Jay-Z has broken his silence about the 2024 rape lawsuit that accused him and fellow music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping a teenage girl more than two decades ago — a complaint that has since been dismissed.
The rap giant and Roc Nation billionaire spoke candidly about the fallout and emotional toll of the accusations in a lengthy — and rare — conversation with GQ’s Frazier Tharpe published on Tuesday. Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, said that that period left him feeling “really heartbroken by everything that occurred.”
“That s— took a lot out of me. I was angry,” he said. “I haven’t been that angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger.”
In December 2024, Jay-Z was named as a co-defendant in one of a swarm of sexual assault lawsuits against Combs. The complaint accused the two musicians of taking turns raping a 13-year-old girl at a party after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. He emphatically denied the accusations at the time. Combs also denied the allegations.
Later that month, the anonymous accuser, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, acknowledged there were several inconsistencies in her recollection of the alleged assault but stood firmly behind her accusations. In February 2024, the woman dropped her lawsuit against the musicians, filing to dismiss it with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
“You don’t put that on someone — that’s a thing that you better be super sure,” he said of the lawsuit, adding, “[Y]ou had to be super sure before you put those kind of things on a person. Especially a person like me.”
The 56-year-old rap star, who shares three children with Beyoncé, said he relied on family and his close circle amid the “the darkest moment,” but that he “also got to see how people felt about me.” Though he did not name names, the Roc Nation boss said “people run” when confronted with scandal, adding that “they don’t care what happened” and “it’s like, save yourself.”
He said that settling the lawsuit was just not in the cards, even if it would’ve ended the lawsuit faster. He said he felt the “weight that this is going to bring on our family.”
He couldn’t do it, he said: “I would die.”
News of the allegations against Jay-Z broke just a day before the glitzy Hollywood premiere of “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which featured the voices of his wife and daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Jay-Z and Beyoncé appeared alongside their daughter on the red carpet. He told GQ it wasn’t easy.
In his conversation with Tharpe, Jay-Z also discussed his evolving discography, shared his take on the 2024 rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, and his billionaire status (and the criticism that entails). The rapper also shared his philosophy about approaching challenging moments.
“Everything in your life, it’s not happening to you, it’s happening for you,” he said. “Everything is just how you relate to it. There’s no good or bad. S— happens. It’s life.”
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