OPINION PIECE | REMEDY WU: “P.E.A.C.E.” OR PROPAGANDA?

By Faizah Cyanide • On Current Issue

A stolen verse, a Zion­ist agenda, and the betray­al of hip-hop’s roots.

Pro­pa­ganda is not always as appar­ent as you may think; it hides itself well. You may think you’re aware and able to spot it, but you may not be; often, it hides behind good inten­tions, that’s how it works and wins.

Rem­edy, a Wu-Tang affil­i­ated rap­per, is an excel­lent example of this. He recently released a track titled “P.E.A.C.E.” along­side RZA, Kil­lah Priest and Blue Rasp­berry. The track depicts a call for “peace” between Muslims and Jews, whilst Israel con­tin­ues its eth­nic cleans­ing of Palestini­ans in Gaza. The tim­ing isn’t just tone-deaf, it’s inten­tion­al, and it’s a slap in the face to everything hip-hop once stood for.

Let’s be clear: Palestine is being viol­ently occu­pied by Israel, which is inflict­ing gen­o­cide, an apartheid state, mass star­va­tion and dis­place­ment of the indi­gen­ous people. This has NEV­ER been about reli­gion, and it has nev­er been a “war” on equal grounds. It is rooted in colo­ni­al­ism and suprem­acy. Rem­edy is a Zion­ist, and a proud one at that.

Jews and Zion­ists are not the same. A Jew is a per­son who fol­lows the Jew­ish reli­gion. In con­trast, a Zion­ist is someone who believes in the cre­ation and main­ten­ance of a Jew­ish eth­nostate, often by viol­ent, exclu­sion­ary means. Zion­ism is a polit­ic­al ideo­logy. Many argue that Zion­ists can­not be Jews because the premise con­tra­dicts the prin­ciples of Judaism.

Rem­edy has con­sist­ently sup­por­ted the Israeli state and its colo­ni­al pro­ject, por­tray­ing Israeli Zion­ists as the vic­tims through­out his music. He wraps this in the lan­guage of peace, but “P.E.A.C.E.” becomes pro­pa­ganda when per­formed by someone who openly endorses an oppress­ive apartheid régime.

Beats, Beliefs, and Betray­al: When Hip Hop Stands with the Oppressor

In the 1990s, Wu-Tang was affil­i­ated with the Five Per cent Nation. A move­ment rooted in Black empower­ment, anti-estab­lish­ment val­ues, and spir­itu­al res­ist­ance. So, how have we now come to a place where that same leg­acy now stands side-by-side with someone who sup­ports col­on­isa­tion, mil­it­ary occu­pa­tion, and the eth­nic cleans­ing of Palestini­ans? It’s dis­ap­point­ing, to say the least, but not sur­pris­ing, as cap­it­al­ism and the pur­suit of record sales have a way of cloud­ing con­vic­tions and cor­rupt­ing legacies.

To add more con­fu­sion to mud­died mor­als, of why a Black hip hop group born out of res­ist­ance and sur­viv­al would affil­i­ate with a Zion­ist, Zion­ists not only mar­gin­al­ise Palestini­ans, but have also his­tor­ic­ally mar­gin­al­ised Ethiopi­an Jews, Mizrahi Jews, and any­one who does­n’t fit the European Zion­ist ideal. Zion­ism is a polit­ic­al ideo­logy, not a reli­gion or a race, which should be immune to cri­tique. A Semite is someone from a group of people who his­tor­ic­ally spoke Semit­ic lan­guages, includ­ing Hebrew, Arab­ic, Ara­maic, Amhar­ic, and oth­ers, which means Palestini­ans are also Semites; there­fore, it is not anti-Semit­ic to speak up for their autonomy.

Rem­edy uses his Jew­ish iden­tity to shield Zion­ism from cri­ti­cism, but the two are not inter­change­able. Many Jews around the world, such as Jew­ish Voice for Peace and Jews for Justice for Palestini­ans, who act­ively oppose Zion­ism and the atro­cit­ies com­mit­ted in its name, while oth­ers try to cap­it­al­ise on it. This weapon­isa­tion of iden­tity to defend oppres­sion is a typ­ic­al Zion­ist tactic.

This track is a form of Has­bara (Israeli pro­pa­ganda), the views expressed in this song are not Remedy’s per­son­al views but those of the Zion­ist state to soften and nor­m­al­ise war crimes.

Hip-Hop Was Born from the Struggle — Not the State

Hip-hop emerged as a voice of the oppressed, a cul­tur­al rebel­lion against police bru­tal­ity, poverty, racism, and state viol­ence. From Pub­lic Enemy to Dead Prez to Mos Def, hip-hop has always had a glob­al mes­sage: stand up and resist.

Now we’re watch­ing that leg­acy diluted, rebranded, and com­mer­cial­ised to the point where a track titled “P.E.A.C.E.” can fea­ture an artist who openly sup­ports war crimes, and no one blinks an eye­lid. The video’s mes­sage may seem reas­on­able at first glance, which is pre­cisely why so many click “like” without ques­tion. That’s the danger, few recog­nise the subtle pro­pa­ganda at play and the insi­di­ous under­tones behind it.

That’s not peace. That’s betrayal.

And it’s not just Rem­edy. The silence of prom­in­ent hip-hop fig­ures around the gen­o­cide in Gaza is deaf­en­ing. If hip-hop won’t speak up for Palestine, what is it stand­ing for?

Music Theft — This Is What Zion­ists Do: Erase, Steal, Rebrand

And let’s talk about the verse. RZA’s verse on “P.E.A.C.E.”

It wasn’t even writ­ten for this track. It was ori­gin­ally penned for Cil­var­ingz, an Arab rap­per and long­time Wu-Tang affil­i­ate who played a key role in pre­serving the group’s son­ic leg­acy through the elu­sive Once Upon a Time in Shaol­in album.

Cil­var­ingz, a Moroc­can artist affil­i­ated with Wu-Tang since 1999, has long stood in solid­ar­ity with the Palestini­an struggle. Years ago, he col­lab­or­ated with RZA on a track ori­gin­ally titled “War & Peace”, later renamed by RZA to “The Stone, The Gun & The Book”. Rem­edy was invited to fea­ture on the song as a ges­ture of unity, but after record­ing his verse, he went on to steal the entire demo for his own track, “Muslim & a Jew”. Now, that same verse has resur­faced once again, recycled for the track “P.E.A.C.E.”, stripped of cred­it and stripped of con­text. Rem­edy has repack­aged it as part of his Zion­ist rebrand.

Accord­ing to Cil­var­ingz, the theft wasn’t just music­al, it was per­son­al and political:

“He took everything—the lyr­ics, the beat, the concept, RZA’s vocals, Blue Raspberry’s vocals. I pro­duced that track for my debut album back in the early 2000s. After involving RZA and Blue, I invited him in. Before I could even fin­ish mix­ing it, he stole it.

The first time, he dropped it on his Code Red album in 2002 as Muslim & A Jew. Now, he’s done it again—recycling the same track to push a fake mes­sage of ‘peace with Arabs’ by steal­ing it from the Arab who made it, then eras­ing me from it. The irony writes itself.”

Let’s unpack this.

A Zion­ist artist, amid the eth­nic cleans­ing of Palestine, appro­pri­ates a verse meant for an Arab rap­per and uses it in a track called P.E.A.C.E. while Gaza is being bombed.
That’s not just theft, it’s an act of nor­m­al­isa­tion in real time. Steal­ing music just as they steal land and cul­ture, you can’t make this stuff up!

It’s not pos­sible to preach peace whilst sup­port­ing oppres­sion, and you can’t steal verses from Arab col­lab­or­at­ors while their cul­ture is being erased.

A Cul­ture at a Crossroads

Remedy’s pres­ence isn’t just about one man; it’s about a lar­ger shift. Hip-hop is at a cross­roads. Will it con­tin­ue to be a tool of res­ist­ance, or has it finally been co-opted by the very sys­tems it once opposed?

When artists like RZA stand beside a known Zion­ist while Gaza is reduced to rubble, it sig­nals some­thing more pro­found: a loss of polit­ic­al clar­ity. A fail­ure of cour­age. An aban­don­ment of the oppressed.

A Stolen Track, and the Cow­ardice of Deflection

When Rem­edy was con­fron­ted about steal­ing the track, he doubled down, deny­ing any wrong­do­ing and claim­ing RZA had giv­en him the green light. Instead of tak­ing account­ab­il­ity, he deflec­ted with irrel­ev­ant, racist, Has­bara talk­ing points in an attempt to shift the focus from his dis­hon­esty. Sud­denly, his silence became deaf­en­ing when a video sur­faced of RZA him­self, clearly advising him to seek per­mis­sion before using the verse, advice Rem­edy blatantly ignored.

In the inter­view, RZA states bluntly, “Rem­edy basic­ally jacked that song from Ringz in all real­ity. We’re try­ing to make peace out of it, and here comes the Jew­ish guy, he steals the song,” he said as he laughed. He then reflects on their con­ver­sa­tion, say­ing, “It’s about char­ac­ter. Rem­edy, if you ever hear this, or go back and reflect on it. Look at the char­ac­ter you’ve shown, look at your people, and the char­ac­ter­ist­ics that are inborn. That’s why you can’t find peace because you have no inner peace.”

Even though RZA under­stands the situ­ation, he claims to only be the medi­at­or, say­ing Rem­edy can do whatever he wants and not take his advice. In my opin­ion, it still reflects poorly on the WU legacy.

Rem­edy is not peace. He’s not hip-hop’s mor­al compass.

He’s a remind­er that pro­pa­ganda wears many dis­guises, and that silence, espe­cially in the face of gen­o­cide, is complicity.

If hip-hop has any soul left, it’s time to take it back.

 

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Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clin­ic­al research by pro­fes­sion and has been an avid Hip Hop lov­er since the early 90’s, hav­ing cre­ated her own Hip Hop event, ‘Breakin’ Bound­ar­ies’ in the early 2000’s which was pre­dom­in­antly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al events pro­moters and dan­cers to inspire oth­ers through this artform.

About Faizah Cyanide

Faizah works in clinical research by profession and has been an avid Hip Hop lover since the early 90's, having created her own Hip Hop event, 'Breakin' Boundaries' in the early 2000's which was predominantly based around the concept of bboy battles, she has worked with several international events promoters and dancers to inspire others through this artform.