Jay-Z refused to support Occupy Wall Street

Jay-Z refused to throw his support behind Occupy Wall Street because he did not know what protesters were fighting for.

The anti-corporate greed movement began in New York last September (11) and garnered support from a whole host of celebrities including Kanye West and Russell Simmons.

But Jay-Z was noticeably absent from Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, where activists set up camp as the campaign went global in more than 80 countries.

The hip-hop icon admits he resisted joining in as he was unsure what the real aim of the demonstrations was.

In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, he recalls a conversation in which he told pal Simmons, "I'm not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don't know what the fight is about. What do we want? Do you know?"

Protesters rallied against the "one per cent," referring to society's highest income earners, but Jay-Z insists it was unfair for them to also target hard-working entrepreneurs.

He adds, "I think all those things (campaigns) need to really declare themselves a bit more clearly because when you just say that 'the one per cent is that,' that's not true. Yeah, the one per cent that's robbing people, and deceiving people, these fixed mortgages and all these things, and then taking their home away from them, that's criminal, that's bad. Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on."