Saul Williams has shared an email from JAY-Z in which the Roc-A-Fella co-founder, referencing an interview he's not sure "is new or old," shares his take on the fight for economic freedom. In the accompanying caption, Williams disputes JAY's assessment.
"Our fight for economic freedom is new," JAY said in the email, per Williams' Instagram post on Sunday. It’s not the same war that Harriet Tubman was fighting. JAY went on to say that challenging each other "is a must" but said that care should be taken to ensure that challenging doesn't come across as "judgment."
In his own comments, Williams said he wouldn't characterize the fight for economic freedom "as new" and noted the difficulty of achieving "psychological freedom" from capitalism.
"During segregation accumulated black wealth and black-owned business were at a peak," Williams said. "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."
See Williams' full post, which also sees the Encrypted & Vulnerable artist arguing that art and music can be weaponry for destroying the system, below.
The publicly shared JAY-Z email and rebuttal arrives shortly after Williams shared a clip of an interview to his Instagram hashtagged #BlackFriday and #FBF in which he references The Black Album and pushes back against the argument of money as "the ultimate power." Vision, Williams argued, is of more help.
Following the latest post, fans have shown support for Williams, with specific attention paid to the "truth bangs harder" line: