Nas has responded to allegations made by his ex-wife Kelis, saying: “I do not beat women.”
Singer Kelis alleged earlier this year that Nas had been physically abusive during their four-year marriage.
“Did he hit me? Mmhmm. Did I hit him back? Mmhmm. I’m not afraid to throw a punch, but I wouldn’t have started it,” she said.
Nas’s first public response came via seven Instagram posts in which he claimed Kelis had been abusive to him.
The pair divorced in 2009, with Kelis saying in April that she considered going public about the alleged abuse at the time – after seeing pictures of Rihanna’s face following an attack by Chris Brown.
“I remember so clearly, when the pictures came out with that whole thing that happened with her and Chris Brown, and the only way I can describe it was like Double Dutch.
“‘Do I jump in? Do I say it?’ Because I had bruises all over my body at that time,” she told Hollywood Unlocked.
“Seeing her, the way she looked, and then looking at myself, I was embarrassed,” Kelis said. “He knew it. He looked at me like, ‘Are you gonna do it?’.”
Nas said his response was the result of receiving a call from Essence Magazine “about my ex wife doing another sad fictitious story”.
“This is what your life has come to sis? Exploiting some people’s real struggle and pain… just to get at me… to get attention? Fame? Another fight against men?” he wrote in the first of the lengthy statements.
The 44-year-old has a son with Kelis, who Nas complained of being unable to see as frequently as he wished.
He went on to describe a “decade of dealing with very hostile behaviour and verbal abuse”, as well as mentioning “physical violent attacks”.
Addressing claims that he had been violent against Kelis, elsewhere in the statement he said: “I did not beat up my ex-wife. Stop.”
“Whenever one is constantly attacked the instinct is to restrain that person or defend yourself to prevent escalation.
“In hindsight now my advice to young men out there in a situation like that is to RUN at the very first sign of verbal abuse or physical.”
Nas, who’s one of the best-selling hip hop artists in history, also remembered the “good times”.
“I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. But I thought you was beautiful.
“You came into my life at a time I was grieving from my mom’s passing. You was a friend. Because of that I wanted to marry you,” he wrote, before apologising for not being “the most faithful husband”.
Kelis and Nas met in 2002 at an MTV Video Music Awards party. They married in 2005.
Four years later, while pregnant with their son Knight, Kelis filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Nas’s 2012 album Life Is Good featured the rapper sitting with his ex-wife’s distinctive green wedding dress draped over his knee.
See his post below:
