# JayZ backwards...666...murder murder Jesus **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052 "2006-11-19T18:39:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/1 "2006-11-19T18:39:33Z")
Here is a clip of a preacher playing a [track](http://ebaumsworld.com/2006/11/jay-z-subliminal-message.html) from JayZ backwards. It seems to clearly say “666 murder murder Jesus”. Does anyone know anything about this? What song is it? Do you think this is authentic? If so, do you think it was intentional or just a freakish occurance? I would imagine that if you listen to enough tracks backwards you would eventually find something offensive. For the record, if it is true, I am of the “meh, big deal” camp, not the “JayZ must die camp”. ---
**Author:** ![Nekosoft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@Nekosoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nekosoft)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/2 "2006-11-19T19:32:05Z")
It’s not technically from a Jay-Z song, it’s from Danger Mouse’s [Grey Album](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey_Album) project. The track in question is _Lucifer 9 (Interlude)_, a mashup of Jay-Z’s _Lucifer_ track with the Beatles’ _Revolution #9_ and _I’m So Tired_. In my mind, there’s no question that Danger Mouse intended the track to sound that way when played backwards - here’s what the snippet sounds like on the original track: [Interlude Segment](http://www.pikamac.com/sounds/interlude.mp3). Gibberish, and obviously _backwards_ gibberish. The entire track, when played backwards, includes the lyrics “I can introduce you to evil” and “Catholics, I gotta murder them”. These days, Danger Mouse is better known for his work as half of [Gnarls Barkley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnarls_Barkley). ---
**Author:** ![Nekosoft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@Nekosoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nekosoft)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/3 "2006-11-19T19:39:10Z")
To be clear, I don’t think there’s any evidence that Danger Mouse is advocation any violence to people of any religious stripe. It’s clear it’s a joke playing on the history of backmasking: the “Paul is Dead” message in I’m So Tired and “Turn me on, dead man” in Revolution 9. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/4 "2006-11-19T21:06:56Z")
Yeah, wen you play the record forward and its gibberish, but backwards it is that clear, it can only mean it was intentional. You’ll have to ask the person who did it what their intent was. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/5 "2006-11-19T22:22:45Z")
How do you even play a song backwards these days? All I can imagine is mirroring the waveform. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/6 "2006-11-19T23:02:47Z")
Even the free program Audacity can reverse the selected part of the wave. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/7 "2006-11-19T23:41:29Z")
Associating this with Jay-Z is completely wrong. Not only was this an unauthorized remix project, but Jay’s label got it ceased and desisted. (Which is a shame, because a lot of tracks are much better than the mixes _The Black Album_.) And _of course_ it was deliberate. The words are too clear, the joke is too obvious, and it sounds a lot like the sort of thing Danger Mouse would do. What I’ve never understood is how this sort of thing is supposed to constitute a “subliminal message”. You won’t even hear it unless you go to the trouble of playing the record backwards. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/8 "2006-11-19T23:56:49Z")
[QUOTE=DoctorJ] Associating this with Jay-Z is completely wrong. [/QUOTE] Since when do angry Christians actually do things like, you know, research? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@The\_Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Octagon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/9 "2006-11-20T01:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] How do you even play a song backwards these days? All I can imagine is mirroring the waveform. [/QUOTE] That’s about it. You can do it in windows sound recorder, it’s that simple. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/10 "2006-11-20T02:21:39Z")
[QUOTE=DoctorJ] Associating this with Jay-Z is completely wrong. Not only was this an unauthorized remix project, but Jay’s label got it ceased and desisted. (Which is a shame, because a lot of tracks are much better than the mixes _The Black Album_.) [/QUOTE] I thought it was the Beatles’ label that had the problem and that Jay-Z was OK with it. ---
**Author:** ![gredbioz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6a8cbe/32.png) [@gredbioz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gredbioz)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/11 "2006-11-20T03:02:44Z")
[QUOTE=DoctorJ] Associating this with Jay-Z is completely wrong. Not only was this an unauthorized remix project, but Jay’s label got it ceased and desisted. (Which is a shame, because a lot of tracks are much better than the mixes _The Black Album_.) [/QUOTE] Do you have a link for this? The Beatles record co. got it ceased and desisted, but all I ever heard from Jay was a tacitly supportive silence. He did, after all, release the CD of a capellas himself, which he would surely have known would lead to these kind of projects (and that is almost certainly why he did it). What I don’t get about that preacher is that if he listened to Jay-Z’s actual records forward, he would hear Jay-Z saying, for instance: > [@](#): > > Put that knife in ya, take a little bit of life from ya > Am I frightenin ya? Shall I continue? > I put the gun to ya, I let it sing you a song > I let it hum to ya, the other one sing along Sure, I separate what someone says in a song and what they believe and do in life, but apparently the preacher doesn’t. So does that mean he is fine with murder, just so long as it’s not Jesus being murdered? That’s an odd interpretation of the 5th (?) commandment. ---
**Author:** ![Nekosoft](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@Nekosoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nekosoft)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/12 "2006-11-20T03:31:52Z")
Oh, he doesn’t even need to listen to the lyrics… because God Himself told him Hip Hop was the devil’s tool: > [@](#): > > **G. Craige Lewis** [said](http://www.exministries.com/vision.html) : > > In 1990 God gave me a vision. He showed me a vision of young people all over the world and how that they were being led astray by music. > … > He showed me that the enemy was creating a new type of music that would reach far beyond the color barriers that Heavy Metal could. The enemy’s plan was to create a form of music that not only influenced the Black youth of America, but it would reach the White, Hispanic, and all other races and influence them to act and behave in total rebellion to God and to their parents. > … > Gangsta rap and hip hop artists have bridged the gap of Satanism and the occult that once divided the races, and now has produced the most popular, culture driven music ever. Many of these artists distort the bible and Christianity by claiming to be messengers of God and some even claim to be Christ. If you want to know more then his website provides, you can get the EX-treme Truth Behind Hip Hop bundle, including TBHH 3: Antichrist Superstar. I would think Mr. Lewis would be interested in spreading the good word for free (considering Hip Hop is the greatest threat to youth culture and all) but the set does cost 75 dollars. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/13 "2006-11-20T03:45:53Z")
[QUOTE=gredbioz] So does that mean he is fine with murder, just so long as it’s not Jesus being murdered? [/QUOTE] And wasn’t Jesus willing to be murdered to pay for the sins of all mankind anyway? ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/14 "2006-11-20T04:16:11Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought it was the Beatles’ label that had the problem and that Jay-Z was OK with it. You (and **gredbioz** ) are right–I was misremembering. (I think Jay still could have had a legitimate beef since DM was _selling_ the album, but if he did he didn’t pursue it.) ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jayz-backwards-666-murder-murder-jesus/381052/15 "2006-11-20T05:35:58Z")
Somewhat related, there’s a flash site that features clips of certain song both forwards and backwards. > **[Jeff Milner's Backmasking Clips'](https://www.jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm)** > > Listen to a variety of clips backward with optional priming and see if you can hear subliminal messages. If Empty Spaces is accurate (I’ve a hard time distinguishing words) that’s great.