Who holds hip-hop accountable? A civil lawsuit accused Jay Z of getting raped a 13-year-old lady at an afterparty following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards. Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who initially filed go well with towards Sean “Diddy” Combs in October 2024 and added Jay Z’s identify (previously listed as “Superstar A”) in December 2024, has 20 different lawsuits going towards Diddy. Jay Z denies all wrongdoing; Diddy stays imprisoned over separate intercourse trafficking costs; and the unidentified accuser revealed inconsistencies in her claims throughout a current NBC Information interview.
This being an op-ed, I personally consider in Jay Z’s innocence. However the allegations raised different questions for me: about intracultural accountability in hip-hop, the toxicity of the tradition and the way a reckoning in hip-hop would even look.
Two years youthful than Diddy and Jay Z, I used to be the music editor at Vibe the yr Diddy was concerned in a taking pictures incident at Membership New York with Shyne and Jennifer Lopez (see Hulu’s current The Honorable Shyne documentary)—the identical yr Jay Z pled responsible for stabbing file exec Lance “Un” Rivera at Manhattan’s Equipment Kat Membership. I used to be there that evening at Q-Tip’s album launch get together.
Therefore, I used to be already lively in media when the Hip-Hop Summit Motion Community mediated beef between Ja Rule and 50 Cent in 2003, involving Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam for battle decision. The Hip-Hop Summit Motion Community was based in ’01 as a coalition of rappers and music business executives led by former NAACP government director Dr. Ben Chavis. It’s the kind of group that may have fostered some accountability in hip-hop in 2024. Sadly, the nonprofit was co-founded by rap mogul Russell Simmons—who was accused of sexual assault by former Def Jam Recordings A&R director Drew Dixon and others within the late 2010s. Simmons presently lives in Bali, the place he intends to remain.
I used to be contemporary out of faculty when the Common Zulu Nation intervened in one other hostile scenario involving Q-Tip of A Tribe Known as Quest and the Virginia-based rap group Wreckx-N-Impact. The trio allegedly attacked Q-Tip after a NYC live performance over a perceived dis from his companion Phife Dawg’s rap verse. Throughout the golden age of hip-hop, the Zulu Nation was usually relied upon for some self-policing accountability within the tradition. Sadly, Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa has confronted a number of allegations since 2016 of getting sexually abused minors in the course of the ’70s and ’80s. Lengthy thought-about a founding father of hip-hop, Bam was fully absent from year-long celebrations of the tradition’s fiftieth anniversary final yr.
Although different establishments exist that would conceivably weigh in on toxic parts within the tradition–the Temple of Hip Hop, based in 1996, involves thoughts–there’s a much bigger challenge at play. The toxicity in hip-hop displays the general toxicity of mainstream American society.
The present president-elect of the U.S., winner of each the favored and Electoral School vote nationwide, is a 34-count felon discovered chargeable for sexually abusing an Elle journal author. Sean Combs and different younger Black rising moguls from again within the day arguably idolized the wealth, fame and energy demonstrated by the likes of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. The normalization of toxicity on this society has distorted the neighborhood constructing needed for hip-hop to self-police the way in which it as soon as did.
An issue with attempting to develop into a real-life Nice Gatsby is that the F. Scott Fitzgerald character was a disreputable phony and swindler. The late poet Amiri Baraka wasn’t the one one to name the American Dream a nightmare; not all this society’s values might be emulated with out penalties.
A realignment with neighborhood ought to be one thing hip-hop strives for as we enter the possibly darkish days forward basically, particularly given the divisiveness in at this time’s physique politic. What would a name to motion appear like transferring ahead? Ought to Jay Z hypothetically be discovered harmless however Diddy responsible (Sean Combs presently has over 120 accusers), what does holding him accountable as a neighborhood appear like? Barring his music from radio à la R. Kelly? Does that additionally embody hits he produced for Biggie Smalls, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, and many others.?
Diddy’s attainable prosecution might deliver different wrongdoings to gentle throughout the board in hip-hop as extra come ahead in a wave adjoining to the #MeToo motion. As scores of victims lastly obtain justice, what’s the suitable communal name to motion? It’s one thing to consider ahead of later.
