Lance “Un” Rivera claims Jay-Z was not responsible for his 1999 stabbing.
The former music executive shed light on that fateful night during a new interview with VladTV. Jay-Z was accused of stabbing Rivera in December 1999 at an album release party for Q-Tip’s Amplified LP. The incident took place at the now-closed Kit Kat Club in Times Square, and was allegedly over the bootlegging of Jay’s then-forthcoming third album Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter.
In October 2001, Jay pleaded guilty to a second-degree assault charge and was sentenced to three years of probation. However, according to Rivera, Hov wasn’t the one who stabbed him, though he won’t say who he believes did.
“What happened that night… I showed up to [the party] to support [Q-Tip]. Jay, a bunch of us is in there. I ended up getting surrounded by a bunch of people. It was probably 10 knives that I knew of, and I ended up getting stabbed at the Kit Kat Club,” Rivera recalled.
When asked if Hov stabbed him, Rivera said, “No. Jay-Z was not the guy that actually stabbed me that night.”
Rivera maintained that he and Jay did in fact have an emotional conversation that night, with the latter telling him that he “broke my heart.”
“Me and Jay-Z had a conversation right before I got hit in the head with a champagne bottle,” Rivera shared. “It was a brief conversation and I was looking at him like, ‘What are you talking about? You know you fucking the money up right now.’
“He just kept saying, ‘You broke my heart. You broke my heart.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? You’re buggin’ right now, bro. You getting ready to fuck up everything.’”
Rivera added, “I don’t know where people got Jay-Z stabbed me from because if anybody knows Jay-Z, Jay-Z’s a nice guy,” Un said. “He’s an artist, he’s a poet, he’s gifted and it’s never been his history. If JAY-Z had stabbed me, y’all wouldn’t have got The Black Album because through my whole history, I’m an eye-for-an-eye type of guy.”
Rivera's claim might not be breaking news to longtime rap aficionados. On the Jay-Z diss song "Ether," Nas memorably rapped about the incident, telling Jay, "And your man stabbed Un and made you take the blame."
Watch Rivera’s full conversation about his 1999 stabbing in the video up top.
