Jay-Z on his refusal to settle a sexual assault lawsuit: “I can’t do this, I’ll die” | Jay Z

Jay-Z spoke out about his recent sexual assault lawsuit in a new interview.

The lawsuit alleged that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped a 13-year-old girl at a party in 2000. Combs and Jay-Z denied all allegations after the lawsuit was filed in late 2024, and the case was voluntarily dismissed in February 2025.

“It was tough,” Jay-Z told GQ. “It was really hard. I felt so sad. We’re in a place now where it seems like the consequences aren’t being thought through enough. Because everything is so immediate, you know what I’m saying?”

The rapper continued: “I was angry. I haven’t been this angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger. Don’t put that on someone – that’s something you better be sure of.” [about]. It was like this. You had to be absolutely sure before you put that kind of thing on anyone.

In a lengthy four-hour conversation, Jay-Z explained why he chose to fight the lawsuit rather than settle with Jane Doe’s accuser.

“I cannot accept the settlement, it is not in my DNA,” he said. “First of all, I first had to tell my wife. Let’s back off. I know the weight this will bring on our family. I can’t do that. I will die.

“If I had settled…it would have been cheaper? Yes. Cheaper, faster, get on with your life. I knew what was coming. I wasn’t naive. I called – again, after my last name – my partners. And they were saying: ‘What do you need help with?’ “Don’t even worry.” On a phone call. Not even, “I have to go to the board with this.” It was a testament because people know me.”

The lawsuit alleged that an unnamed girl was drugged and raped by both Jay-Z and Combs at a party after the MTV Music Awards in 2000. Jay-Z criticized the assault allegations when they first surfaced in late 2024, calling them an “extortion attempt.” His lawyer, Alex Spiro, criticized the allegations as “patently false”, adding that they were based on an “impossible timeline”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Jay-Z addressed the feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Speaking about hip-hop culture, he said: “We love the excitement and I love the sparring, but in this day and age, there are so many negative things that come with it that you almost wish had never happened.

“I don’t know if it’s good for our growth to have the fallout, especially on social media,” the musician added. “It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s children into it. I don’t like it. I sound like the old man is wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing, in terms of dueling with music, by collaborating more than by taking the whole thing apart.”

Jay-Z also discussed what he called a right-wing anti-hip-hop agenda: “There’s clearly an agenda to silence voices in our society, a heavy right-wing agenda. And the culture happily plays in the name of this crazy stan culture thirst for something on the other side. We’re in a weird time.”

The rapper sat down for an interview with GQ magazine to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut album Reasonable Doubt. And this July, he will play two shows at New York’s Yankee Stadium dedicated to Reasonable Doubt and its follow-up, 2001’s The Blueprint.