Stephen A. Smith Calls Out Jay-Z's Friends for Staying Silent on Rape Lawsuit

Stephen A. Smith went off on Jay-Z’s friends for staying silent during the lawsuit he faced with Sean “Diddy” Combs over the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl.

Smith addressed Jay-Z’s associates angrily on The Stephen A. Smith Show when speaking about the case and how Jay-Z was the only one to speak on his own 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?” Smith asked at around the two-minute mark.

“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 reiterated that Jay-Z had to defend himself when others wouldn’t. “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.”

Last week, Jay-Z filed a declaration in Los Angeles court stating that attorney Tony Buzbee who represented the Jane Doe that alleged the rape happened in 2000 at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty, purposefully inflicted emotional when he filed the lawsuit.

"I felt that Mr. Buzbee was placing a gun to my head that I either bow to his demands or endure personal and financial ruin," said Jay-Z.

Additionally, the declaration also added that Buzbee intentionally filed the complaint right before the Mufasa: The Lion King movie premiere (that his daughter Blue Ivy stars in) “to put me in the position of having to choose between supporting my daughter or hiding to avoid the negative press.”

Buzbee’s lawsuit was filed last October and Jay-Z said that he had been in a “mental anguish” since then. The rapper also claimed that he lost $20 million in contracts because of the false allegations.

TMZ reports that in the documents that JayZ folded last week, Buzbee sent two “demand letters” in November. One was reportedly for a John Doe who claimed that the rapper sexually assaulted him in 2015 at a Beverly Hills party. Jay has reportedly called the allegation “false and ridiculous in every respect.”