Story at a glance
- “You can’t give someone a microphone for 24 hours a day and [have them] not think they have to use it,” Jay-Z said in an interview with The Sunday Times Style.
- The outlet noted the rapper seemed to “feel a bit sorry for the younger stars coming up today.”
- “These kids, it’s unbelievable. Imagine having a microphone and you’re asked about social justice questions at 18 years old? It’s like, ‘What? I’m meant to know the answer, and if I don’t answer the correct way, if I don’t say everything right, even if my intentions are right, and I don’t say the same right thing, it’s going to be everywhere,” he said.
Rap superstar Jay-Z is weighing in on the internet’s cancel culture and says he believes it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
In an interview this week with The Sunday Times Style, the rapper was asked if he were 20 years younger and just starting out in the music industry if he would use social media more frequently, in which he immediately responded “No.” Jay-Z, 51, appears to only have a Twitter account and uses it rarely.
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When asked if he thought cancel culture may end anytime soon, Jay-Z said no.
“You can’t give someone a microphone for 24 hours a day and [have them] not think they have to use it,” Jay-Z told the outlet, which noted the rapper seemed to “feel a bit sorry for the younger stars coming up today.”
“These kids, it’s unbelievable. Imagine having a microphone and you’re asked about social justice questions at 18 years old? It’s like, ‘What? I’m meant to know the answer, and if I don’t answer the correct way, if I don’t say everything right, even if my intentions are right, and I don’t say the same right thing, it’s going to be everywhere,” he said during the interview.
The Grammy-award winner’s comments come amid a growing national debate over cancel culture, the phenomenon of withdrawing support from public figures, celebrities, brands and businesses due to what some may consider to be offensive or problematic comments or ideologies.
In a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, 64 percent of respondents said there is a “growing cancel culture” that is a threat to their freedom, while 36 percent said they did not view it as a threat to their freedom.
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