Monday, January 4, 2010

Hints of Assassination in Jay-Z’s Music Video?


Whether Jay-Z is a Mason or affiliated with the Illuminati is all speculative. It’s fun to talk about, I suppose, but it seems like a waste of time. For years now, imaginative people have pieced together lyrics and video imagery to conjure up theories about Jay-Z’s alleged occult activity. Some of it is fascinating. Often times, it’s ignorant as hell. For instance, a few years ago a preacher played a Jay-Z song for his parish. What he failed to mention was that it was actually a remix done by DJ Danger Mouse for The Grey Album. Clearly DM did it to stoke some false controversy; clearly he succeeded:


Others point to the diamond-shaped Roc hand sign as a symbolic representation of the Eye of Providence seen on dollar bills and in Masonic iconography. Like I said, it’s all speculative. It makes for fun conversation, but it’s nothing more than that. What interested me most about Jay-Z’s new “On to the Next One” video is a brief moment at the 3:39 mark. As Jay is reciting the line “Obama on the text”, a picture of a necklace depicting Jesus on the cross is displayed between a pair of bullets. What’s the purpose of this imagery? More specifically, why is it presented precisely after the Obama reference? Does Jay believe the president will be assassinated/martyred like Jesus?

To be sure, Jay-Z’s lyrics have always been deeper than meets the eye. An innocent verse to some can be perceived as a threat-filled subliminal assault to others. When do we know which is which? I might be reaching here, but who’s to say that “text” isn’t a double-entendre for “Tex”, short for “Texas”, an allusion to the murder scene of John F. Kennedy, the last U.S. president to be assassinated. We’ll probably never receive any explanation(s) for these inquiries because Jay-Z is such a tease. That being said, we can all expect these kinds of questions to not only linger but grow as well – as long as the answers continue to be withheld.