The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

292: Breaking Down Jay-Z’s PR Strategy In His Statement Denying Allegations

• Molly McPherson

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Is Jay-Z truly a victim? Or is this a masterful PR strategy?
This episode analyzes Jay-Z’s bold statement denying recent allegations and the strategy behind his fiery words. Hear how Jay-Z frames the accusations as absurd and meritless while directly aiming at attorney Tony Buzbee in a battle of wits and egos. It also looks at Beyonce’s PR strategy and speculates on how the couple might handle high-profile events like the Grammys. The episode includes exclusive clips from Molly’s recent interview with Access Hollywood. 

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Speaker 1:

First and foremost, this was a statement that said he is denying all the accusations. It was bold, it was fiery and he thought it was absurd and idiotic. He wanted to frame it as something that had no merit whatsoever.

Speaker 2:

The next part of this is he actually took aim at the other attorney and very specific jobs.

Speaker 1:

Hey there, welcome back to the PR Breakdown. I'm your host, molly McPherson, and if you can't tell, this week we are going to break down Jay-Z's PR strategy in his statement, where he denies the allegations from a civil lawsuit that was amended to include his name, with the original person tied to the lawsuit, and that would be Sean Diddy Combs. If you spend any time on Instagram, youtube or TikTok, there have been a lot of rumors and rumblings out there that Jay-Z was going to be tied into this entire Diddy mess. In fact, the attorney who filed the civil lawsuit against Jay-Z had a press conference back in October. Many powerful names will come out and that attorney delivered because Jay-Z was one of those names.

Speaker 1:

Now for the podcast. I'm going to do something different. I'm going to use two pieces of content to compile the podcast. I want to pull pieces from a Forbescom article that I wrote on Monday morning about Jay-Z's statement, inspired by a text that I received on Sunday evening from an Access Hollywood producer who I have worked with a number of times in the past. But when she's texting me on a Sunday night, I thought, hmm, this must be a big story, and it definitely was. It was Jay-Z being named in this lawsuit. That meant the next morning I would have to wake up and do an interview with Access Hollywood, which is fine. I certainly don't mind doing it. It's a great opportunity. Love working with Lauren, this producer. But it meant that I had to get ready and be camera ready, which changes the flow of my morning when you know you have to be on the air. But I also knew that I needed to write an article about his statement, especially if I was going to be on Access Hollywood. I had to put the two together, and so why not take two pieces of content and throw them in the podcast as well? So I'm going to read excerpts from the article. Then I'm also going to add clips from this interview. Now. Lauren shared the interview with me last night and as I was watching it I thought this is different. Like where's Mario Lopez? Why am I hearing Lauren's voice? And then I realized what she was sending me was the full tape of our interview. That's the first time they've ever done that. So it's an extended interview. So I'm just going to use clips from the interview and I'm going to put them in the podcast.

Speaker 1:

So let's jump in now to the statement from Jay-Z. I have a link in the show notes to the tweet from Roc Nation. Lauren told me that Jay-Z posted the statement originally to his account on X but then quickly deleted it and then left it on Roc Nation. I said right away yeah, I think so, based on the statement. Jay-z definitely had a heavy hand in the statement. He may have written the entire thing and perhaps it was only vetted by his lawyer or by his team. I would assume if something went up on a personal account and then came down, probably put it up there himself and perhaps legal counsel or someone else told him no, put that down, because we don't want to drive all the traffic to your personal account, let's just drive it to your business account, rock Nation. So I think that was good counsel. I won't read the entire statement in the sum, but I will read the parts as I tie in clips from this interview and then also what I wrote in Forbes.

Speaker 1:

So first, jay-z's PR strategy Bold, fiery, calculated. Jay-z did not hold back in this statement. This was not a lawyer-approved statement whatsoever. It was a unfiltered counterpunch that was meant to discredit the lawsuit. He also wanted to take direct aim at Tony Busby, the attorney who filed it. He wanted to flip the narrative. He wanted it to be about Jay-Z the victim, not Jay-Z the perpetrator. So, breaking down the different strategies that I saw within this statement, the first piece of it was the no nonsense denial I wrote in the article. Jay-z didn't mince words. He set the tone with direct and uncompromising language, calling the allegations absurd and labeling the lawsuit a blackmail attempt. This wasn't a passive denial. It was a flat-out rejection meant to show confidence and to make the accusation seem baseless. So defending himself was definitely part of the plan, but really the objective underneath was to do a full attack and reshape the narrative around him, and that's the second strategy I saw.

Speaker 1:

This isn't just a legal battle for Jay-Z, it's also a battle of wits and ego. In the statement, jay-z made a point to direct a lot of the accusation and lobs at the attorney, tony Busby. What Jay-Z wanted to do was poke at him, get under his skin. He made fun of Busby's former active duty service, you know, poking at him as a former Marine, stating that Marines wouldn't act this way. He also went so far as to call him an ambulance chaser, but also to make fun of his wardrobe. When it's a clash of two egos. It's not surprising that Jay-Z is going to throw some jabs in there to get under his skin. It was attacking the attorney, tony Busby. Busby is a personal injury attorney out of Houston. He is the person behind the 120 lawsuits against Sean Diddy Combs. He amended one of those lawsuits against Sean Combs and added Jay-Z. This attorney did come out and say that there would be powerful names coming from these lawsuits and he absolutely delivered when he named Jay-Z Now Tony Busby. He is an attorney who understands the press, he is media savvy and he understands Internet culture. He understands how to sway public opinion and that's why Jay-Z, I think, is threatened by this guy.

Speaker 1:

Like listen to this language from Jay-Z in the statement quote my lawyer received a blackmail attempt called a demand letter from a quote lawyer named Tony Busby. What he had calculated was the nature of these allegations and the public scrutiny would make me want to settle. No, sir, it had the opposite effect. It made me want to expose you for the fraud you are in a very all caps public fashion. So no, I will not give you all caps, one red penny, banger, banger. Here's more. I have no idea how you have come to be such a deplorable human, mr Busby. Big words considering what the allegations are against this 13-year-old and all the other victims. But I promise you I have seen your kind many times over I'm more than prepared to deal with your type. You claim to be a Marine. Marines are known for their valor. You have neither honor nor dignity.

Speaker 1:

Now, I thought this was so interesting. I feel like it's very Aaron Sorkin-esque writing. I can picture Jay-Z like sitting in the stand a la Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson. You can handle the truth, it's so personal. But here we have two egos that are clashing. Tony Busby is coming in hard and so is Jay-Z, and Jay-Z is trying to pin him down.

Speaker 1:

Another strategy for Jay-Z challenging the accuser. Now Jay-Z doesn't flat out say the accuser's lying, but he tries to poke holes in the credibility of Busby's motives. Jay-z is not going to say anything to the victim, especially if what the victim says is true. Jay-z is not going to say anything to the victim, especially if what the victim says is true. Jay-z is not going to go, you know, at the Jane Doe. Instead he's going straight for Busby and he said quote whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away. Would you not agree? End quote. And I thought that's interesting to hype all that drama without mentioning the fact that it's not even a criminal case. It's a civil case.

Speaker 1:

So this is the part of the statement where Jay-Z starts to reveal, I think, his mindset, and the mindset of a defensive person is a person who's protecting their guilt. Everything about this statement says he's guilty and that he's hiding. Because there's certain markers of a statement that is revealing truth it's whenever there is blame, whenever there is a boldness that shouldn't be there or outweighs whatever the accusations are. Because imagine how you would react if someone accused you of this and you were innocent. I mean, think about that. These are incredible, heinous allegations.

Speaker 1:

Jay-z's right, the allegations are heinous. But if it wasn't true and someone labeled this against you, would you scream and yell and attack the attorney? I mean, it seems reasonable, right? Or would you have more of a feeling like where you're just shaking your head and saying have more of a feeling like where you're just shaking your head and saying what are you talking about? There is no truth to any of this whatsoever. None, I wasn't there. I can prove that I wasn't there. I had nothing to do with this. It's crazy right Like that's what probably an innocent person would do, but it's often the guilty who bring in emotion and irrational thinking and writing into these statements. He keeps going after the lawyer and the next strategy was humanizing himself.

Speaker 2:

Then he goes into kind of humanizing himself, and now this is where he brings up. He brings up his family. So talk to me about that.

Speaker 1:

In a fiery statement specifically with these types of allegations, it's not surprising that Jay-Z would choose to humanize himself, and the quickest way to do that for Jay-Z is to bring in his family, namely his wife Beyonce, who carries a lot of star power with her as well. There are a lot of people on social media who are not happy about the fact that Jay-Z brought in his wife Beyonce and their children, blue Ivy and the twins Rumi and Sir. Jay-z did that to bring in Beyonce's star power, to add that protective layer, but wanted to be relatable by mentioning the kids and and made a point of saying you know it was an attempt for people to feel sorry for him and his family. These are words from the statement quote my only heartbreak is for my family. My wife and I will have to sit our children down, one of whom is at the age where her friends will surely see the press and ask questions about the nature of these claims and explain the cruelty and greed of people. Do you think that's what Blue Ivy's friends are thinking? How greedy the lawyer is? No, this has been buzzing around social media for a long, long time. I guarantee you Blue Ivy's friends and Blue Ivy's friend's parents have been talking about this plenty.

Speaker 1:

Okay, back to the statement. I mourn yet another loss of innocence. Children should not have to endure such at their young age. It is unfair to have to try to understand inexplicable degrees of malice meant to destroy families and human spirit. Isn't that interesting? Malice meant to destroy families and human spirit. Isn't that interesting when Jay-Z talks about the heartbreak for his family and that he and Beyonce are going to have to sit the children down?

Speaker 1:

You know, talk to Blue Ivy. You're going to talk to her. You're going to talk to your daughter about the lawyer, what the lawyer's doing. You mean his job coming after guilty people. You're not going to talk about the fact that your father's, you know. You're not going to talk about the fact that someone that your parents have been tied to for a long time will probably be in prison for a long time, like the rest of his life, being charged with 120 civil lawsuits. Who's currently in prison for what he's done to women. You're not going to talk about any of that. But you're going to talk about a lawyer. He misses the mark here by a mile. This is the most unrelatable part of his entire statement.

Speaker 2:

Do you think that she might be handling this a little bit more like how we're seeing Trisha on Garth and staying silent? What do you think that you're going to see here? What?

Speaker 1:

Beyonce does from a strategic public relations point of view is really up to Beyonce herself, because, yes, on the one hand, she is the wife of Jay-Z and when a spouse is facing legal trouble, certainly it's going to impact the wife's brand. However, there's a lot of subtle accusations out there as well. What did Beyonce know? When did she know it? Does she know anything at all? So Beyonce not only has to look at the reputational risks of speaking out, but also the potential legal risks of coming out and saying something that could implicate her or her husband, jay-z. And finally, the strategy that is as weak as bringing in his family Okay, and not to mention bringing in Beyonce. She has subtly and not so subtly referenced Jay-Z's infidelity and treatment of her through her music, the album Lemonade. She referenced what he did to her and the infidelity, and plenty of social media users are pointing it out. And Jay-Z came out in a Vogue article and admitted that he cheated on Beyonce. None of this is surprising, I don't think, to anyone, but for him to leverage the family against that again makes no sense whatsoever. So tying that into the last strategy that I'm noticing at least, that I mentioned in this article and that is playing the victim. Jay-z positions himself as the real victim, which is so incredibly off the mark when you think about what the accusation is. The girl who's now in her 30s was 13 years old when and is alleging that Jay-Z and Sean Combs sexually assaulted her after feeding her drugs through a drink. Feeding her drugs through a drink. So he's trying to separate himself clearly from the charges doesn't even come close to it but also trying to separate himself from the target, which he views as a celebrity, like they're only coming after him because he's a celebrity. So he is describing himself as a quote young man who made it out of the projects of Brooklyn, and he added this, saying quote we don't play these types of games. We have very strict codes and honors. So, again, sounding very much like he's straight out of an Aaron Sorkin script, he's sending perhaps a subtle threat, I don't know like someone who grew up in a part of Brooklyn and you don't want to mess with him. Also describing himself as a young man. He's 56 years old. He's not a young man and he also has a net worth of $2.5 billion. That is so incredibly out of sync with reality. Most celebrities do not have $2.5 billion. So he's correct. He has separated himself from other celebrities. He's even a bigger celebrity. He has separated himself from other celebrities. He's even a bigger celebrity and he's married to a huge celebrity. The two of them together are icons. So those last two parts do not play well at all.

Speaker 1:

So will it all pay off? Well, I soft stepped it a little in the Forbes article. I'll admit that, like I didn't want to come in hard and accuse a guy of being guilty, I just wanted to point out the strategies that he was using, and this statement is anything but subtle. He is not sticking to a careful, polished, lawyer-approved statement. It is more of a hodgepodge kitchen sink. I'm going to throw everything in it so no one will believe these charges. I have to get this off my back.

Speaker 1:

But all in all, me personally, I don't think it works. There are far too many red flags in this statement. That points to someone who is trying to hide guilt, deflect guilt Within the words of a statement, or even if you hear the statement, if it's on video, if there's a bold denial, defiant denial, mixed with blame, it's often shielding guilt. You don't have to scratch too far into the surface there to find that guilt, and I don't have any doubt. I don't have any doubt that this is going to stick to Jay-Z and it's going to drag Beyonce into all of it as well. And even Lauren, the producer with Access Hollywood. She wrote to me again and you know she had asked me. You know what is going to happen when Jay-Z and Beyonce have to make a public appearance. What about the Grammys? What about movie premieres? And I said, oh, this guy's not hiding from anything, you are definitely going to see them. 24 hours later, ding there, he is there. She is next to her mother, ms Tina Knowles, and Blue Ivy as well. So extending.

Speaker 2:

How do we look at this play in the long term for both Jay-Z and Beyonce through that, Because obviously Beyonce is very big for Grammys too.

Speaker 1:

When there is a celebrity crisis, I mean certainly they are not as sure-footed in their claims. However, based on his statement, it is likely that Jay-Z is going to be very bold over the next few months. No one really knows if Jay-Z and Beyonce will show up at the Grammys. Certainly, if the statement is any indication, jay-z is taking a very bold approach to his persona right now, so it's likely that they probably will appear. They may not make any statements, they won't talk to any reporters, but they want to show likely a united front, and also a very strong one. He is denying all of these claims, so he's denying it now and he'll likely deny it in February at the Grammys.

Speaker 2:

Bold question Is all of this going to work? The statement that he's made, how is all this going to play out? Is he done, at least in court of public opinion right now?

Speaker 1:

Public opinion is fluid. It comes and goes based on what social media is saying and based on what the press is saying, but I think for Jay-Z and for Beyonce, the most important court is a legal one. Jay-z's name is tied to Sean Combs' name. However, the Sean Combs brand is more of the bad boy, whereas Jay-Z and Beyonce have separated themselves in their celebrity to be more of a principled and respected couple. It's a waiting game to determine if Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce will be penalized for this civil court case, but certainly likely there will be a pause in any other accolade or award bestowed on the couple until the legal case is finished. In a celebrity public relations crisis, what typically happens is the talent is separated from the reputation. In some cases, an artist might still go on to sell albums because they have hardcore fans who still want to support them. However, for the institutions and the organizations out there that have to worry about their own reputations, it's likely that they will not align themselves with the couple until the legal court case is finished. So thanks for listening to this week.

Speaker 1:

On the podcast, as a reminder, you can find the article I wrote for Forbes about Jay-Z.

Speaker 1:

I have a link in the show notes, but I encourage you to head over to Forbescom slash sites, slash Molly McPherson, and you can see all my articles there and you can even follow me, so you can get an email every time I write a new article. And if you found this episode insightful, don't forget to subscribe or leave a review and share it with anyone who is as obsessed with these PR strategies as we are. So you can also follow me on TikTok. As long as that's around, oh my gosh, I think it's going to go away. This is the first time I'm actually saying I think it's going to go away. I'll be posting on there a lot more before it shuts down and you can also follow me on TikTok. I don't want it to go away, but I don't know. I don't know, but I am always posting updates on the latest PR moves and celebrity stunts. I want to thank you for listening and I hope to have you back here next week. Bye for now.

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