Did racial politics delay hip hop’s MeToo reckoning?

“All these big deviants are catching hell in 2024. It’s up for all of them. It don’t matter if you’re Diddy, or whoever…all lies will be exposed [sic],” the comedian Katt Williams confidently declared in a podcast with retired American football player Shannon Sharpe in January, discussing prominent rappers accused of sexual crimes.

So far this year, Williams has been vindicated. Following the uncovering of the Diddy sexual abuse scandal, fellow artists Kanye West and The-Dream have similarly been accused of rape and sex crimes in recent days. The emerging pattern is most obviously reminiscent of how 2017 allegations against Harvey Weinstein ignited the #MeToo phenomenon.