Billionaire Mogul Jay-Z's Refusal To Loan A Cousin $4800 Isn't The Whole Story

July 30, 2024

Highlights

Jay-Z's comments about not lending money to cousins sparked a viral debate about his willingness to share his wealth.
Many users pointed out that the loans mentioned in the video were primarily from parents, not cousins.
The longer version of the video showed that Jay-Z was actually discussing how to navigate dealing with large sums of money when you're not born into wealth.

Hip-hop legend and business mogul Jay-Z (real name Shawn Corey Carter) may be worth more than $2.5 billion dollars, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily eager or excited about handing out loans (even to close relatives).

On October 1st, video of Jay-Z discussing providing loans to "cousins" was shared to X (formerly Twitter). In a scant few days, the clip racked up over eight million views – and several million more social media opinions on what Hova said.

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Alongside a tweet mentioning purported start up loans provided to fellow future business tycoons – including Walmart's Sam Wallton, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg – X user @LeftSentThis shared the now-viral clip:

Debate about Jay-Z's comments in the video began immediately in replies under the tweet, with many users pointing out that the loans mentioned in it were provided primarily by parents (not cousins). A commenter observed "[you all] sure do have a lot to say about somebody else’s money," while another claimed that "Bill Gates Sr. was a partner in an international law firm when his son dropped out of college to play with computers in the garage."

A third pointed out that loans are meant to be "paid back," and commenters primarily seemed to agree that the listed loans and the $4,800 loan discussion represented entirely "different situations." Several other users opined that Carter would likely be more supportive of a "business plan," as opposed to an open-ended "loan."

At the beginning of the clip, Jay-Z addressed an off-screen Kevin Hart, first speaking broadly and opining that "some people haven't evolved past 16 ... you evolving every year, that might be a threat to them." Carter continued, leading into his comments about loaning cousins money, and began:

" ... you have to navigate that [awkward situation], you have cousins ... you gotta go home for Thanksgiving, and people are talking to you like [you're] Kevin Hart! ... and you going home for solace, you want family ... you going home for peace of mind."

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Hart cut in to agree, before Jay-Z turned to the subject of loans to cousins. Carter continued:

"... and your cousin's in your grandma's living room saying 'yo man, I got, uh, ... I got this play ... you just give me $4800, I could make you $2 million. [Then] you like: 'It don't work like that family.' You gotta explain to him life isn't like that, money isn't free, and no one's giving out opportunities, if it sounds too good to be true ... And then he like 'oh, you don't believe in my dreams!'"

That video cut off right around that point, and the clip was just under a minute long. According to Insider.com, the video dated back to a 2022 appearance by Jay-Z on Hart's Peacock based talk show; the outlet described the segment's cyclical popularity and social media trajectory:

"The comments were made during an episode of Hart to Heart, a celebrity talk show hosted by comedian Kevin Hart, which airs on the streaming service Peacock. The full episode was first released in 2022, but a segment which includes the controversial comments was uploaded to YouTube in April 2023."

Viral news site Unilad covered the ongoing debate in October, quoting some of the reactions in which commenters disagreed with Jay-Z's position:

"One person drew attention to just how big a billion is compared to a million, saying: 'Jay-Z has 2.5 billion dollars, his cousin asked for 4800 and he said no. To put that into perspective, that’d be the equivalent of someone who made 50,000 a year being asked to give a dime' ... another wrote: 'Other rappers make millions so they’re family can live happy, he made millions and still wants his cousin to struggle.'"

As is very frequently the case with viral controversies like Jay-Z's $4,800 loan comments, Carter's comments were removed from their broader context; the April 2023 video segment uploaded to Peacock's YouTube channel was over five minutes long. In the embedded video below, Jay-Z's comments start at around three minutes and 30 seconds in:

Carter mentions that his first album was released when he was 26, and began explaining the initial experience of managing large sums of money for the very first time. Just before the Twitter clip started, he spoke with Hart about their shared experience of becoming wealthy (rather than being born into it), using themes from his first album as a starting point:

"... Those [songs are about] real topics ... how money can come between friends. You know we [hadn't] had money for a long time [before becoming successful], so we don't know how to ... we not professionals at navigating how to communicate from that space, you know what I mean?"

Jay-Z continued, leading into where the viral "reel" version of the clip picked up, and again addressing Hart's similar rise to fame:

"Like you [Kevin] ... you'll have people where you come from, where you behave in a certain manner ... [you're] not accustomed to where they are [psychologically] right? Some people haven't evolved past 16 ..."

Based on the shorter version of the clip, it initially appeared that Jay-Z told Kevin Hart he'd be unwilling to lend a sum as small as $4,800 to a cousin – framing that led to a predictable viral debate about whether Hova was reluctant to spread the vast wealth he'd accumulated. However, a longer version of the same video showed that what Carter actually was saying was less about willingness, and more about how to adjust to (and prudently manage) large sums of money in situations where people (like himself and Hart) were not born into wealth.

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