Tall Israeli

Mos Def's 2004 album The New Danger featured the controversial song, "The Rape Over", a parody of Jay-Z's The Blueprint hit "The Takeover" which provides a list of influential forces he sees running the hip hop music industry, Mos Def thus refers to Cohen, rapping that "some tall Israeli is runnin' this rap shit":

Old white men is runnin' this rap shit,
Corporate forces runnin' this rap shit,
Some tall Israeli is runnin' this rap shit,
We poke out our asses for a chance to cash in.
Cocaine, is runnin' this rap shit,
'Dro, 'yac and e-pills is runnin this rap shit,
MTV is runnin' this rap shit,
Viacom is runnin' this rap shit,
AOL and Time Warner runnin' this rap shit,
Quasi - homosexuals is runnin' this rap shit.

High-placed executives temporarily made Mos take the song off releases of the album, citing clearance issues with Jay-Z and The Doors, a band which the song samples. The song has been called anti-Semitic for its veiled reference to Jewish record executive Lyor Cohen (the "tall Israeli" who then was head of the The Island Def Jam Music Group), and homophobic for its reference to "quasi-homosexuals."

In similar situations referring to what happened to Mos Def, a Tall Israeli is a member of the secret cabal of individuals who really control the rap music industry. This aids to shed light on Mos Def's album subsequently being pulled from the record store shelves and edited to remove any mention of Tall Israelis.