Afrika Bambaataa Accused of Sexually Abusing a Teenager

Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa has been accused of sexually abusing a minor more than three decades ago, the New York Daily News reports. Ronald Savage, a Bronx activist and politician and former music industry executive, said Bambaataa molested him multiple times in 1980, when Savage was 15 years old. Savage told the Daily News he’s going public because he wants to extend New York’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse, which currently blocks criminal or civil charges after the victim turns 23 years old. Savage reportedly included the allegations against Bambaataa in a self-published 2014 memoir, Impulse, Urges and Fantasies: Life Is a Bag of Mixed Emotions, Vol. 1. He also spoke out about the claims in a recent interview with Star, a former Hot 97 and Power 105 DJ.

Savage told the Daily News: “I was just a child. Why did he take my innocence away? Why did he do this to me?”

Pitchfork has reached out to a representative for Bambaataa for comment. Vivian Kimi Tozaki, a lawyer for Bambaataa, issued the following statement last week, according to the Daily News: “Defamatory statements were published seeking to harm my client’s reputation so as to lower him in the estimation of the community while deterring others from associating or dealing with him. The statements show a reckless disregard for the truth, were published with knowledge of their falsity, and are being made by a lesser-known person seeking publicity.”

According to the Daily News, Savage said Bambaataa abused him on at least five occasions. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Savage was part of Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation crew, going by the name “Bee Stinger.”

Two “high-ranking Zulu Nation officials” allegedly called Savage recently and promised him “cash money,” according to the Daily News, which reviewed recordings of the discussions. Tozaki told the Daily News that Bambaataa was unaware of the talks. “Neither of the two men were given authority to speak on Bam’s behalf,” the lawyer said. (Savage told the Daily News he is not looking for monetary compensation from Bambaataa.)

The Daily News‘ video interview with Savage is below:

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