The Brooklyn rapper Medhane has shared a message on Twitter denying sexual assault allegations circulating online. As Brooklyn Vegan points out, a thread on the hiphopheads subreddit Monday compiled archived social media posts documenting the accusations against Medhane, as well as messages from his musical collaborators MIKE and Mavi disavowing him.

A recent Instagram story from the account @badwisdomfromtito, self-identified as David Cabueñas, reads, “dear women: stay away from @medhonny he out here forcing himself onto women + he is manipulative and his bars don’t even hit.” A subsequent post from the same user reads, “The last post isn’t mine, but I know multiple people who have experienced sexual assault and manipulation from him. It’s not my story to tell but I can vouch that there is a pattern with this man.” The account later shared screenshots of text messages allegedly from Medhane asking Mavi to help him smooth over the situation with a mutual acquaintance.

Earlier this month Mavi tweeted, “if all ur relationships w women include u inflicting harm and/or dissatisfaction w how that is ‘handled’ u don’t get to make deep ruminations on their inner nature.” In one of several replies, he elaborated, “cap! i ain’t make no public nor private moves w bro since and only chose not to get involved because my lack of familiarity w both of them, and the city and I pressed bro to make it right and move different.” Sunday, when the allegations against Medhane began to circulate more widely, Mavi tweeted, “dms open. not tryna breach the survivors’ privacy. also i talked about the whole thing on twitter 3wk ago check my replies.”

As archived here, MIKE responded to the situation in an Instagram story of his own:

I can understand how it may seem on social media that niggas is complacent in this culture of toxic and dangerous spaces but in real life I’ve disconnected and held accountable anybody that I’ve known to be an abuser.

I do not want to be apart of a future that consists of this type of behavior and I’m not trying to protect it either. I don’t understand or care about rap politics or the image that comes with it, I care about people.

A lot of these niggas brag about their situations with women but are never up front about the dirt that they do, which is why a majority of the time I be @ HOME, by myself. I also understand that with the platform I have, that there’s more work I have to do to change the condition of this.

I don’t want to push people who may have been hurt by these people away and I don’t want to be associated with these people and allow more abusers into whatever communities I am apart of.

On some compassionate shit anything I center my energy & heart into has to be based on love, care, and hopefully result in more clarity. I’m not the best at using my voice on social media but I want to get better at articulating how I feel and what I stand for.

This is where I stand in life and want to let people know if they stand for something different than I, then I rather not be in any type of proximity to them, especially if they don’t have any concern in holding themselves accountable or realizing they did something wrong.

Also, any interaction I’ve had with medhane since I was notified about the situation has been holding him accountable and letting him know he’s responsible for hurting this woman;; and I think anybody that loved or cared for him or has love and care for people should do the same.

Now Medhane has weighed in with a message of his own. Medhane’s statement references a direct accusation of rape from his alleged victim and asserts that the sexual encounter that led to these allegations is being mischaracterized:

Rape is reprehensible and unforgivable.

I am deeply pained by these allegations. Our protection comes from speaking the truth and making it known.

I had a sexual relationship with a woman, and spoke poorly of her to another person.

I acknowledge that this is problematic behavior and have since attempted to make amends with this young woman to no avail.

After her tweet in which she called me a rapist, I reached out to her to try to understand how I made her feel and what I could do to mend the hurt. She didn’t respond.

With the tweets and retweets by individuals of this accusation, I must respond even though to do so puts me in the position of saying a young woman is misrepresenting a sexual encounter.

Speaking poorly of a woman after you have sex with her is wrong and I accept the repercussions of that behavior, as it is indeed emotionally abusive.

I am learning from this experience and I will continue to offer a space to communicate to my accuser and her family in attempts to bring healing in a holistic way.

Peace

Stereogum has reached out to Medhane’s representatives for additional comment.

If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual violence, please contact RAINN or call the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.