NEW YORK: Jay-Z, leading nominations for the Sunday Grammy Awards (Monday morning Thailand time), was feted Saturday by music industry heavyweights -- and, in between, was taken to task by the president of the United States.
President Donald Trump criticised Jay-Z on his Twitter feed, likely in response to the rap mogul's denunciations of the US leader in an interview.
"Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black Unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!" Trump tweeted.
Trump was accurately pointing to record-low unemployment for US minorities, although critics note that the US economic expansion began well before, under his predecessor Barack Obama.
Jay-Z, who along with his wife Beyonce became friends and political allies of Obama, said in the interview broadcast Saturday on CNN that Trump's belittling remarks toward people of colour overshadowed any employment data.
"Money doesn't equate to happiness. It doesn't. That's missing the whole point," said the multi-millionaire Jay-Z, no stranger to flashing his material wealth.
"You treat people like human beings, then that's the main point," he told host Van Jones, a former aide to Obama.
Jay-Z said that Trump's election laid bare the persistence of racism in the United States and voiced dismay at the president's reported quip that he did not want immigrants coming from "shit-hole" countries in Africa or predominantly black Haiti.
"It's real hurtful. Because it's looking down at a whole population of people and it's so misinformed because these places have beautiful people and beautiful everything," Jay-Z said.
Jay-Z is in the running for eight Grammys on Sunday amidst acclaim for his latest album 4:44, a strikingly introspective work in which he addresses institutional racism, apologises to Beyonce for infidelity and supports his mother as she comes out as a lesbian.
Jay-Z on Saturday night received an award as an "industry icon" at a pre-Grammy gala, where the rapper voiced contrition for boycotting the music industry's prize night two decades earlier.
