Juelz Santana says financial literacy holds more importance than reading.
The Dipset member had joined the podcast No Funny Shit for the Sunday (Nov. 23) episode when teaching children about financial literacy came up in the discussion.
"By the time they get to ninth grade they should be learning how to start businesses," Santana said, adding, "But they don't really need to learn how to read.
While "respectfully" explaining himself, the rapper proposed that people aren't "supposed to be illiterate."
Co-host Kenny "KP" Supreme then asked whether math was more important to learn than reading. "Math," Santana said.
"You could listen to a book on YouTube. You can still obtain the information. You don't have to know how to read. ... I believe common sense is better than everything."
After calling himself a "common sense n***a," Santana said he'd "rather have zero books smarts" in place of street smarts.
"I try to understand people. Like nowadays, you can listen to a book," he said, adding that his most recent "read" was The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.
When KP pushed back, saying that reading was necessary to review contracts, Santana called the podcaster "crazy" and said that there are "apps" that can read them instead.
"Reading is just when people want to embarrass you and try to play you ... or, 'You can't read your contract.' Anybody who said you can't read your contract, they didn't read their contract," Santana said. "They had a lawyer read their contract. They just saying it to be funny."
Santana wouldn't be the first rapper to brush off reading. Last year, Birdman visited a New Orleans prison, where he scoffed at an inmate saying that they needed books.