Jay-Z has come a long way from his days hustling in the Marcy projects. Last month, hip-hop’s first billionaire voiced his support for the proposed “Rap Music on Trial” bill in a letter by his lawyer Alex Spiro, which would prevent prosecutors from trying to prove that an artist is guilty by using their lyrics against them in a criminal trial.
The mother-in-law of the rap superstar made a rare appearance on the Discovery+ docuseries Profiled: The Black Man. During the program, Tina Knowles-Lawson reminisced over a conversation about her son-in-law being labeled by a woman as a “gangster rapper.” The woman questioned her mothering and the choice of husband made by her daughter Beyoncé.
“I can remember getting on a plane and an older white woman saying, ‘Oh, your son is a gangster rapper, right? How did you let him marry your daughter?,’” Knowles-Lawson remembered. “And it was just shocking to me, and I said, ‘No, actually, my son is a CEO.’” Jay-Z became president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings in 2004, before stepping down three years later.
“She didn’t think of him as a CEO or even a talented celebrity that was a great businessman,” she continued. “At that time, I remember thinking, I can’t be mad at her because that is what the media portrays.” According to People, the first episode of Profiled, in which Ms. Tina serves as an executive producer, explores the narrative that Black men are seen as “dangerous.”
“I was very happy to educate her,” Knowles-Lawson told People. “She apologized at the end, and she said, ‘I’m sorry. I just hear that.’ And I said, ‘Yes, you assume, but you really should go and do some research on it because, no, he’s a CEO of a record label.’ And I was like, ‘He’s a very good person. He gives, he helps people.”
