Rapper Jay Electronica calls rabbi who spoke with Nick Cannon a ‘liar and a devil’

Jay Electronica performs on stage on Day 2 of the 2018 Governors Ball Music Festival on June 2, 2018 in New York City. Image by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
(JTA) — Rapper Jay Electronica appeared to call Jews anti-Semites in a series of tweets railing against Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who recently spoke with Nick Cannon about comments made on the TV star’s online show.
“Rabbi Abraham Cooper is a COWARD who LIED to our brother Nick Canon about the history of the caucasian race. Ask him does he stand behind the VILE TEACHINGS of the Talmud? Don’t be a coward next time Cooper you DEVIL,” Jay Electronica tweeted Saturday.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is a COWARD who LIED to our brother Nick Canon about the history of the caucasian race. Ask him does he stand behind the VILE TEACHINGS of the Talmud? Don’t be a coward next time Cooper you DEVIL.
— J A Y E L E C T R O N I C A (@JayElectronica) July 26, 2020
He went on to call Black people the “TRUE Children of Israel,” use the hashtag #SynagogueOfSatan (a phrase that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has used to describe Judaism) and link to an article by the Nation of Islam Research Group which calls The Simon Wiesenthal Center, where Cooper is associate dean, an “apologist for the Zionist State of Israel.”
Electronica also challenged Cooper to sit down and talk with Farrakhan and other Nation of Islam leaders.
“We DEFY you to challenge us on these claims publicly. You LYING antisemites,” he tweeted.
After mentioning anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on his show “Cannon’s Class” — including the idea that “Zionists” and “Rothschilds” have “too much power” — Cannon spoke with Cooper in a nearly two-hour recorded chat that was published last Tuesday. Cannon also made a donation to the Wiesenthal Center and visited its Museum of Tolerance.
Electronica, 43, is a respected rapper and producer who released his debut album earlier this year after years of releasing mixtapes to critical acclaim. He mentioned the “Synagogue of Satan” and the Rothschilds in a track on the album.
His tweets came a day after the British rapper Wiley sparked controversy with his own Twitter rant, which included the line “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people.”
A series of other prominent figures, including football player DeSean Jackson, former basketball player Stephen Jackson and rapper Ice Cube, have also been criticized for perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes online in recent months. All but Ice Cube have apologized.
The post Rapper Jay Electronica calls rabbi who spoke with Nick Cannon a liar and a ‘devil’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
News Who would protect New York Jews better? Cuomo and Lander trade attacks on the campaign trail
-
News Rabbis revolt over LGBTQ+ club, exposing fight over queer acceptance at Yeshiva University
-
Opinion In Qatargate fiasco, Netanyahu’s ‘witch hunt’ narrative takes cues from Trump
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.