Rapper Andre Roxx, who earlier this week posted a photo of his penis online to dispel a TMZ report that he had cut his penis off, is now ready to discuss the national conversation about his penis.
Roxx, who’s affiliated with hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan via membership in Killa Beez, took time out of his Friday to post a video on Facebook (clothed, this time) to reflect on the topic.
“What I want everybody to realize is that I didn’t try to start a national conversation about my penis,” Roxx, whose real name is Marques Andre Johnson, said in the video, adding that there are much bigger issues than his penis to talk about, such as President Donald Trump and the troubling wave of police violence against African-Americans.
“These are all issues that I have tried to bring up throughout my career, and I would rather be having a national conversation about that,” Roxx asserted. “But since I’m forced into a situation where we’re having a national conversation about my penis, which is ridiculous … let’s start with the premise that it is still attached and it is still intact.”
Since a report that Roxx’s penis had been cut off was published three years ago, the rapper said, he has been subjected to humiliations such as “people attacking me on the subway trying to pull my pants down, or walking into the grocery store to buy food for my family and having crowds of people ridicule me.”
Roxx also asserted that the report ruined his ability to work in rap and “severely financially damaged me.”
“Put yourself in my position,” Roxx said of his decision to publish a photo of his penis on Facebook and Twitter. “What would you do to clear your name?”
Roxx added that “there was no pornographic intention” in posting a picture of his penis online, and that he only hoped to clear his name.
“I would appreciate you all understanding that I am a human being, and as such I don’t want to live with this hanging over my head for the rest of my life,” Roxx said, days after publishing a picture of his penis.
Roxx sued TMZ Productions and others in March 2016, alleging that an April 2014 report claimed that Johnson “was rushed to the hospital early Wednesday after he cut off his penis and then jumped off a second story balcony.”
However, the libel suit contended, the rapper who committed the act of self-mutilation was actually another rapper affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan, Christ Bearer, who later said he was proud of the decision to cut off his own penis.
On Wednesday, a judge dismissed the complaint, saying that the complaint should fall under Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations, which limits libel claims to a one-year window.
After which, Roxx posted a photo of his penis online.
“Case dismissed on a Technicality huh? OK so I guess there is no way I can maintain my dignity AND clear my name, so fuck it. Here’s what you’ve all been waiting to see,” Roxx wrote. “Do me a favor and screen shot this post and send it to TMZ, BET, USA Today and all the other news outlets that decided to fight me for 3 years rather than simply issuing a retraction and clearing my name, and ask them why they couldn’t just operate under the principals of basic human decency and clear the name that they destroyed.”
The rapper also posted his phone number, writing, “since the media claimed last time that they had such a problem getting a hold of me to get my side of the story, MY F-KING CELL PHONE NUMBER IS [redacted].”
Watch Roxx make his case in the video.