Podcaster and streamer DJ Akademiks is facing allegations of rape and defamation, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday. Akademiks, whose real name is Livingston Allen, has a podcast and video content that focuses on the music industry, and hip-hop news in particular.
Allen has gained a right-wing following in recent years, seemingly due to his support for Donald Trump and his conspiratorial attacks on Black women in the public eye, like Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and rapper Megan Thee Stallion. He’s managed to parlay his notoriety into massive online engagement that nets him interviews with well-known figures like Donald Trump Jr.
The new allegations against Allen, made by writer Fauziya Abashe, are laid out in a civil lawsuit filed in New Jersey, where Allen lives. Abashe claims in her lawsuit that things went awry after she was invited to Allen’s house one July night in 2022.
Abashe says Allen invited her over on July 16, but that she was greeted, drugged and raped on Allen’s pool deck by two men she didn’t expect to be there. Abashe claims she was given a drug that caused her to lose consciousness, and that she awoke early the next morning as Allen was “brutally raping her.”
Her suit claims the alleged rape by Allen’s friends was captured on surveillance footage and that Allen played the footage back for her. Abashe says in the suit that she recorded audio of Allen admitting to sexual intercourse with her and obtained a rape kit that contained traces of his spermicide.
Abashe’s lawsuit states that she went to police with her claims but “chose silence” until Allen spoke online about the incident. Her defamation allegation stems from Allen’s claim in a December 2023 video that he hadn’t had sex with Abashe. Instead, he said “she was getting trained by my two mens on my pool deck.”
The rape allegations are part of a civil case, meaning the burden of proof is significantly lower if her suit goes to trial than if Allen were charged with a crime.
Allen issued a denial on his video stream Tuesday, calling the allegations a “shakedown” and blaming them on his race, his popularity and alleged “ramifications” of his role in hyping up the beef between rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
Allen also gave this statement:
“My only comment should really be [that] whatever this is will be handled in court. Just know, according to the law and according to the police and according to all sanctioning governing authorities, Akademiks is an innocent man who has not ever been charged with anything of the sort that has to do with any deviancy or anything like that, has never been charged, will never be charged. That’s a fact.”
The above was not Allen’s only statement on the matter. He ended by offering a pretty grim threat to other folks in his industry: “Let me tell y’all this about everybody in the industry — I’mma tell y'all this right now: if Ak ever goes down, y’all [are] all going down with me. ‘Cuz I hold no secrets from anybody.”