Afrika Bambaataa has been accused of sexual abuse once again. Solo, a member of the French rap collective Assassin, claims an incident occurred with Bambaataa when he was a teenager. According to Complex, in an interview with CliqueTV, Solo said he witnessed Bambaataa watching porn upon being asked to meet him.
“Being confronted by a predator, especially someone you admire, is very difficult because you admire this person,” Solo said of the traumatic experience that allegedly took place four decades ago. “Realizing they have flaws that lead to inappropriate behavior is a shock.”
He detailed, that he needed “personal development and support” to come to terms with the abuse, adding, “That was the hardest part.”
Bambaataa has been accused by multiple men of being their abuser since 2016 when Ronald “Bee-Stinger” Savage came forward, with allegations that the DJ molested him in 1980. Savage initially claimed he was just 15 years old when the “Planet Rock” artist began abusing him. Earlier this year, Savage backtracked the revelation.
“Bambaataa is not a pedophile and, in my eyes, he was doing something that was consensual with someone that he thought was of age,” explained Savage. “I wish, back in 2016, I remembered about the fake ID. I wasn’t thinking about that. I had forgot about that. I was in deep depression and still dealing with the trauma as an adult. I want to apologize for the little kid that didn’t know anybody and just wanted to be down with this thing called Hip-Hop so I pretended to be older.”
Afrika Bambaataa performs during the 2015 Guggenheim Young Collectors party supported by David Yurman at Guggenheim Museum on March 19, 2015 in New York City
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for David Yurman
In August 2024, DJ Funk Flex received an FCC complaint over comments he made about Afrika Bambaataa after the “Planet Rock” performer DJ’ed a set on Funkmaster Flex’s show while facing an open civil case for child sex trafficking. The advocacy organization Hip-Hop Stands with Survivors filed the complaint against New York radio station Hot 97 and the host for allowing the Zulu Nation founder to appear on the platform and spreading misinformation.
Leila Wills, co-founder of Hip-Hop Stands with Survivors says there are still 12 other people that have accused Taylor, despite Savage’s recanting.
In 2016, Bambaataa made the following statement:
“I never abused nobody. You know, it just sounds crazy to people to say that, hear ‘you abused me,’” adding, “You know my thing is you know all my people back then, you know the hundreds of people that been around me. If something like that happened, why you never went to none of them?”
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