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  • 2018-02-02 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Jay-Z Filmed Punching a 12-Year-Old Female Fan? (en)
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  • A video purportedly showing Jay-Z punching a young girl gets passed around the internet from time to time, in an apparent attempt to smear the musician. When Jay-Z performed a concert to benefit Hillary Clinton in November 2016, for instance, this 3-second clip was shared along with the dubious claim that it showed the musician striking an underage girl at the rally. The clip was circulated a few months later with similar claims after Jay-Z criticized President Trump for his alleged shithole remark about African countries. It was also shared in previous years as if it showed Jay-Z punching a 12-year-old girl for trying to hug him or slapping an underage girl for taking his picture: [video mp4=https://www.snopes.com/uploads/2018/02/jay-z.mp4][/video] This footage is real, but the claims frequently attached to it seem to be made up out of whole cloth. The websites and social media accounts sharing this video frequently post it as if they were privy to specific details about the encounter (such as the age of the girl or the reason for the altercation), yet information about where and when this incident occurred is almost always neglected. The provided details also change with each posting: Is the girl 12? Is she a teenager? Did she try to hug Jay-Z or take his picture? Whatever the situation, it's difficult to verify based solely on the images in this 3-second clip. Of course, that's problematic as we never actually get a good look at the victim in this video, and its limited runtime provides little to no context about the encounter. When we searched for more information about this clip, we found that the person in the video was an adult, not a child, that they were an old friend and employee, not a fan, and that all parties involved said that the altercation was friendly in nature. This clip first appeared in a 2000 documentary called Backstage about Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life Tour, but it didn't start creating controversy until it was picked up by music gossip web sites in 2004. Again, the footage was shared with sensational claims about what it showed, yet provided little in the way of context: Shortly after this video went viral in 2004, Jay-Z addressed the controversy and explained that the woman in the footage was actually his good friend music executive Chaka Pilgrim, who is currently the president of Roc Nation Records, and that they were just playing. Pilgrim and director Chris Fiore backed up Jay-Z's story, with Fiore adding that the moment was poorly edited and left out footage of Pilgrim and Jay-Z smiling and hugging after the altercation: We reached out to Fiore for more information about the clip and he reiterated that it was cut just before Jay-Z and Chaka hugged and laughed about the incident. He also added that the claim that the video showed an underage girl was disturbing since Chaka was Jay Z's business manager at the time: Gossip columnists Joanna Molloy and George Rush provided more details in their book Scandal: A Memoir: It should also be noted that this clip originated in a documentary about Jay-Z and that was co-produced (according to IMDb) by Chaka Pilgrim.; Although the exact details of this encounter are still unclear (was the incident staged or not?), it certainly doesn't show Jay-Z punching a 12-year-old girl. (en)
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