Earlier this year several men came forward with shocking claims they had been sexually molested as teens by Hip Hop pioneer and Zulu Nation founder Afrika Bambaataa [click here if you missed that].
From Thump
...two taped phone calls between Ronald [Bee-Stinger] Savage and a pair of top Zulu Nation lieutenants—including Mickey Bentson, a sometimes-road manager for rapper and TV star Ice-T—suggest that Savage was subjected to veiled threats, bullying, and attempts to get him to retract his accusations against the hip-hop icon and Zulu Nation leader.
"You damn hurt everybody in our whole organization, bro—and we would not expect that from you," Bentson says in a 22-minute, expletive-filled conversation with Savage, a recording of which was obtained by THUMP. "[If it was] anybody else [but you] we'd be like, 'Man, fuck that nigga.' We'd tear that nigga's head off. Stomp him the fuck out, B. For real, B. He'd be missing in action." Over the phone with THUMP, Bentson confirmed that it was him on the call to Savage.
According to Savage, 50, the heated call between him and Bentson occurred on March 30, a day after his appearance on The Star Chamber. Bentson flatly dismisses Savage's allegations, saying on the tape: "Anything a motherfucker did—he wanted to do it, man. Ain't nobody force nobody to do nothing, bro. Ain't nobody put no knife to their throat, didn't put no gun to their head—no one took no bat to their face. Niggas did what they wanted to do, man, because they wanted to do that."
Bentson, currently on the road with Ice-T for the rapper's touring "Art of Rap" festival, repeatedly accuses Savage of trying to harm the Zulu Nation in the recording.
"I'm 57 years old, man," Bentson says. "Bam is 60 years old, man. Y'all are tearing us apart with the bullshit. If this was something that was on your mind, this shit should have been out 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Why are we hurting the brand that we have, man? This is a brand, B."Read the full interview and phone transcripts here.
