British rapper Wiley repeats tropes about Jewish power and money in new interview

The artist Wiley prompted a Twitter walkout of British Jews after an anti-Semitic tirade posted on the platform. Image by Getty/Tabatha Fireman/Stringer

By Marcy Oster August 25, 2020

(JTA) — The British rapper Wiley in a new interview repeated tropes about Jewish power and money that saw him removed from social media platforms.

Wiley doubled down on many of his remarks, including that Jews “run the Earth,” are very rich and “stick together,” in an interview with the “1 Po Show” on the FilthyFellas YouTube channel.

The rapper said that his initial 48-hour social media tirade against Jews late last month was triggered by Nick Cannon, who espoused anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in a June episode of his podcast. Cannon, who was fired from ViacomCBS, has apologized for his remarks and taken steps to learn more about the Jewish community.

Wiley’s Jewish manager cut ties with him after the remarks.

The creators of the FilthyFellas channel said in a statement accompanying the video that Wiley “is not without his faults and 1 PO SHOW and FilthyFellas will acknowledge them. In our opinion (his) recent tirade was wrong and poorly considered and very dangerous. There is more to him than those Tweets though and we wanted to make sure we gave him the opportunity to clear-up as much of the mess has been left behind as possible.”

Wiley was removed late last month from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and earlier this month from YouTube, following a series of tweets widely regarded as anti-Semitic and other social media posts.

In Friday’s interview, Wiley said that he “never had a problem with anyone in business other than with some of the Jewish community” and that it is not anti-Semitic to say Jews “do, with other societies, run the Earth.”

“They own everything. I’m not anti-Semitic if I say the Jewish community’s very powerful, they own this, they own that – I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong,” Wiley said.

He again referenced comments made in 2018 by Israeli Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef in which he used Talmudic language that compares Black people to monkeys and used the ethnic slur “Kushi.” Yosef was roundly criticized for the remarks by Israeli leaders of all sides.

The post British rapper Wiley repeats tropes about Jewish power and money in new interview 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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

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