Now rap icon Jay-Z, whose original name was Shawn Carter, has mounted a legal offensive in Alabama, suing Houston attorney Tony Buzbee and his team for extortion conspiracy and defamation. The case originates from a since-dropped suit the woman, who goes only by the name Jane Doe, filed in New York in 2024, accusing Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her in 2000 when she was 13. Jay-Z wasn’t initially named, but his lawyers’ refusal to enter private mediation also brought him into the case.
Fast-forward to 2025: That first New York case was thrown out in February, but Jay-Z wasn’t going to let that be the end of it. Instead, he’s filed a new lawsuit in Alabama, directly aiming at Jane Doe and her attorneys, notably Tony Buzbee.
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The popular rapper and billionaire business mogul assumed his power. Celebrity shielded him from the consequences of his actions when he used his clout as the estranged husband of super celebrity Beyoncé to take revenge on lawyers who had the temerity to represent a less powerful man,” Buzbee’s lawyers alleged in the recently filed motion to dismiss. The filing describes the rapper as employing “scorched-earth litigation strategies” rather than attempting to negotiate in good faith.
“Rather than respond like other defendants have and accept Doe’s invitation to discuss a confidential settlement of her claims, Carter elected to engage in scorched earth litigation,” Buzbee attorney Matthew Jackson said. “He claimed extortion and emotional distress, and he dispatched investigators to bother Doe, her family and even our firm’s employees and clients.”
But the most attention-getting part of the filing may be Buzbee’s legal team weaponizing lyrics from Jay-Z. Noting Jay-Z’s argument that the abuse allegations maligned his name, Jackson referenced lyrics from the rapper’s 2000 chart-topping “Big Pimpin’.”
“You know I thug ‘em, f### ‘em, love ‘em, leave ‘em, ‘cause I don’t f#####’ need ‘em,” the filing quotes.
Suppose his lyrics are any indication that he brags about committing such acts. In that case, it is interesting to see how he and his team could suggest that allegations against him could have done him harm when they were not. The motion calls Jay-Z’s conspiracy claims a “legal fantasy” and contends that he has not met the legal bar to show malicious prosecution under New York law.
Making things more challenging is the jurisdictional question. Buzbee’s lawyers contend that the case shouldn’t even be heard in Alabama courts and that Jay-Z is venue-shopping to find standing ground.
The motion to dismiss has not yet been granted or denied by an Alabama court. But if the proceedings are anything like they’ve been thus far, we may get some more legal lyrics as well as headline-grabbing turns.
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