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Talib Kweli is suing. The Brooklyn rapper has filed a lawsuit against Jezebel—a news and pop culture websits aimed at women—claiming a 2020 story from the outlet has caused him “emotional distress.”
Protect black women in more than just theory. I said what I said. Love you.
pic.twitter.com/4B0qN5k3mG
— Maya Angelique
(@moneyymaya) July 17, 2020
Jezebel itself shared the news that they were getting sued by the “Get By” rapper. Reportedly, Kweli is suing for “emotional distress” and has cited a story from 2020 titled “Talib Kweli’s Harassment Campaign Shows How Unprotected Black Women Are Online and Off.” The story recapped in detail the now infamous online dispute Kweli had with an activist named Maya Moody. The aftermath of their war of tweets was Kweli getting permanently suspended from Twitter, with many online giving the Brooklyn rapper the side eye. Twitter itself pointed to “harassment,” which Kweli still vehemently denies, as the reason for the suspension.
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On Thursday (August 4), Kweli filed his lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Jezebel’s parent company G/O Media, and also named the story’s author, Ashley Reese, as a defendant. Jezebel relayed that Kweli is claiming that its story caused him “negligent infliction of emotional distress” that caused him to go “into a depression state of loss of appetite, sleeplessness, edgy, anxiety, and discomfort around certain women.”
Interestingly, Kweli filed the lawsuit without the assistance of a lawyer, so he’ll essentially be representing himself.
So far there is no word about the lawsuit from Talib Kweli on his social media. Hip-Hop Wired reached out to Kweli for comment and we will update this story should he respond. He is reportedly seeking $300,000 in damages.
As for Jezebel, it’s standing by its reporting. “Jezebel’s article fairly reported on the controversy which led to the permanent suspension of Talib Kweli’s Twitter account,” reads its statement. “This suit, filed two years after the story was published, has no merit and the company will be seeking our attorneys fees pursuant to the protections afforded to the press to publish stories about matters of public interest like this one.”
Recently, Kweli teamed with Yasiin Bey to drop their Black Star duo’s long-awaited sophomore album, No Fear Of Time, via podcasting network Luminary.
