Jay Z criticized for wearing Five Percent Nation ­medallion

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Jay Z and Beyoncé were in NYC attending a Brooklyn Nets game over the weekend when a snapshot of the power couple sitting courtside began to circulate on social media.

In the photo Hov’s wearing a massive gold medallion around his neck which has drawn criticism from members of the Five Percent Nation, for his use of a symbol from their religion, as a fashion statement.

Originally founded by former Nation Of Islam member Clarence Smith in Harlem circa 1963, Five Percenters see the black man as the original being, as the living personification of God himself.

“The rationale is that the black man is God and created the universe, and is physically stronger and intellectually stronger and more righteous naturally,” says Michael Muhammad Knight, an author of two books on the Five Percenters told the New York Post. “Whiteness is weak and wicked and inferior — basically just an errant child who needs to be corrected.”

“Jay Z is not an active member — no one has vouched for him” Saladin Allah, a representative of the group’s upstate New York region, said in a statement to the Post. “It was always understood that you don’t wear the ­regalia if you don’t totally subscribe to the life.”

The Five-Percenters’ name is derived from the idea that only 5 percent of humanity known the truth about existence and these “poor righteous teachers” are supposed to work to enlighten the remaining 95 percent of the true nature of God.

According to the Daily Mail, when a reporter asked Jay Z if the medallion has any special significance to him he “shrugged and said ‘A little bit.'”

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For the latest music news, follow Kyle Harvey on Twitter at @HarveyWins