Verizon has ended its partnership with Akon after what FoxNews.com is calling the “simulated rape of a 15-year old girl.”
“This week the partnership
ended,” said a Verizon spokesman. “We have music
services on our cellphone service and we were promoting him as one of
the artists. The other part of the sponsorship was the Gwen Stefani tour, of which he was an opening act. We are no longer sponsoring the tour.”
Danah Alleyne, the girl in the video, said “I got carried away, I started
to dance as well, but I never thought it was going to be like that…I was shocked. My head was
hitting the floor.”
The girl admitted being let into the club despite being underaged.
This isn’t the first time a rapper has lost a record deal over controversy, as Ludacris‘ Pepsi endorsement was rescinded after comments made by Bill O’Reilly.
In what seems to be the new trend, yet another famous figure in hip hop was featured on a conservative television show. KRS-One was on Hannity & Colmes recently.
On using the “n word” occasionally but not “bitch” or “ho”:
“I don’t use the N word that much because I don’t need to; I have a bigger vocabulary. But I understand the meaning of the word in our community, so when I’m amongst my people, so we have a totally different understanding of a lot of these words we have a debate over.”
On Don Imus:
“I don’t feel that it is a difference. To be honest, I think it’s unfair the way Imus is being treated while Black Entertainment Television continues to put the programming it puts out.”