Last week at the Barclays center, Jay-Z was seen rocking large gold pendant that serves as a symbolic representation of the Five Percent Nation affiliation.
What is Five Percent Nation and what do they believe? The author of two books on the group, Michael Muhammad Knight explains, “The rationale is that the black man is God and created the universe, and is physically stronger and intellectually stronger and more righteous naturally. Whiteness is weak and wicked and inferior — basically just an errant child who needs to be corrected.”
If that sounds radical, Knight ensures us that the idea is empowering, saying, “Anytime someone is saying you have to accept your conditions of oppression and slavery and pray to an unseen god — that kind of god is just being used to keep people down and to keep people from looking to themselves as a solution to their problems,” he notes. “If there is a problem, no one will fix it for you, except yourself.”
The large chain that Jay Z was rocking, when sitting next to his wife, Beyonce, is generally reserved for affiliates of the Five Percent Nations, although when asked if the pendant held any symbolic resonance to him, Jay Z responded, "Not really."
“Jay Z is not an active member — no one has vouched for him” Saladin Allah, a representative of the group’s upstate region, told The Post in their incendiary article. “It was always understood that you don’t wear the regalia if you don’t totally subscribe to the life.”
Wherever you stand on the Five Percent Nation, you can kinda see why Jay Z would choose to rock it, at least on an aesthetic level. Hear Jay Z throw out some references to the Five Percent Nation on his appearance on the wonderful Jay Electronica song, "We Made It."
