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Common's "BE" Album Release Party

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Jaguar Wright is a Philly-based singer who came up with The Roots in the early 2000s. She most famously sang backup for Jay-Z’s MTV Unplugged in 2002. Now, with the passing of Roots member Malik B, she has come out with some very serious claims about the Neo-Soul scene of the late 90s. Less importantly, she said that there was ghostwriting within the crew, which a lot of people are focusing on, but the real story is the allegations of sexual assault, namely with Common.

On Monday, August 3rd, a video of the singer telling all in an Instagram live video began to surface around the internet. In the interview she makes these shocking claims:

“God damn Common. Next thing I know, we go to bed and he’s like, ‘C’mon Jag.’ I’m like ‘No, no, no. I’m tired n***a. I was on the stage all night. I want to lay down.’ I laid down with my clothes on. I’m a rape survivor. I know how to buy myself a little time,”

Wright went on to say that Common allegedly forced himself on her:

“The next thing I know I’m waking up in the morning and I feel something poking in my face and s**t,” she said. “I open my mouth and this n***a tried to stick his d**k in my mouth while I’m asleep. Lonnie f**king Lynn, Rashid, Common — whatever the f**k you want to call yourself. That’s why I stopped f**king with him, because n***a if you gonna try to stick your d**k in my mouth while I’m asleep, there ain’t nothing you won’t do.”

She shared some shocking dirt on Talib Kweli too, who has been dragged recently by the media for his continuous harassment towards black women on Twitter:

“F**king Talib Kweli used to come to Black Lily in New York and hide out in the green room when we were getting changed, especially me, to watch me get dressed and undressed before I got on stage,” she said. “And then wait for nobody to be looking to sneak out. … I been holding all this s**t too, trying to make all you crazy backpack motherf**kers look good.”

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Dropping Knowledge & Facts #nuffsaid💯

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Prior to the Instagram live interview, Jaguar revealed more shocking details about The Roots members in an Instagram video posted to her account on July 31st. The 43-year- old attempted to hold back tears as she recounted her emotional experience watching Malik battle through his drug addiction. Allegedly, members from The Roots looked down on him because of it and mistreated him. In the video she exclaims:

“I’ve been carrying around 20 years of lies for someone else’s benefit and not for my own,” she said. “The lies that I’ve been carrying are to my own detriment. They have not been to help me nor have they helped anyone else … They’ve only helped a certain small group of people. I’m gonna say it right now — Phrenology, that song ‘Water,’ I had a problem when it was recorded in the studio and I definitely got a problem with it now.”

She continues on to say:

“How do you go from singing ‘never do what they do’ to sitting there lightweight throwing your brother under the bus on a record to make money, to make it seem like it was heartfelt? How many times did you write him off? How many times did you not want to deal with him? But you wanna write a song about it? Was you out there in them streets? Or was you worried about wearing Polo Ralph Lauren? Was you worried about wearing designer clothes? I don’t wanna hear nothing from nobody that ain’t really step in.”

The story truly gets even more bizarre by the minute. In another video post to social media, Jaguar Wright claims that The Roots members allegedly witnessed R. Kelly and his driver recruiting kids from local middle and high schools.

“You know how responsible I feel for the women I let get hurt because I didn’t say nothing,” said Wright. “I know how grimy these n***s is, I know how thirsty they are

[..]

Look at R. Kelly, The Roots was around when that n*** was sending his driver around to go get girls from what was the middle school—They brought ’em to the studio. They brought ’em to Larry Gold’s studio and I was told to mind my f****** business if I wanted to keep my career.  A member of The Roots told me that, ‘That ain’t none of your business. That man makes people millionaires.'” 

This is all bad and all pretty horrific. These accusations at least need to be addressed. Also, it’s even more shady that the day after Wright dropped these videos, Common’s relationship with Tiffany Haddish was revealed. Is this coincidence or shrewd, calloused PR?

The internet has a lot of thoughts and speculation. Hit the flip and stay tuned for more developments as they happen.

“.
@jaguarwright
answered every “What happened to (fill in a dope woman MC)Thinking face” question I ever had.

Details might differ but I suspect the answers go something like:

1. Exploited for labor and sex.
2. Discarded when didn’t play ball.
3. “Loyalty” weaponized to keep them silent.”

“I believe what Jaguar Wright said about Common and Talib, band members being underpaid by The Roots is trash but believable, I think sl*t shaming Jill Scott is unnecessary and calling Erykah jealous is just petty, but I understand she’s in a lot of pain.”

“Tiffany Haddish confirming her relationship with Common the morning after Jaguar Wright spoke out about her alleged abuse from Common seems suspect to me.

And the fact that it’s the only thing mass trending on social and not her allegations confirms such for me.”

“Let me find out that the biggest uproar to come out of this whole Jaguar Wright thing is people being upset at the possibility that BT had ghostwriters. I’m seeing more people (Men) worked up about that than her stories of being sexually violated.

Typical.”

“We went to bed seeing Common trending on Twitter after being accused of sexual assault by Jaguar Wright and then wake up to the “news” that Common is dating Tiffany Haddish. I am guessing this is not a coincidence..?”

“Praying grace and protection over Jaguar Wright. She could very well be *the* tipping point for hip-hop’s overdue #MeToo movement, and I really pray she’s safe and remains unharmed.”

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“I believe Jaguar Wright.

I hope more people in media talk about the varied nuances of what she shared, because it’s more than ghostwriting allegations and allegations against Common.”

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