Lance Rivera Says Jay-Z Was Not Behind His Stabbing in 1999

The record company executive Lance Rivera says it wasn’t Jay-Z who stabbed him in 1999.

Rivera sat down for a YouTube interview with DJ Vlad to talk about his career.

He was asked to recount the events that led to his stabbing at the Kit Kat Club in December 1999. The incident occurred after word in the rap industry made the rounds that the record executive was responsible for leaking and bootlegging Jay-Z’s third album “Vol 3…Life and Times of S. Carter” before it was released.

Rivera was stabbed with a knife at the club. At the time of the incident, Jay-Z and his entourage were also at the club, and the rapper was accused of the stabbing. The allegation culminated in a protracted two-year-long legal battle between the two. Jay-Z was sentenced to three years of probation.

“What happened that night…I showed up 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 said.

Rivera was then asked if it was Jay-Z who stabbed him.

“No. Jay-Z was not the guy that actually stabbed me that night,” he replied. He said Jay-Z kept screaming at him, “You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”

“Me and Jay-Z had a conversation right before I got hit in the head with a champagne bottle,” he detailed. “It was a brief conversation and I was looking at him like, ‘What are you talking about? You know you f**king the money up right now.'”

“I don’t know where people got Jay-Z stabbed me from because if anybody knows Jay-Z, Jay-Z’s a nice guy,” he attested. “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 explained.

Jay-Z turned himself into the Police the day after the incident took place. He faced 15 years in prison after he pleaded not guilty initially. However, later he retracted and pleaded guilty to third-degree assault charges and was sentenced to three years on probation.