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Lawsuit Claims Hip-Hop Artist Afrika Bambaataa Sexually Abused and Prostituted 12-Year-Old Boy

Hip-hop legend Afrika Bambaataa has been accused of sexually abusing and trafficking a 12-year-old boy in the 1990s, according to a lawsuit filed last month, reports say.

The suit, filed under New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act, alleges that Bambaataa, who was 34 at the time, sexually abused the child for four years, usually in his Bronx River home. The accuser says Bambaataa also prostituted him out to other men in exchange for money, according to Chicago’s Metropolis newspaper.

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“John Doe” claims that he began attending meetings of Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation at the Bronx River Community Center in 1991, when he was 12. He says he soon became a member of Bambaataa’s “security force.”

Bambaataa, whose real name is Lance Taylor, started the Zulu Nation in the 1980s by coopting the street gang called the Black Spades. While the group was still made up of petty criminals, Bambaataa began moving his attention from street activism to music.

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Bambaataa has been accused of sexual abuse several times. In 2016, political activist Ronald Savage came out and claimed he was only 15 when he was sexually abused the hip-hop star. The next year, rapper Izlam also accused Bambaataa of sexual abuse and added that members of Zulu Nation were threatening him. Izlam was shot and killed that year.

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