Rap Pioneer Afrika Bambaataa Sued for Sexual Abuse and Trafficking of a 12-Year-Old
Rap pioneer Afrika Bambaataa has been accused in New York of sexually abusing and sexually trafficking a minor from 1991 to 1995.
In a lawsuit obtained by TheWrap, filed under the New York Child Victims Act, Lance Taylor — known professionally as Afrika Bambaataa — began an alleged pattern of sexual abuse and sexual trafficking when a 12-year-old named as John Doe was let into a home gym in Taylor’s New York City apartment, where the rap star “would comment about Plaintiff’s muscular body and would touch Plaintiff on the shoulders, biceps, and torso.”
The lawsuit states further that Afrika Bambaataa would evenutally “inappropriately touch Plaintiff in his private areas,” behavior that led to viewing porn at Bambaataa’s apartment. There, he would also “encourage” the alleged victim to masturbate, the lawsuit says, which progressed to mutual masturbation and sodomy.
The lawsuit, which also lists Zulu Nation, Universal Zulu Nation, and XYZ Corp. as defendants, alleges the boy then “became a victim of sex trafficking as Defendant Taylor would transport Plaintiff to other locations and offer Plaintiff for sex to other adult men. During said encounters Defendant Taylor would watch as Plaintiff was sodomized by other adult men.”
The alleged victim “suffered physical injury, severe and permanent emotional distress, mental anguish, depression, and embarrassment,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff was prevented from obtaining the full enjoyment of life and has been unable to keep a steady job. As a result, Plaintiff has incurred loss of income and/or loss of earning capacity.”
Bambaataa founded the activist groups Zulu Nation and Universal Zulu Nation, which both parted ways with him in 2016 after other sexual abuse allegations surfaced in a memoir from one of the neighborhood “crate boys,” who helped DJs such as Bambaataa transport records to performances.
In a statement on the lawsuit to The Source, Zulu Nation said: “Nothing has changed since 2016 when these decades-ago accusations first surfaced. This is a personal matter for Afrika Bambaataa and his lawyers to deal with and has absolutely nothing to do with the 10-years long UZN-DOCA mission, programs, and projects which continue in the revolutionary legacy of both the Black Panther Party & the Young Lords Party to ‘Serve the People, Body & Soul.’”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.