Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was accused in a lawsuit Sunday of raping a teenage girl after an awards show more than two decades ago along with Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul facing federal sex trafficking charges and a wave of lawsuits alleging sexual assault.
The plaintiff in Sunday’s suit said she was 13 at the time of the alleged assault, according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in New York’s Southern District.
Carter denied the allegations Sunday, calling them “idiotic” in a statement. Combs’ legal team dismissed the suit as a “shameless publicity stunt.”
Here’s what we know about the litigation.
What are the allegations against Carter?
The lawsuit was originally filed in October against Combs, and it was amended Sunday to include Carter as a defendant.
The plaintiff, who is identified as “Jane Doe” in the suit, said she met the men after the MTV Music Video Awards at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan in 2000. She’d been trying to get into the event — or to go to an after-party — but did not have a ticket, and she began approaching limousine drivers outside, according to the suit.
One of the drivers said he worked for Combs and told her she “fit what Diddy was looking for,” the suit alleges. After the driver took to her an after-party, the plaintiff says, she was told to sign what she believed was a nondisclosure agreement and given a drink that made her “woozy,” the suit alleges.
The plaintiff lay down in a room, the lawsuit says, and Combs and Carter entered. Carter removed her clothes, according to the suit, and raped her while Combs and a female celebrity who is not named in the document watched, it says.
Combs tried to force the plaintiff to perform oral sex, but she hit him in the neck and he stopped, the suit alleges. She grabbed her clothes, ran to a gas station and called her father, it says.
What does Carter say about the suit?
In a statement, Carter said the lawyer who filed the suit had 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 honor. 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,” he added.
Carter described a pre-litigation demand letter from the lawyer who filed the suit as an effort to “blackmail” him into settling. Attorney Tony Buzbee said his client had sought only confidential mediation and did not demand any money.
In response to the letter, Buzbee said in the amended complaint that Carter orchestrated a “conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff’s lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z.”
On Monday, a lawyer for Carter asked a judge to either deny a request to allow the plaintiff to remain anonymous or dismiss the case.
Carter’s lawyer asked for an expedited hearing, which has not yet been scheduled.
The lawyer, Alex Spiro, said the plaintiff’s decision to sue anonymously was “inconsistent with a genuine effort to determine the truth or falsity of these allegations as opposed to an effort to procure a quick, extortionate settlement.”
How are Carter and Combs linked?
Both men rose to fame in the 1990s hip-hop scene in New York, with Combs founding Bad Boy Records and helping launch the career of the Notorious B.I.G., and Carter helping found Roc-A-Fella Records and releasing his debut album in 1996.
They appeared on each other’s music and went on to become well-known — and wealthy — entrepreneurs whose business ventures went far beyond hip-hop.
Carter founded the entertainment company Roc Nation in 2008. Forbes has estimated his wealth at $2.5 billion. Much of Diddy’s wealth in recent years came from a partnership with a vodka brand, according to Forbes.
What are the allegations against Combs?
Combs, 55, was arrested in September in connection with what federal authorities described as a yearslong scheme to sexually abuse and exploit women. He was charged with a racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation for purposes of prostitution, federal prosecutors said.
Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District accused Combs of coercing and forcing women into elaborate, drug-fueled “freak offs” with male sex workers that he arranged, directed and recorded.
Combs has also been named as a defendant in lawsuits Buzbee filed on behalf of more than 100 accusers from across the U.S.
Combs, who is being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center without bail, pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, and his lawyers have denied the allegations in the lawsuits.
“As his legal team has said before, Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process,” his legal representatives said in a statement Sunday. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor.”
