assie Ventura is not the first survivor of hip-hop’s abuse. Unfortunately, she will not be the last. In the months since Ventura filed a against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for rape and abuse in November 2023, have come out against the hip-hop mogul with stories of alleged abuse and harm.
Ventura’s brutal account, coupled with surveillance released on May 17 by CNN of the singer being physically assaulted by Combs in 2016, has also reignited discussions about why hip-hop needs its own #MeToo movement. (Combs for his actions on the video, but denied all other allegations. On June 22, that Combs deleted all of his social media posts on Instagram, including his apology video to Ventura.
) Since Ventura’s initial filing against Combs, other people have come forward about the sexual and physical assault at the hands of other men in hip-hop. Musician and record producer The-Dream, for instance, was accused of sexual and physical assault by his former protege. (In a to , The-Dream said “These claims are untrue and defamatory.
”) But the pushback Ventura received by —like Akon, Uncle Luke, Slim Thug, and Stevie J, to name a few who chose to stand by Combs and discredit her claims— proved why, while Hollywood and other industries have broken some ground since the Harvey Weinstein allegations in 2017, a reckoning of gender violence has yet to transpire in the genre. It seems a culture of fear is governing hip-hop. And it’s about time we recognize it.
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