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Rapper Medhane has denied the sexual assault allegations that have been made against him on social media, but acknowledged “problematic behaviour”.
The Brooklyn artist took to Twitter to dispute the claims after a thread on the hiphopheads subreddit put together social media posts that have been archived documenting the accusations from multiple women against Medhane.
This also includes messages from his musical collaborators MIKE and Mavi which deny any support for him.
Medhane released a statement yesterday (July 28) suggesting that the sexual encounter that led to these allegations is being mischaracterised.
He said: “Rape is reprehensible and unforgivable. I am deeply pained by these allegations. Our protection comes from speaking the truth and making it known. I had a sexual relationship with a woman, and spoke poorly of her to another person.
“I acknowledge that this is problematic behaviour and have since attempted to make amends with this young woman to no avail. After her tweet in which she called me a rapist, I reached out to her to try to understand how I made her feel and what I could do to mend the hurt. She didn’t respond.
— Medhane (AFB) (@mehdonny) July 28, 2020
“With the tweets and retweets by individuals of this accusation, I must respond even though to do so puts me in the position of saying a young woman is misrepresenting a sexual encounter.
“Speaking poorly of a woman after you have sex with her is wrong and I accept the repercussions of that behaviour, as it is indeed emotionally abusive. I am learning from this experience and I will continue to offer a space to communicate to my accuser and her family in attempts to bring healing in a holistic way. Peace”.
This comes after a recent Instagram story from the account @badwisdomfromtito which read: “dear women: stay away from @medhonny he out here forcing himself onto women + he is manipulative and his bars don’t even hit.”
A follow-up post from the same user, who self-identified as David Cabueñas, continued: “The last post isn’t mine, but I know multiple people who have experienced sexual assault and manipulation from him. It’s not my story to tell but I can vouch that there is a pattern with this man.”
The account later shared screengrabs of messages allegedly from Medhane asking Mavi to help him diffuse an incident with a person they both know.
When the allegations against Medhane came to light on social media, Mavi tweeted on Sunday (July 26): “dms open. not tryna breach the survivors’ privacy. also i talked about the whole thing on twitter 3wk ago check my replies.”
Mavi was referring to a tweet from earlier this month when he tweeted: “if all ur relationships w women include u inflicting harm and/or dissatisfaction w how that is ‘handled’ u don’t get to make deep ruminations on their inner nature.”
if all ur relationships w women include u inflicting harm and/or dissatisfaction w how that is ‘handled’ u don’t get to make deep ruminations on their inner nature
— mavi (@mavi4mayor) July 7, 2020
dms open. not tryna breach the survivors’ privacy. also i talked about the whole thing on twitter 3wk ago check my replies
— mavi (@mavi4mayor) July 26, 2020
cap! i ain’t make no public nor private moves w bro since and only chose not to get involved because my lack of familiarity w both of them, and the city and I pressed bro to make it right and move different
— mavi (@mavi4mayor) July 7, 2020
In one of several replies, he elaborated: “cap! i ain’t make no public nor private moves w bro since and only chose not to get involved because my lack of familiarity w both of them, and the city and I pressed bro to make it right and move different.”
MIKE responded to the situation in his own Instagram story, writing: “I can understand how it may seem on social media that n****s is complacent in this culture of toxic and dangerous spaces but in real life I’ve disconnected and held accountable anybody that I’ve known to be an abuser.
“I do not want to be apart of a future that consists of this type of behaviour and I’m not trying to protect it either. I don’t understand or care about rap politics or the image that comes with it, I care about people.
“A lot of these n****s brag about their situations with women but are never up front about the dirt that they do, which is why a majority of the time I be @ HOME, by myself. I also understand that with the platform I have, that there’s more work I have to do to change the condition of this.
“I don’t want to push people who may have been hurt by these people away and I don’t want to be associated with these people and allow more abusers into whatever communities I am apart of.
— santiago
(@ie_santiago) July 26, 2020
“On some compassionate shit anything I centre my energy & heart into has to be based on love, care, and hopefully result in more clarity. I’m not the best at using my voice on social media but I want to get better at articulating how I feel and what I stand for.
“This is where I stand in life and want to let people know if they stand for something different than I, then I rather not be in any type of proximity to them, especially if they don’t have any concern in holding themselves accountable or realising they did something wrong.
“Also, any interaction I’ve had with medhane since I was notified about the situation has been holding him accountable and letting him know he’s responsible for hurting this woman;; and I think anybody that loved or cared for him or has love and care for people should do the same.”
NME has reached out to Medhane’s representatives for additional comment.
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