Yesterday, we reported on the dark day of additional rape accusations that was had by Russell Simmons. The music industry giant and one of the founders of Def Jam was the subject of New York Times that outlined the experiences of sexual misconduct that four women suffered at the hands of Simmons between 1988 to 2014. Out of the four women, three of them accused Simmons of raping them.
Today, Billboard is reporting that the record exec has deactivated his Twitter account following these new allegations, although his Instagram account remains active. Earlier today, he posted an image with the hashtag #NotMe that featured a caption where began to "properly defend" himself against the accusations that have been levied against him. You can check out his full post below:
Drew Dixon, a former colleague of Simmons' at Def Jam, told the Times that he raped her at his Manhattan apartment in 1995. On top of that, he would also apparently engage in unseemly behavior that including sexually graphic phone calls, attempted kisses and exposing himself to her. She would later leave Def Jam because of the abuse.
“I didn’t want to cut off my one conduit to having any hope of a career,” Dixon said, “I thought if I could survive long enough to have a hit — a real bona fide hit with my name on it — I would move categories.”
The story is surely going to be one that hip-hop fans the world over will be keeping a close eye on in the days and weeks to come.