Talib Kweli filed a lawsuit against the women’s website Jezebel, which published an article about his Twitter suspension in 2020.
According to court documents obtained by Pitchfork and The Daily Beast, the Black Star member accuses Jezebel of slandering him. He claims he lost jobs after the site ran a story titled “Talib Kweli’s Harassment Campaign Shows How Unprotected Black Women Are Online and Off.”
The veteran rapper insists he never harassed anyone despite his actions getting him suspended from Twitter. His lawsuit alleges Jezebel “caused negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
The lawsuit names writer Ashley Reese, Jezebel and the website’s parent company G/O Media as defendants. Talib Kweli says the story caused him to go into a depressive state and feel “discomfort around certain women due to being targeted.”
“On August 4, 2020, the article that G/O Media published for Jezebel downplayed Kweli’s facts,” he argues. “Instead, the magazine sided with Maya Moody and her opinions and turned it into an article slandering Talib Kweli. With over 30 paragraphs directed towards Talib Kweli, The publication used the name ‘Talib Kweli’ 100 times. The magazine took advantage of Talib and used him as a guinea pig to clarify how black men treat black women; meanwhile, the plaintiff never harassed anyone; he was defending himself and his family.”
The lawsuit seeks $300,000 in damages. Jezebel stands by its reporting and says the case has “no merit.” Ashley Reese, who wrote the story, no longer works for the website.
