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

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.