British Israeli rapper Antithesis, one of the world's few Jewish rappers, recently released a song in response to the antisemitic Twitter tirade of British rapper Wiley.
Antithesis is the stage name for London born Samuel Green, who immigrated to Israel in 2010. After seeing Wiley's release, Antithesis wanted to give the Jewish community a sense that someone is supporting them from within the genre.
“I felt so angry, and channeled that anger into writing this song, which I hope can give people in the community a sense that someone is standing for them," he stated in a release.
“I still hope that Wiley will see the light and that once this is all over he will apologize, educate himself and seek to engage with the Jewish community in a positive way," he added.
In response to Wiley's comments, Antithesis' released his new song "Wiley the Racist" on Youtube, which he intended as a retaliation for the initial tirade.
He said in the release that he felt that, to come back at Wiley, he should use his own genre, leading him to write and record his song within twelve hours. The song is two and a half minutes long and is available for free download.
Wiley used to be an inspiration to Wiley before his viral hate speech filled rant which Antithesis calls, "racist antisemetic nastiness" in his song.
"I love Wiley's music and when he first started coming out with these horrible statements I didn't really know what to do with myself. I hoped that it was some sort of mistake, but then he kept doing it," Wiley stated in the release.
"Antisemitism has sadly come at me at various times in my life, but there is something about the fact that it came so virulently from someone that I looked up to that made it even more painful," he added.
In the song, Antithesis talks about the fact that he used to look up to Wiley, he adds that he knows that Wiley is a better rapper than he is, yet says that because of the hate speech, he's going to speak up, regardless of 'talent.' He then elaborates on the regular antisemitism Jews face.
"Rhymes and beats much better than me
I'm not very good truthfully,
but you hate all my fams so I gotta speak up
Let me tell you about my privilege
Security at our schools and our synagogues cuz we under threat of attack
you come and smash up our cemeteries
death threats and conspiracies coming at us from all over the place
Yeah you bet we're gonna come fight."
In the song, Antithesis notes the fact that Wiley is a black rapper, and that "Jews and blacks" both get attacked because of who they are. "Don't you see, we're on the same team" he raps.
Wiley has made headlines in the last week after he took to Twitter to post a series of antisemitic comments and conspiracies. Twitter took many of the tweets down, yet some were left up, leading to a 48 hour boycott campaign called #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate and led by many prominent public figures.
In some of Wiley's tweets, the rapper claims that Jews control "the Law," and that Israel is not a Jewish country, "Listen to me Jewish community Israel is not your country I'm sorry."
He later doubled down on the comments, stating, after being confronted: "Anti Semetic? What's it called the way you rip us off in business then? What's that called when you tell us there is 1 rule for us and another rule for you lot? What's that called?" He added "Anti Semetic? Are u stupid? Do you know what these people do to the world?"
Jewish News UK managed to record the tweets before they were fully taken down, and posted a comprehensive clip on Twitter as a part of the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign.
We need action.#NoSafeSpaceForJewHate@TracyAnnO pic.twitter.com/g2UKWPDrW2
— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) July 25, 2020
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this article.