N.O.R.E., the rapper and host of the popular podcast Drink Champs, has responded to a sexual assault lawsuit brought against him by Carmen Bryan, describing her claims as “invented interactions” that are “entirely false.”
The denial comes two days after Bryan filed a 20-page civil complaint against N.O.R.E., real name Victor Santiago, alleging the rapper was intoxicated when he forced himself on her in the middle of a packed Manhattan nightclub in 1999. According to the lawsuit, Santiago “physically overpowered” Bryan and “committed an act of non-consensual digital penetration,” all while ignoring her pleas for him to stop. The alleged assault only ended when other clubgoers reportedly pulled Santiago off Bryan.
Bryan, a known name in the New York hip-hop world in the Nineties and who shares a child with rapper Nas, claimed that on two separate occasions, Santiago apologized after realizing who she was. “It reinforced that Santiago understood he had crossed a line and sought to excuse his conduct only after recognizing who she was,” the complaint alleged.
In a statement posted on Santiago’s Instagram account on Friday, his attorney Leonard Lesser claimed that Bryan “had a history of making salacious and contested claims about public figures,” referring to her 2006 memoir It’s No Secret: From Nas to Jay-Z, from Seduction to Scandal–a Hip-Hop Helen of Troy Tells All.
“Nowhere in this ‘tell-all’ … did she mention Mr. Santiago or anything resembling this incident,” the lawyer said. “We will defend Mr. Santiago from this legally groundless lawsuit and look forward to exposing Ms. Bryan’s fabrications in court as we clear Mr. Santiago’s good name.”
In her complaint, Bryan, an entrepreneur who worked at Rush Management, said the “pervasive sexism, sexual objectification, and ‘misogynoir’” within the culture of hip-hop led her to stay publicly silent for more than 25 years. However, in private, Bryan claimed that she told Jay-Z, a trusted confidante and with whom she had a secret on-off relationship for years, about the alleged assault.
Jay-Z allegedly “threatened to confront Santiago personally,” but Bryan said she was able to persuade him not to get involved. (Representatives for Jay-Z did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
Bryan sued Santiago under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, and she is seeking compensatory damages as well as damages for emotional distress and mental anguish.
