It’s been a rough year for prominent men in hip-hop. As a tidal wave of accountability continues to sweep the industry, the fallout from Sean “Diddy” Combs’s arrest continues to dredge up even more alleged horror stories. This time, it’s Jay-Z who is in the hot seat after an amended lawsuit filed in federal court this week alleged that he and Diddy took turns raping an unnamed 13-year-old girl during a VMAs afterparty that Diddy hosted in 2000. Diddy and Jay-Z deny the accusations.
As unsurprising as some have found the accusations – given the pair’s decades-long friendship and Jay-Z’s own eyebrow-raising alleged history with much younger women – Jay-Z’s response to this lawsuit and the blowback from his supporters is a stunning display of the culture of silence and complicity in hip-hop which continues to harm women and girls.
