Stephen A. Smith has launched an passionate defense of his friend Jay-Z after the rapper was accused of raping a girl when she was just 13.

A woman who previously sued Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging she was raped at an awards show after-party in 2000, amended the lawsuit Sunday to claim that Jay-Z was also at the party and participated in the sexual assault.

The 24-time Grammy award winning rapper, producer and music mogul called the allegations ‘idiotic’ and ‘heinous in nature’.

Now Smith, who claims to have known Jay-Z for 25 years, insists there is ‘no way in hell’ he can believe the musician is guilty of such an offense.

‘I can’t believe for one second that he would ever be associated with an allegation like this,’ he said. ‘Rape? First of all, I wouldn’t believe that. Secondly, a 13-year-old? No.’

Smith continued: ‘Anybody who’s been around Jay-Z and knows him, has seen him come to the defense of the most helpless among us – the children.’

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Stephen A. Smith has spoken out after Jay-Z was accused of raping a girl when she was just 13

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The 24-time Grammy award winning rapper called the allegations ‘idiotic’ and ‘heinous’

Smith was speaking on the latest episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show. ‘If you can’t provide eyewitness evidence to refute the allegations levelled against anyone, it’s irresponsible to go over the airwaves and go any further than that,’ he said.

‘It’s not irresponsible to point out who a friend of mine is, somebody I’ve come to know and love and don’t believe for one second would be capable of such a thing. That’s not irresponsible, that’s love right there’

Smith has not spoken to Jay-Z since the allegations emerged but the ESPN host bemoaned how, in America, the presumption of innocence until proven guilty ‘has now changed’.

The Jay-Z I know is the Jay-Z that I’ve seen around teenagers and he doesn’t even want us playing the kind of music we listen to in hip hop. He made us turn it off,’ Smith continued.

‘That dude – who was in concert in 2004 performing alongside R. Kelly, who he grew to dislike a lot particularly because of the allegations levelled against him, who found things like that despicable and abhorrent.

Back in 2022, R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison for using his status to sexually abuse children and women.

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