Jay-Z has issued an impassioned denial in response to an allegation of “raping a teenage girl” more than 20 years ago.
A lawsuit was initially filed from an anonymous “Jane Doe” in October against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
NBC News reported on Sunday that this had been updated over the weekend to name Jay-Z as a co-defendant.
The accuser claims the two men sexually assaulted her when she was 13 years old at a VMAs afterparty in 2000.
In an email response, Jay-Z claimed his legal team had received what he described as a “blackmail attempt” from the lawyer Tony Buzbee aiming to get him to settle out of court. However, he said this had, in fact, had the “opposite effect”.
“These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!” he wrote.
“Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.”
Addressing Buzbee, Jay-Z – whose legal name is Shawn Carter – continued: “You have made a terrible error in judgement thinking that all ‘celebrities’ are the same.
“I’m not from your world. I’m a young man who made it out of the project of Brooklyn. We don’t play these types of games.
“We have very strict codes and honour. We protect children, you seem to exploit people for personal gain. Only your network of conspiracy theorists, fake physics, will believe the idiotic claims you have levied against me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding harm to kids, would be laughable. I look forward to showing you just how different I am.”
Elsewhere in his message, Jay-Z said his “only heartbreak is for my family”, writing that he and his wife Beyoncé would have to “sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims, and explain the cruelty and greed of people”.
“I mourn yet another loss of innocence,” he said.
“Children should not have to endure such at their young age. It is unfair to have to try to understand inexplicable degrees of malice meant to destroy families and human spirit.
“My heart and support goes out to true victims in the world, who have to watch how their life story is dressed in costume for profitability by this ambulance chaser in a cheap suit.”
A series of allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs have come to light in the past year, and the rapper and music producer was arrested in September 2024 on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
He has denied all of the charges against him, and will remain incarcerated until his trial begins in May 2025.
