Jaguar Wright and bizarre cult of Beyonceism

What happens when conspiracy theories go mainstream?

I know it’s fun to sit at home and pontificate about which celebrities might fall from grace because of Diddy. It can satisfying to think that a sortof Purge: Celebrity edition seems near. I think some of us have long imagined Hollywood and the upper echelons of the entertainment industry to be a bacchanal of debauchery and wildness where everyone in the illuminati is sleeping with all the other celebrities and Eyes Wide Shut is a normal weekend. To see the covers ripped off of that sort of thing seems satisfying, I guess. Diddy was living a sort of ‘Eyes Wide Shut is a normal weekend’ sortof existence so that proves that it exists for some. But I bet you’d be surprised how few orgies there are in modern Hollywood.

At home we can play internet detective and scour old photos of Diddy hugged up with various celebrities and guess which one of them will soon fall. Someone actually said Jay-Z is Diddy’s friend and Jay-Z paid for the Surviving R Kelly doc to be made because he wanted attention to be taken away from himself and the woman who wrote Jay-Z’s book also made Surviving R Kelly so that proves... What? It proves what? It proves that some people are discovering or even imagining conspiracy theories and presenting them as possibly true.

One of the more popular conspiracy theories of late has been that Beyonce and Jay-Z conspired to have Aaliyah’s plane crash—killing her so Beyonce could be the top singer in the game. At the time of Aaliyah’s passing Beyonce was 19. Also, she was not with Jay-Z then. (They started dating when she was like 20.) Also, I can personally attest to the fact that both Jay and Dame were very close to Aaliyah in her later years. I talked with Jay about the day he discovered that Aaliyah had died and I heard the genuine sadness and mourning in his voice. Talking about her I thought he might cry. But conspiracy theories don’t need truth to function.

Jaguar Wright has been part of a dark Internet side street known as Black Conspiracy Theory Alley for some time but this week the veteran singer from Philly came up. She got mainstreamed. An interview on the Piers Morgan show has somehow made her seem reasonable to some people. Morgan is a terrible journalist so I have no idea how he can convey plausibility on someone but we are here—now bigger media outlets are considering having her on. I got texts today from producers at big shows asking if I had her number. For real. People are like, hey, Piers got huge ratings with her so maybe we will too.

Wright released two albums of soul music about two decades ago and has been part of the extended Roots Crew family. Now she’s pretty much known for showing up with her bag of wild, evidence-free stories, ready to allege that the hiphop illuminati is real and they’re evil and they drink the blood of light-skinned Black babies. She’s been hanging around hiphop Youtube for a while, blaming Jay and Beyonce for everything but the downfall of Diddy led to a media frenzy—audiences are dying for Diddy content and shows are scrambling to find more and more guests to fill the need. Now, after giving many other people a turn, now they’re starting to call on Jaguar.

Conspiracy theories can be fun to think about but when you try to take them seriously either they fall apart or they become a very dangerous part of the collective mind. For example, birtherism fell apart once its basic outline was examined. But for millions, it became a dangerous idea because it helped people begin to coalesce around the cult of Trump. It was a baseless question they could ask that attempted to delegitimize the Black President. He's not even one of us. That cleared the way for even more overt racism and even more overt rejections of basic reality like ‘We don’t really know who won the 2020 election,’ and ‘We don’t really know who was behind Jan 6.’

Jaguar’s message is not nearly that consequential politically but there’s not much difference between birtherism and, let’s call it Beyonceism—by which I mean Jaguar’s whole Beyonce-is-the-evil-Illuminati thing. Both are built on wild accusations, both have zero evidence, neither needed facts in order to stay alive. Just as birtherism was once Trump’s brand, Beyonceism has become Jaguar’s brand. She acts like Beyonce’s gotta prove that she’s wrong but in reality, Jaguar has to prove that she’s right. Give me something beyond words, girl.

When we were just spitting wild stories into the wind for fun that was one thing but now we’re producing evidence and locking people up. The game has gotten serious. If you’re going to be firing at Jay or Bey or whoever, then come up with some evidence. Give us some proof that you’re not just barking. If you can’t, then have a seat. The question is not why hasn’t Beyonce sued Jaguar for libel. It’s how could Jaguar have three victims who are sitting quietly, unwilling to file suits? People are so quick to call anything a distraction but don’t realize the real distraction is Jaguar.