After a series of denials by more and more prevalent hip hop members, accusations, speculations, and rumors regarding the hip hop Illuminati in 2011 still just won’t die. And while those Illuminati accusations maintain their persistence, one has to wonder, why the subject of the Illuminati just can’t be removed from the realm of hip hop.
It makes sense, in a lot of ways. It’s become the thing to do for contemporary rappers to reference the secret society or hide a message here and there, and then play dumb or act offended when they get asked about their involvement. It’s hard to blame a rapper for stirring the pot a little, in a sea of mundane music, and frankly, who would wan’t to be associated with a 1776 established Bavarian secret society that purports to have shadowy power over today’s governmental affairs.
Then again, conspiracy theorists will always have a point: The Illuminati get brought up far too often in hip hop for there to be absolutely no correlation, and if a modern day rapper were in fact attached, he would obviously never publicly admit it.
Let’s take a stroll through time with some attached evidence regarding Illuminati in hip hop:
1995
In the LL Cool J remix of “Who Shot Ya” one half of Mobb Deep, rapper Prodigy dropped the now famous lyric: “Illuminati want my mind soul and my body/ Secret society tryin’ to keep their eye on me.” This isn’t the last time we’ll hear from Prodigy regarding the Illuminati. Fast forward to about 1:05 in the video for that lyric specifically.
1996
The following year Dr. Dre dropped his single “Been There Done That”, his Interscope Records debut, which also drops a quick reference to the Illuminati. Fast forward to 1:33 to catch him drop the lyric, “Aint tryin’ to wait around for Illuminati.”
Later that same year, Tupac furthers the West Coast trend of talking about Illuminati, but this time it sounds like a complete rejection of Illuminati. No exact place to fast forward to, but it’s a short clip. Listen to what he’s got to say.
Three months after that interview was released, Pac dropped The Don Killuminati: 7 Day Theory. Featuring controversial artwork with supposed signs of the secret society, thoroughly debated lyrics, and conspiracies abounded regarding whether Tupac’s record was a rejection of Illuminati rumors or a secretive affirmation of them, the album was released under Pac’s alias Makaveli.
Tupac Shakur was murdered almost exactly a month after his The Don Killuminati album was released.
1998
Mention of the Illuminati was absent from hip hop for roughly two and a half years following Tupac’s death until Ras Kass dropped his 1998 record Rasassination, which contains mention after mention of the Illuminati secret society.
2005
Fast Forward to ’05 and Jay-Z and Nas have already both been thoroughly accused of Illuminati ties. To top it off, a photograph surfaced of the two emcees at the reunion show they united at and squashed their years long beef at, which many claims to show Hova and Nasty Nasir engaging in what has long been defined as a Freemason handshake. The video is a bit corny, but it demonstrates the Illuminati handshake fairly well displayed between two members of the hip hop community.
2008
Remember when we said ’95 wasn’t the last time we’d hear from rapper Prodigy regarding the Illuminati? Well over a decade later, Prodigy drops the track… Wait for it… “Illuminati” with a video that proclaims that the secret society is absolutely real, which debuts with an intro discussing what is essentially referred to as the New World Order. This hip hop track is generally referred to as the most direct acknowledgement of the Illuminati in all of hip hop.
In November of the same year, after being incarcerated, Prodigy sent home a letter from his cell that contained numerous intensive and shocking claims about Illuminati members, and accused Jay-Z and Jaz-O of “siding with evil”. If you’ve never read the letter, here’s a handwritten scan of it that is a truly interesting read.
The following three years become quite sticky. Mostly, artists like Jay-Z, Rihanna, 50 Cent, Kanye West, etc. are accused of being Illuminati, asked about it in interviews and more. Consistently these artists have continued to deny their involvement in a secret society that may have a hand in hip hop today.
Just this spring, Prodigy was interviewed for The Source magazine and was asked about some of the Illuminati claims he’s made in the past and his direct accusations of Jay-Z, and he seems to backpeddle quite hard with a lot of discomfort on his face. 3:50 is the mark for that exact point.
So where does that leave us? Rampant speculation will likely never go away, as long as there is money, power, and references in the music, it seems that Illuminati rumors in today’s hip hop are here to stay, but that doesn’t mean any of the questions have been truly answered.
Why did Prodigy back peddle so hard from his previous allegations? Is there a connection between Tupac dropping The Don Killuminati and being killed the following month? Jay-Z’s symbolism that he appears to get called out for every time he releases a video, with continued denial of a connection?
While it makes a lot of sense, that if a high controlling secret society like the Illuminati did exist, they may very well look to hip hop today to increase their influence, it seems impossible to ever really prove something so wild and laden with speculation, rumor, and conspiracy. But with billionaire and multi-millionaire rappers and musicians plugged into the media influence outlets, constantly speaking to the youth of today through their music, hip hop would appear to be an extremely smart target for a group such as the Illuminati, if they ever did desire to flex their interests and powers in a meaningful way. Whether or not they exist means less today than the significance of the implied power of hip hop and it’s most notable representatives. Even the concept that a secret society would ever want to incorporate musicians like Jay-Z and Kanye West say a tremendous amount about the power and influence hip hop has in today’s world. And it certainly says it’s here to stay. No matter what you truly believe.