Jay-Z has hit back at people suggesting billionaires are inherently immoral, insisting that it’s “like a cop-out” to suggest wealth and someone’s moral compass are related.
The rapper, who is the world’s wealthiest musician with a net worth of $2.8billion, gave a rare interview to GQ in which he got on to discussing “doing things the right way” even when it comes to amassing wealth.
“Your morality defines who you are,” he explained. “Your morality is not defined by a dollar amount. And if so, what is that dollar amount? When does it start? If it’s a cutoff like “all millionaires are bad,” at 999,000 I’m good? It can’t be that way. It doesn’t make any sense.
He continued: “I got successful the hard way, in spite of the way the system is set up. Everything was against me. My talent pushed against all the headwinds and I got successful that way. And with that success, I’ve done things with my reach that I wanted to do that was helpful for a lot of people.”
“And I think that’s most important—the things you believe in, the things you align with. Because a person with more money can do more good. It’s a choice. Again, we’re living in the real world. You can be realistic or idealistic. This is the system that we have. And with the system that we have, what are you going to do?”
Questioned further on the perception that being a billionaire is inherently wrong, he said: “I got to give you the honest answer: There’s no tension. I don’t give a fuck what you say. You can believe what you want to believe. And people behave the way they want to behave—it’s not a dollar amount. It’s almost like a cop-out. You get to demonize this group of folks without fixing the actual system that exists, that’s in play. [Money] may enhance it or may cause you to act in a way. But you was going to act like that anyway.”
By contrast, one prolific figure in the entertainment world to question the morality of billionaires is Billie Eilish. In October, she called out several billionaires to their faces at the Wall Street Journal 2025 Innovator Awards.
“We’re in a time right now where the world is really really bad and really dark, and people need empathy and help more than ever, especially in our country”, she said. “If you have money it would be great to use it for good things and maybe give it to some people that need it.”
She went on to call out to the billionaires who were in the room with her, among which were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “I love you all but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me… and if you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?” she questioned, before saying: “Give your money away, shorties”.
Eilish later called out Elon Musk for hoarding wealth as he neared trillionaire status. She shared infographics on what Musk could do to help global crises with his wealth.
With that money, per the infographics she shared, Elon Musk could end world hunger, save endangered species and rebuild Gaza, which has been largely destroyed due to the ongoing Gaza-Israel conflict. After sharing the infographics, she later called him a “fucking pathetic pussy bitch coward.”
Elsewhere, in the same interview Jay-Z weighed in on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, saying he doesn’t know if “battling needs to be a part of the culture anymore”.
The high-profile duel dominated headlines in 2024 and 2025, spinning out from a back-and-forth trade of diss tracks to become a heated defamation lawsuit and a complex feud that impacted their personal lives.
Jay-Z had a remote part to play in the beef as it is his Roc Nation company that ultimately selects the Super Bowl halftime show headliners and Lamar’s show in 2025 saw him lead a singalong of the contentious lines in ‘Not Like Us’.
“Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes. It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media,” he said.
“It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it. I don’t like that. I sound like the old guy wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing, as far as sparring with music, with collaborations more so than breaking the whole thing apart. It could stand it before because there was no social media. You had the battle and it was fun and then you moved on. Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.”
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