Lance ‘Un’ Rivera clears Jay-Z’s name 22 years after rapper pled guilty to 1999 stabbing

Lance “Un” Rivera has gone on record stating that Jay-Z did not stab him.

In 1999, the “Empire State of Mind” rapper pled guilty to third-degree assault of the former music executive and record producer. He was sentenced to three years of probation.

At the time, it was reported that Rivera had been stabbed in the stomach and shoulder after Jay-Z confronted him over rumours that Rivera had leaked his third album, Vol 3... Life and Times of S Carter, ahead of its release.

In a new interview with journalist DJ Vlad on his eponymous YouTube channel 22 years later, Rivera has contested the original accounts of the incident that occurred at the now-closed New York City Kit Kat Club.

“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,” Rivera said.

Asked if Jay-Z was “the one who actually stabbed” him, he responded: “Jay-Z was not the guy who actually stabbed me that night.”

Rivera confirmed that Jay-Z was there and that they had “had a conversation right before I got hit in the head with a champagne bottle”.

“It was a brief conversation and I was looking at him like, ‘What are you talking about? You know you f***ing the money up right now’,” he recalled.

“[Jay-Z] kept saying, ‘You broke my heart. You broke my heart.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? You bucking right now bro. You getting ready to f*** up everything.’”

Rivera admitted that he didn’t know why people came to the conclusion that Jay-Z had stabbed him “because if anybody knows Jay-Z, Jay-Z’s a nice guy. 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 gotten [the 2003 Jay-Z record] The Black Album because through my whole history, I’m an eye for an eye type of guy.”