Eminem is not a homophobe. Or so he says. Despite dotting a huge portion of his earlier (and later) work with gay slurs, Marshall Mathers has argued that the word “faggot” is just a turn of phrase. It’s “more like calling someone a bitch or a punk or an asshole,” he says. “The word was just thrown around.”

It’s an argument Boy George, for one, wasn’t buying. “My feeling is at the moment with what’s going on in Russia, where people are being killed, killed, any word that legitimises that is bad,” he said in 2013, as the country’s anti-gay laws gave rise to homophobic violence.

If you subscribe to Eminem’s world view, by the same token lyrics purporting negative Jewish stereotypes — like being tight with money, or a Jewish lawyer getting you off the hook — might not necessarily mean that rapper is actually anti-Semitic. But in 2017’s political climate, is that really a point worth debating?

Last month, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other miscellaneous racist organisations came together for a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Among them, neo-Nazi James Alex Fields plowed his car into a sea of anti-fascist protestors, killing one woman, injuring dozens more, inciting global outcry and a thousand headlines along the way.

The issues are different, certainly. Homophobia is rife and obvious in hip-hop. Anti-Semitism is peripheral. It slips by, almost unnoticed. But neither are acceptable, which is especially clear at a time when neo-Nazis are back in the news.

When rappers use words like “faggot” and “slut”, they are completely aware of the heavy weight they carry. Promoting Judaism’s most sinister identifiers usually happens unknowingly, and therein lies the problem: it’s bigotry without realising it’s bigotry.

The Jewish Lawyer

The Jewish Lawyer might be the most common Jewish stereotype. In hip-hop, The Jew is a symbol of success, exorbitance, the high life. 

According to the stereotype, you can literally get away with murder if you have a Jewish lawyer. As Lil Bibby said on ‘Thought It Was A Drought’, (“Jewish lawyers, so I dodged jail”), or Waka Flocka Flame on ‘Hype Remix’ (“I beat the case ’cause my lawyer Jewish”), or A$AP Ferg on ‘Work’ (“I be out tomorrow, my lawyer’s Jewish”), they’ll get you off the hook, no matter the charge — as long as you can cough up the dough.

On ‘DDFH’, Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike says, “They charge by the hour, can’t hire a Jewish lawyer, ‘cause if you ain’t Jigga or Puff, you doing time.” Puff, Puff Daddy, said “We holdin’ Jewish money now” on ‘Pass The Courvoisier’. Jigga, Jay-Z, recently asked, “You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America?” on ‘The Story of O.J’.

His best album in years, 4:44 is Jay-Z at his most woke, confronting his mother’s sexuality, infidelity, family and insecurity. And yet, he still decided to lean on a thoughtlessly offensive stereotype.

It’s something he’s done several times before. On ‘This Can’t Be Life’ Jay-Z said, “flow tight like I was born Jewish”, a line recycled by Scarface and Drake (himself a Jew). At least J Cole acknowledged it on ‘Villematic’, rapping, “Talk is cheap, it’s like y’all grew up in a Jewish home, pardon the stereotype”.

J Cole isn’t the only one to acknowledge that stereotyping is, well, stereotyping. On ‘Back When’, Nas unleashes his frustration: ‘You blame your own shortcomings on sex and race, the mafia, homosexuals and all the Jews. It’s hogwash point of views, stereotypical, antisemitic like the foul words Gibson spewed. And it’s pathetic.”

Some aren’t quite so clocked in. The Jew — be he a lawyer, an accountant, blindingly wealthy or tight with his money — features in songs by Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake, Chief Keef, Run The Jewels, Vince Staples, A$AP Ferg, Action Bronson, Gucci Mane, A$AP Ferg, Blu, Ty Dolla Sign, French Montana, Wale, Young Thug, Nicki Minaj, Future and Plies among many others.

Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, The Creator went so far as to rap about Nazis in the early Odd Future days. Um.

And the tropes don’t stop at the music — remember when Macklemore “accidentally” donned a costume resembling a caricaturish Hasidic Jew? Or when PARTYNEXTDOOR sent out this dumb (since-deleted) tweet?

The tweet drew widespread criticism for PARTYNEXTDOOR, while Macklemore was very publicly called out by Seth Rogen, eventually forcing him to apologise and claim that he was “misunderstood”.

But while actions get called out, lyrics go unchecked.

Stereotypes Don’t Make Other Stereotypes Okay

Hip-hop is hardly the first to exploit Jewish stereotypes.

The most famous literary examples are Shakespeare’s Shylock, Dickens’ villainous Fagin, and Svengali, a term now so synonymous with nefarious manipulation that Merriam-Webster actually listed it as a trending term last month, in response to the dishonourable discharge of Steve Bannon. Here, the Jew was seen as clever yet conniving, the one who will, for the right price, do the dirty work. He is greedy, he is parasitic. He wallows in materialism and moral turpitude.

It’s nasty stuff, and it’s continued into film, television and beyond. 

Jay-Z recently responded to criticism about ‘The Story of O.J’. He shrugged the “exaggerated” claim away, saying “It’s hard for me to take that serious because I’ve exaggerated every black image in the world”. He’s correct — every kind of black stereotype has been featured in hip-hop. Does that make it okay? Well, no. Obviously not. And Jay-Z should know it by now.

One of the things I love most about hip-hop is that it holds a mirror to society. Hero and villain, teacher and critic, hip-hop reflects what is happening around us; some of the greatest social commentary of the last four decades can be found within its lyrics.

At the same time, I love that hip-hop learns, changes and grows. For example, it’s increasingly rare to hear words like “faggot” and “slut” nowadays. The violent machismo which plagued hip-hop’s earlier days is no longer a necessary norm, even mental health is finally starting to get the attention it needs. So why haven’t we stopped the stereotyping? Perhaps it feels harmless to take aim at a group perceived as privileged, especially if you are part of America’s most socially-disadvantaged group.

Of course, not every Jewish stereotype is particularly offensive or damaging. And yes, hip-hop is tackling some bigger issues right now. But at time in history when we’re dealing with neo-Nazis in the news and a US President doing nothing to stop them, using language that’s evolved out of prejudice doesn’t help us defeat hate.

So, hip-hop, please: it’s time to retire the Jewish stereotypes.

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 Lauren Ziegler is a writer based in Sydney. You can tweet her @ZieglerLauren