On this particular day.
We're gonna start with the whole jay Z thing, because I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm pissed off. I'm pretty pissed off at a lot of people. I'm pissed off at some folks in the public. I'm pissed off for some folks in my own damn family. I'm pissed off at folks on my staff. I'm pissed off at everybody. Okay, because I don't like to be misconstrued. It kind of gets on my last damn nerves. So we're gonna get started by touching on this subject and attacking it with
the level of candor and clarity that I like. Okay, so there's no mimicking or muttering behind closed doors. All right, We're going to get started with the jay Z headlines, obviously for all of you who didn't know was sleeping.
Under a rock.
He was named in a lawsuit earlier this week alongside Sewan Diddy Coombs. The suit accuses both men of raping a thirteen year old girl more than twenty years ago. Jay Z came out swinging in his defense, calling out the attorney Tony Busby, who reportedly approached jay Z with a demand letter before attaching his name in the Diddy suit. Jay Z even called on Buzzby to file a criminal complaint. Here's the statement from jay Z and the immediate aftermath
of the news breaking quote. These allegations are so heinous in nature that I employ you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one. Whomever would commit such a crime against the minor should be locked away. Would you not agree these alleged victims would deserve real justice.
If that were the case. End quote.
In the aftermath of the many have wondered what impact the allegations would have on jay Z and his businesses. His company, Rock Nation has a partnership deal with the National Football League to produce the Super Bowl half Tom shil Here's what Commissioner Roger Goodell of the NFL had to say this week when asked about the suit.
Quote.
We are aware of the civil allegations and jay Z's really strong response to that. We know obviously that litigation is happening, but from our standpoint, our relationship is not changing with them, including our preparations for the next Super Bowl.
End quote. One could easily.
Surmize that saying innocence until proven guilty. But we won't even go there. We won't even go there, and any interest to full disclosure. When I say family, I'm not talking about immediate family. You talk about cousins and aunts and people like that. You're talking about people who you consider family. You're talking about people that you work with every day, colleagues and all of this other stuff.
Right, I have tremendous people that work for me.
I'm very proud of myself, and even though I'm getting the ass a lot of times when especially when they get on my last damn nerves as they have done today. Okay, in the end, I want to preface my comments about them and anybody who.
Thinks like them, some of them.
I want to preface my comments by saying, I know they're doing it to look out for me, and I appreciate it. But I can appreciate you looking out for me and still be annoyed as shit at you. Because That's where I'm going here, And the reason why I'm going in this direction, ladies and gentlemen, is because I want you to understand something. When I spoke about jay Z and I saw my comments all over social media, and I saw it everywhere. You didn't hear me I
had knowledge of the case. You didn't hear me saying I had knowledge of who Jane Doe is. You didn't hear me say that I knew a sentilla of what the hell these allegations entail. Other than what all of you know, I don't know anything. I'm not espousing innocence
or guilt from a literal perspective. But what I'm saying to you, to all of yours in America, in the Baya and Abu Dhabi, where I just came from, to Africa, to England and France, and everywhere in between, what I'm saying to you is this, If you're known somebody for twenty five years, do you not have the right to say I've known that person for twenty five years. I can't see that. I can't see that happening. Do you know how I would feel? I have somebody that works
for me, Mama Rashan. I got my man Galen that I've known for twenty five years, both of them, twenty twenty five years. I've got people in the industry that are my friends and my kind, not just my colleagues and temporaries.
My friends they've known me for decades. Steven A.
Smith gets accused of rape. Y'all got nothing to say nothing. You're just gonna sit there and have nothing to say, Just gonna let me hang out there. If you believe in your heart, damn, I've known her for twenty five years. I can't imagine him being guilty of such a thing. Nobody's gonna say that. Nobody. There's nobody in this world that you say that about. If that's your answer, I feel sorry for you, because that means you don't believe
in anybody. You don't have a heart and a soul enough inside of you to imagine that somebody's core decency is just too much to think that they would do something like that.
That is a generic statement. That is not impuning.
The alleged accuser, the accuser. That is not impuning even the lawyer. We certainly wouldn't impune the courts. We wouldn't do that. But I would hope that if somebody knows you for twenty five years and you consider them a friend, that you can say.
I can't I can't imagine that. I can never see them doing something like that. I don't believe it.
You literally have people scurrying in this industry and advising other people. It's not just me, it's a whole bunch other people. Oh, don't say anything. Don't say anything. Oh, you can't say that. I can't say I know nothing. I'm not casting the supurses on anybody. I'm just telling you. The person that I have known for twenty five years.
That I have seen.
Around young ladies is not a person I could ever imagine doing something like that.
I can't say that because that's all I said.
Anything else to go any further would be irresponsible, It would be stupid.
And I don't believe I'm either. So when people come and they want.
You to be so ultra ultra, ultra careful, I understand the careful part.
I understand it.
But shouldn't you be careful enough to actually listen to my words? You see, this is the same platform where I was raked through the colds for months.
Because I was accused of lumping.
Donald Trump and criminality in the black community. When I was asked a question about his direct supporters and how they felt about his assertions that there was relatability, that is the question I was answering. It didn't stop the NAACP from opening their mouth. It didn't stop colleagues and contemporary from opening their mouth. I had friends that I've known for decades that opened.
Their mouth.
And just jumped on the bandwagon along with everybody.
Else and forgot who I was.
How you think I feel about them now? Because all you have to do is listen to what I said and say, Yo, that's not what he said. Maybe he should have said something differently, or maybe he's wrong. We'll talk about it, but the casters versus on them. Why do you think I get pissed off when I see people on podcasts and stuff like that.
Talking shit all the time. It's never with people that don't know me, and if you're an enemy like a.
Couple of people are, because it's just a couple, is really just one that makes up a couple. But I ain't gonna go there today. Outside of that, I don't sweat it.
You have a right to your opinion whoever you are.
Just contextualize it accurately and stick to the actual issue, as opposed to using something to branch.
Out and castigate people's characters.
My sympathy and my empathy is extreme when it comes to anybody that has been raped. Women are obviously far more often victims of such a heinous crime than men. I have friends who are Muslims, who are Christians, who are Jewish, who are Catholic.
Hell I even know a couple of atheists.
And the people that I know, when it comes to issues of rape, they consider that tantamount murder.
It to rape a woman is to kill her, to kill a part of her. There is nothing outside of literally taking her life.
That is what you have done to her. It's just that blood is still circulating through our body and she's still able to breathe, but she's dead. It should never be condoned ever, and anybody who's guilty of that, at the very least should be.
Thrown under the damn jail. Fine.
Outside of that, if somebody is accused and they adamantly deny it, and you believe their character is incapable of such a thing, it's not you okaying such a heinous act, it's you saying that act is so heinous. I don't believe that person is capable of that, based on the person that I've known for twenty five years. And if I were ever the found to be wrong, I'd be sick. To my stomach, as we all should be simple. Forget jay Z for a second. I've got plenty of First.
I got cast. I grew up with my man Cardell, my man Mark, Polly.
Spank Ski, Boris, the cast that I went to school with, the casts that I grew up with.
You come to me and tell me, and remember, I grew up in Hollis Queens. I grew up around drug dealers and drug users and yes, murderous, there's a.
Few cats that I grew up with. They in jail are dead.
So you don't vouch for everybody in terms of what you believe. But what you can say is those who you do feel that way about, you can never imagine them doing that because you never consider them a friend.
If you could imagine them doing that, that's all. That's all. That's all I wanted to say about it, nothing else.
I don't understand why that's controversial when I know that thing, I wasn't there. I have no idea who to accuse it, I don't know anything. All I was saying is that I know the guy for twenty five years. It's hard for me to imagine he could ever be guilt. Not that guy that I've been around, I can't imagine it. That's all, nothing more than that, nothing more