints of white supremacy will take more than money to burn. The root of the market economy is still almost entirely based on the sourcing of rare minerals where the exploitation of African miners and land is the analogue reality of the our modern-age technological advances. Thus, we push for essentially socialist measures which provide healthcare and education to all. Money can be disappeared, but the lessons you learn along the way are yours to keep. Whether we learn from the streets, schools, in prisons, or by playing the game, it is that hard-earned knowledge that allows us to understand how to spend what we earn in ways that can truly make a difference. 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. Guggenheims, Rockefellers, Fords, Nobels, and the great philanthropists and supporters of the arts are all in recompense of the oil, the factory work, the mining, the weaponry, the staple crops, the plantations… that profit off the design of the system, after which the charitable hand is the only one left to give. 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. The truth bangs harder. We learn that the more we tell it.

A post shared by saulwilliams (@saulwilliams) on Dec 1, 2019 at 9:12am PST

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!