What Happens to Famous Black Men Following Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Allegations?
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The Jonathan Majors saga that has (kinda) gripped the nation for almost a year is stretching out longer than expected: His domestic violence sentencing was pushed to April 8 from Feb. 6 as his lawyers continue to work to get the guilty verdict overturned.
A couple days following the postponement, the New York Times released a story in which two other women accused Majors of physical and emotional abuse. That, combined with a terribly timed ABC interview about the issue, could prove detrimental to what most people believed would be a sentence that doesn’t involve jail time.
Alas, Majors’ career as he knew it is toast: He lost his lucrative Marvel gig, his film “Magazine Dreams” was dropped from a release schedule and a U.S. Army commercial featuring him was shelved very quickly following his March 2023 arrest. However, there could be a glimmer of hope, as Majors was seen last weekend allegedly bulking up for a new role.
It got us wondering about how the careers of other Black celebrities accused of or charged with domestic violence or sexual abuse have fared following their allegations or convictions. Spoiler alert: You’ll might be a little surprised – or not – at how easily some of these men have had it…
Diddy
Before Cassie blew everything to pieces, Diddy was a borderline billionaire who had the world at his feet and more famous friends than we could list in this piece.
His reputation is now in the toilet and the hits keep on coming: He fielded a sexual harassment lawsuit from a male producer on his most recent album and has been at the center of salacious sexual rumors involving Usher and Meek Mill.
Diddy likely can’t do much of anything career-related for a good minute: His famous Star Island parties are likely shut down until further notice and he’d better not attempt anything in which he asks folks for money for a good while.
John Singleton
Probably didn’t know about this one, eh? In 1999, the “Boyz N The Hood” director was charged with a misdemeanor after allegedly repeatedly punching his ex-girlfriend, choking her and leaving her with bruises – he apparently only stopped when his daughter pleaded for him to do so. The court ordered him to shoot a film on domestic violence – though if it exists, we can’t find it.
Tyra Banks spoke about being physically and emotionally abused by a boyfriend in a 2006 interview – she never confirmed, but most are convinced her abuser was her ex Singleton. He even made headlines for lewd and inappropriate behavior during an interview with The Root in 2017.
Singleton died of a heart attack in 2019, early into production of his beloved final television project “Snowfall” and before #MeToo had the opportunity to hem him up. His beloved oeuvre and lower behind-the-camera profile likely protected him.
Nelly
Another who went under the radar for years. Nelly was arrested and charged with the second-degree rape of a 22-year-old college student in October 2017. He denied it, and she dropped the case, suing him later for sexual assault and defamation, to which he countersued. They settled the following year.
Included in that civil suit were allegations from two other unidentified women in England who claimed that Nelly forcefully groped and attempted to kiss them.
Decades past his early 2000s prime, Nelly has participated in a Verzuz battle, received a BET Lifetime Achievement Award, was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” and has a Burger King endorsement deal. He’s recently received a lot of sweetheart treatment for his renewed relationship with Ashanti, who is pregnant with their first child.
Dr. Dre
When Dre beat Dee Barnes in 1991 badly enough that she’s still experiencing chronic pain more than three decades later, it would’ve ended his career immediately if social media were a thing.
Dre assaulted Barnes for doing her journalistic due diligence by interviewing both N.W.A. and Ice Cube, who were beefed out at the time, for her “Pump it Up” show segment. He acknowledged the assault very passively in his documentary “The Defiant Ones” but didn’t mention Barnes by name. Unsurprisingly, the incident was completely left out of the 2015 “Straight Outta Compton” biopic.
Dre remains a lauded Hip-Hop legend, and the Grammys named the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award after him. Barnes has a few things to say about it.
Charlamagne Tha God
Even as his profile grows and he embraces his role as a pundit for the upcoming presidential election, Lenard McKelvey continues to weather 20-plus-year-old allegations.
Charlamagne was sued in 2023 for sexual assault, battery and defamation of character for allegedly sexually assaulting Jessica Reid at a 2001 party. He has maintained his innocence, using his various platforms to besmirch Reid’s character (hence the defamation) and insisted that the rape kit administered to Reid at the time came back absolving him.
Reid has stayed the course, remaining as vocal and litigious as possible, while Charlamagne has worked largely behind the scenes to keep things quiet. However, nothing about these allegations have slowed his career a beat…at least visibly.
Trey Songz
I just wrote about this dude last month. In case you missed it, Songz is probably the worst and most prolific alleged sexual assault offender in R&B who has yet to get his just legal desserts.
On Feb. 23, a 2015 case in which he allegedly assaulted two women at a party was dropped without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled again at some point. Methinks it’s just a matter of time…
Chris Brown
Brown might be the most successful working pop/R&B star with a domestic violence asterisk hanging over his career.
Fifteen years ago last month, Brown got in a physical altercation with his then-girlfriend Rihanna that left her battered and bruised up…damage that we all saw. It was the early days of Twitter and social media “cancelation,” but Brown was persona non grata for a little while.
Brown will never fully escape the specter of battering America’s Black Sweetheart, as folks will always remind the world what he did even with every smaller infraction. Just a twinge of humility might help his cause.
Floyd Mayweather
Mayweather managed to duck and dodge the consequences of numerous domestic violence allegations against him on his way to completing an undefeated pro boxing career. The masses who dropped millions to watch his fights handily disregarded the fact that Mayweather did real jail time, in 2011, after pleading guilty to battery domestic violence.
Why did his last professional fight – against Conor McGregor in 2017 —rake in more than $600 million? Could be the systematic destruction of incriminating photos, according to Deadspin? If an entire city is dedicated to the money one man brings in, the conspiracy theories aren’t so crazy.
Russell Simmons
The legendary Def Jam founder has such a long and still-growing list of sexual assault accusers that dude just got on a plane and flew out to Bali – the other side of the planet.
Simmons has been in the Indonesian country since 2018, maintaining his innocence even as his immediate family members have publicly slammed him for all the things. Meanwhile, we’re still trying to figure out what the hell Usher was thinking putting so much of his good will in danger by being seen in a photo with Simmons in 2024.
Bill Cosby and R. Kelly
See y’all in 25 years to never.
