His work with criminal justice reform and social justice issues pertaining specifically to the Black community has been applauded far and wide, but a former NBA star has criticized Jay Z. The two celebrities have had a long-standing feud that reportedly launched after the rapper mentioned the basketball player in lyrics to his 2003 classic, “La-La-La (Excuse Me Miss Again).” Jay-Z rapped about Marbury being robbed of $150K worth of jewelry back in 2000, and in a new interview with Heavy, Stephon Marbury accused Jay-Z of being putting on a facade.

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According to Marbury, their beef began many years ago over a woman. “We was in the club and she went off and we started dancing. We started dancing and it wasn’t nothing, it was just dancing. It’s New York. I’m from New York, she’s from New York and we started dancing,” said Marbury. “And come to find out after, she was like, ‘Yo! Do you know that homeboy [Jay-Z] was vexed and mad because you and I started dancing?’ And I was like, ‘For what?’ And I said, ‘That’s what we do.’ She was like: ‘Word.’ Homie got real mad because of that. So I guess he went and did whatever he did and made his little song.”

“I look at Jay-Z and I say, ‘Wow, here you are trying to be something that you’re not,’” said Marbury. He added, “You’re not an advocate for Black people, you sold drugs to Black people and you rapped about it and talked about it. How do you do that? Like, I’m trying to figure that part out. Like, you can’t make that right. This ain’t snitching, this ain’t telling on nobody, you told on yourself already. You already told people what it is that you do and how you do it and how you feel about what you’re doing. So, how are you rapping about something that you did? I’m confused. I dunno. But people ask me, ‘Why you always talking about Jay-Z? Why you always saying something about LeBron?’ — they’re two of the same. They’re together. They’re friends.”

“You sold drugs to people where you’re from Jay-Z in Brooklyn in Marcy [Projects], you got them on crack — whatever it is cocaine whatever it is that you were selling to them,” Marbury added. “Whatever you say you was ‘cooking up’, that’s what you did. So now, you got your people high, you sold drugs to people that was pregnant, now you created crack babies — these same babies that are going out killing grandparents… I’m confused. But that’s what it is. That’s what happened.”

It’s unlikely that Hov will make any public comments about this, but it has sparked a discussion online. You can watch Stephon Marbury’s interview below.

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