The Sound of Silence: Why T.I. and Tiny’s Allegations Have Gone Unnoticed

Warning:  This blog post discusses allegations of sexual misconduct and assault levied against multiple individuals

 

In the last month, T.I. and his wife, “Tiny” (a member of R&B group Xscape) has been accused of various sexual misconduct/assault actions, including “forced drugging, kidnapping, rape, and intimidation” in at least Georgia and California by over 30 women, with some describing the experience to being in a sex cult.  While attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn has sent letters to the state attorney generals of California and Georgia requesting investigations be open, there has been no release to the public regarding charges being filed or an investigation opened.  While T.I. reportedly won’t return for Ant-Man 3 and production of their reality series “T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle” has been suspended, there hasn’t been a large amount of publicity regarding the allegations, especially considering the volume and magnitude of the allegations.

How have these allegations gone largely unnoticed?  There are a few potential theories that I expect some would argue.  Could there be more of a focus on Covid-19?  I doubt it as there was still a place in the news to discuss Morgan Wallen using a racial slur.  Could it be that people are getting tone deaf to accusations of any form of sexual misconduct or assault?  This might be the case with some allegations, but likely not ones that are this major.  Could it be that his previous legal issues and controversies (especially one where he discussed attending an annual check of his then 18-year-old daughter’s hymen checked back in 2019) made this less newsworthy or even surprising?  I even if it did, I would still expect there to be some sort of investigation if nothing else.  Rather, I think the most likely possibility is that these allegations have recently been outweighed by sexual harassment allegations surrounding New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

As of the end of the afternoon on March 9^th, Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment by 6 women and has also been accused of running a toxic environment, not to mention the nursing home Covid-19 count scandal he has also been involved with.  As a new individual accuses him of sexual harassment, more individuals have called for Cuomo to resign, which he consistently rejected (as a side note, I personally hoped he would resign after the first set of allegations due in part to my personal beliefs and since there was an investigation regarding the nursing home scandal).  While I would expect news about a major political figure would be bigger than that of musicians who aren’t necessarily among the biggest in the world, that shouldn’t mean that T.I. is practically ignored.

I understand that on live television, news outlets are constrained by time and have a limited amount of time to cover news story.  In this case, it would make sense that allegations towards Cuomo, who is the governor of a major state and had previously been praised for his role of handling the state during the pandemic prior to the nursing home investigation, would be a more newsworthy story than the allegations against T.I., especially since he is not in his commercial prime at this point and is not the most popular name in rap at this time.  Similarly, there are more news outlets that focus on political or governmental news than there are that focus on music news on television, so I would expect this focus on television.  Even when looking at online or print publications, they have to make a decision which to cover considering that they have limited staff and time.  Even with my blogs, I have to make a decision which topics I want to cover at each release since I can’t get to everything.  That said, it doesn’t have to be this way for the general public.

While the coverage of news in general is going to be binary, it does not have to be for public attention.  The public is more than capable of being aware of the ongoing allegations and controversies surrounding Cuomo while also being aware of a disturbing number of cases facing T.I and Tiny.  The fact that there has been silence from the attorneys contacted in California and Georgia is disturbing and unacceptable; it is one thing if they were to respond saying that they would take time to look into an investigation, but so far, they have appeared to be idle with the allegations.  While there is a limited number of resources dedicated towards this as well, not releasing any sort of statement is concerning given the magnitude of the allegations.  If true, this is clearly an elaborate plot from multiple serial offenders and, at the minimum, an investigation needs to be open if the states want to show they care at all about survivors of any sexual crime.

 

If you or anyone you know is impacted by any form of sexual violence, there are many places to get help.  From a nationwide standpoint, you can get help by visiting https://www.rainn.org/ or by calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.  If you have experienced any form of sexual harassment, abuse, or assault, remember that you are not alone and that you are so brave for making it as far as you have.