Jay-Z Claims Dismissed Rape Case Resulted in $20 Million Loss in Income

Jay-Z has spoken out in court about feeling like he had a “gun to his head” because of the now-dismissed lawsuit that attorney Tony Buzbee filed against him.

The rap legend filed a declaration on Feb. 10 against Buzbee in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that the Texas-based lawyer aimed to purposefully inflict emotional distress on him by filing a lawsuit from a Jane Doe who alleged that she was raped by Diddy and Jay-Z in 2000 when she was 13 years old. The filing also stated that Jay-Z's Roc Nation lost out on contracts that would have earned him income totaling "$20 million per year."

In the declaration, Jay-Z said that Buzbee intentionally filed the complaint just before the premiere of Mufasa: The Lion King — which his daughter Blue Ivy stars in — so that he could “put me in the position of having to choose between supporting my daughter or hiding to avoid the negative press.”

“I was harshly criticized by others for accompanying my daughter to the premiere of her movie a day after Mr. Buzbee filed the Jane Doe lawsuit against me,” Jay-Z said in the filing, according to Deadline. “Media outlets reported that Disney was hesitant over my attendance at the premiere because of the accusations.”

Jay-Z also alleged in the declaration that Buzbee’s lawsuit cost him $20 million in lost income.

“Mr. Buzbee’s actions undermined my relationship, and my company Roc Nation’s relationship, with other businesses in the sports and entertainment space,” the filing states. “We have agreements to produce entertainment programs for certain sporting events. After Mr. Buzbee filed the lawsuit, the media reported that other businesses could end their deals with Roc Nation, and forced one to speak out and address whether these false allegations would end our business relationship.

“Immediately after Mr. Buzbee went public with his false accusations, my company Roc Nation also lost other contracts in the sports and entertainment space that would have generated revenues of approximately $20 million per year,” the filing continues.

Stephen A. Smith recently spoke out about Jay-Z’s filing on an episode of Stephen A. Smith show in which he criticized the rapper’s close friends who decided not to speak out in his behalf. “Most of us would have let our lawyers handle this, we would have shut up and stood quiet,” he said. “And to the people that have smiled in Jay-Z’s face, supposed to be his friends, where are y’all at?”

“If y’all ever handle some stuff with me the way that some of these people handled stuff with Jay-Z, y’all can kiss my ass and you go to hell,” Smith continued. “Because at the very least somebody should be able to say, ‘I’ve known Stephen A. for 20, 25, 30, 40 years, nah I can’t see him doing that.’”

Smith then expressed that Jay-Z made sure to defend himself. “You just gonna go silent and leave him hanging like that?” Smith ranted. “Ain’t like he was silent. Ain’t like he was hiding and leaving others to talk for him. He spoke and said, ‘I’m innocent this isn’t true,’ and nobody could stand up and say, ‘Nath that brother that I know, I couldn’t see that.”