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Wiley: 'I was shut down by Facebook, and we all know who owns it'

Musician repeats antisemitic slurs in new interview

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The antisemitic rapper Wiley has suggested he was wrongly compared to Adolf Hitler during the recent storm over his remarks about Jewish people.

In a new interview, the Grime artist also repeated previous claims to have “never had a problem with anyone in business other than with some of the Jewish community” and then added it was not antisemitic to say Jews  "do, with other societies, run the Earth.''

He also rounded on Lord Alan Sugar, and then made false claims about a music industry boss and the alleged exploitation of black musicians.

The interview with Wiley was conducted by the football internet site FilthyFellas which wrote on its YouTube channel that the 41-year-old antisemitic rants last month were “wrong and poorly considered and very dangerous.”

But in a 36-minute long interview with presenter Poet, Wiley, whose real name is Richard Cowie, showed little remorse for his previous comments, particularly those on alleged Jewish control of black people, although he said he “could have worded it differently.”

But he added: “They tried to say ‘he is like Hitler.’  No I’m not. Hitler is a wicked man … he’s got tanks, guns. I’m nothing like Hitler. I just clocked.”

The rapper then said:"I’m right. I’m right. The Jewish community do own a lot of s*** on this planet, and they do, with other societies, run the Earth.

"They own everything.  I’m not antisemitic if I say the Jewish community’s very powerful, they own this, they own that – I’m not wrong. I’m not wrong.

"If I say there's Sheikhs who own a lot of oil - am I wrong?"

Wiley then said:"They tried to say I denied the Holocaust. I know the Holocaust happened."

Wiley then appeared to suggest that moves to ban him from Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms proved his claim that he had been “shut down” as a result of him representing the opinions of “my people”.

He said: “Twitter, shut down – who owns Twitter, do you reckon? Instagram, shut down – who owns Instagram, do you reckon? Facebook – shut down – we all know who owns Facebook.

“YouTube, Google, who owns that do you reckon?  That’s the first lot of people who have shown who they are….

“My thing was just drawing out certain…  and you saw what came out, what they said, even down to things like Israel is your place, but bet you can’t come and get it.’”

Attempting to explain the reason behind his anger, Wiley made reference to the infamous ‘No Dogs, No Blacks, No Jews, No Irish’ signs that used to appear outside houses in this country during what he said were his “nan and grandad’s” lifetime.

He joked that dogs no longer appear on the list, but said “we are the minority” that is still struggling to escape poverty.

“A lot of what I’m going on about is institutional, deep-rooted, systemic, it’s in-place anyway… I’ve never had a problem with anyone in business other than with some of the Jewish community that I’ve worked with,” Wiley then said.

“The Jewish community does stick together.”

Wiley said his rants last month were in part a result of hearing remarks by  American rapper and comedian Nick Cannon, who was fired from ViacomCBS in July for making antisemitic comments in a podcast.  Mr Cannon subsequently made lengthy apologies for his comments.

Wiley also again referred to comments made in 2018 by Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, in which he used Talmudic language comparing black people to monkeys.

Wiley said: “People had a problem with what I said the other day, and I felt they’re going to shut down this and this and this, but before even that I was on the ‘net and I saw the chief rabbi compare black people to monkeys.

“They didn’t take down his Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. When I saw that I learned something – you can’t make somebody care about your history more than they care about their own.”

Wiley then made a reference to Lord Sugar, saying “I don’t hate you Alan Sugar.”  But he then added: “I just didn’t know what you did. I didn’t know Alan Sugar was slightly racist.”

The 41-year-old then said he was a Tottenham supporter, the club at which Lord Sugar was previously chairman.

He said: “Alan Sugar I don’t hate you the way you think I feel. If you love your people and you want to make jokes about mine.

“I love my people and I don’t want to make jokes about yours.”

He then said: “My thing was just to show my people, you know what, you know that unfair world? It really does exist. And once I say this, they’re going to try to shut me down, but in spirit, in life, ka-boom, I’m just going to get bigger.

“It’s been like that for time. It’s systemic. It needs to change. We all need to come together instead of throwing ourselves to them. They chew you up and spit you back out again.”

In an apparent suggestion that  top-selling US rapper Drake had benefitted from the Jewish background of his mother, Wiley added:“The music industry was waiting for Drake. They couldn’t wait for him to get there.”

 

 

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