A few months before the civil suit, hip-hop pioneer Melle Mel told VladTV that “everyone knew” about the allegations against Taylor even before the four men came forward. Wills says that she’s spoken to other men alleging abuse by Taylor she contacted three of the initial accusers after she heard them on The Star Report in 2016, sought out one of them after hearing about him through others, and says 11 other men have come to her after she started Hip-Hop Stands With Survivors, including John Doe. The Universal Zulu Nation hasn’t responded to the 2021 lawsuit, and the plaintiff is currently waiting on a default judgment after signing an affidavit swearing by his original complaint. Turnstile Become First Rock Act to Join Rolling Loud Miami Lineup Bucano also shouted out the Zulu Nation during a November press conference about the museum’s plans to celebrate hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. Ronald Savage, who would later accuse Taylor of abuse, worked at the label. Bucano is not a Universal Zulu Nation member, but in 1986 formed Strong City Records with Taylor’s DJ and Zulu Nation member, Jazzy Jay. Thomas co-hosted SiriusXM radio show Zulubeatz with Taylor and has numerous pictures with Taylor out at events. But renovation stalled on the Armory, and the museum eventually became a part of a waterfront residential development called Bronx Point in The Bronx’s Highbridge neighborhood.įilings with the New York City attorney general, initiated in 2015, show that the original board for the museum consisted of three members: Rocky Bucano, his business partner Wesley Manjeet, and Universal Zulu Nation member Shawn “Cutman LG” Thomas. They partnered with Taylor to include an “international hip-hop museum” in the space, which the New York Post article reported on in 2014.

Four years prior, in 2012, developers Youngwoo & Associates sought to transform The Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory into a mixed-use facility. “Is it because I’m still being relevant today, trying to do things that help people all across the world, trying to start a hip-hop museum?”īack then, the project was in its infancy. “You need to ask the question, ‘Why now, and what is the hidden agenda behind this?’” Taylor said. He then appeared on The Ed Lover Show With Monie Love and questioned the motives of his accusers. Shortly after, Taylor released a statement claiming, “these allegations are baseless and are a cowardly attempt to tarnish my reputation and legacy in hip-hop at this time.

They are re-traumatizing survivors all the time with all that Zulu stuff.” Bucano has denied all ties to the Universal Zulu Nation. “We are going to stay on the elected officials to stop our public dollars from funding that museum, from the mayor to the Bronx Borough president to the state legislators and congress. “ Rocky Bucano to step down, because if they got a responsible person in there, then the Zulu Nation affiliation would go away automatically,” Wills tells Rolling Stone. Journalist Leila Wills, who co-founded the advocacy organization Hip-Hop Stands With Survivors, organized the demonstration to advocate for survivors of child sexual abuse, including the alleged survivors of The Universal Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa. Dozens of people gathered at City Hall in New York City on Monday as part of a demonstration calling for Rocky Bucano to step down as Executive Director, President and Chairman of the Universal Hip-Hop Museum (or UHHM) because of his alleged ties with the Universal Zulu Nation.

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