The Jay-Z allegation once again reveals a culture of impunity in hip-hop

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.

Jay-Z himself isn’t a newcomer to rumours about inappropriate relationships with minors. For years, speculation about the timelines and natures of his relationships with Foxy Brown, Aaliyah and eventually Beyoncé (all of whom are significantly younger than Jay-Z and were teenagers when they met him) have put him in the category of, at the very least, “Questionable Man”.

That’s why it was even more appalling to watch the typically measured, always calculated rap mogul release a statement that was condescending, un-self-aware and smacked of the smug overconfidence of someone who has operated with god-like status for so long that they don’t know what the rules even are, let alone that they have to follow them.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/13/jay-z-rape-allegation-impunity-hip-hop