N.O.R.E. Sued for Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Carmen Bryan

UPDATE (Sept. 11):

N.O.R.E. has released the following statement through his attorney, Leonard F. Lesser, in response to Carmen Bryan's sexual assault allegations.

“The allegations by Ms. Bryan about invented interactions with Mr. Santiago from nearly three decades ago are entirely false.

It should be noted that Ms. Bryan has a long history of making salacious and contested claims about public figures. This includes a 2006 'tell-all' book where she provided excruciating detail about her personal vendettas and sexual encounters with celebrities. Yet nowhere in this 'tell-all' (or her 2018 book, Life After Child Support: When The Checks Stop Coming) did she mention Mr. Santiago or anything resembling this alleged incident.

We will defend Mr. Santiago from this legally groundless lawsuit and look forward to exposing Ms. Bryan’s fabrications in court as we clear Mr. Santiago’s good name.”

ORIGINAL STORY (Sept. 9):

N.O.R.E. has reportedly been sued for allegedly sexually assaulting Carmen Bryan, the mother of Nas' daughter, 27 years ago.

On Wednesday (Sept. 9), Bryan's attorneys filed a 20-page complaint against the rapper-podcaster, real name Victor Santiago, in New York, Rolling Stone reports. Bryan claims N.O.R.E. forced himself upon her at a packed New York nightclub in May of 1999 when he was promoting his album Melvin Flint - Da Hustler.

The suit claims an intoxicated N.O.R.E. “committed an act of nonconsensual digital penetration" on Bryan despite her pleas for him to stop, and he had to be pulled off of her by other clubgoers. Bryan claims she fled the club and was followed by N.O.R.E., who continued to make crude comments until he realized that she was Nas' child's mother and apologized. Bryan says N.O.R.E. apologized again weeks later at a Father's Day event and birthday party for Nas' daughter.

Bryan claims she mostly stayed silent about the incident, but told Jay-Z, with whom she had an on-and-off relationship, and asked him not to get involved. Cassie Ventura's 2023 lawsuit against Diddy prompted Bryan to take legal action. According to the suit, she told N.O.R.E. about the forthcoming lawsuit in March in the hopes of settling the matter privately, but he denied knowing her.

In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, Bryan’s attorney Marjorie Mesidor said: “No woman signs up to be assaulted. The assertion that an assault is excusable—or simply did not happen—because a perpetrator failed to recognize his victim strips women of their fundamental humanity. Ms. Bryan is coming forward not only to demand accountability for the lasting trauma and public humiliation inflicted upon her, but to challenge the culture of entitlement that treats women’s bodies as collateral damage.”

Bryan is seeking compensatory damages in addition to damages for emotional distress and mental anguish.

XXL has reached out to N.O.R.E. for comment.