No, Those Felony Assault Charges Against Tory Lanez Were *Not* Dropped
By Madeline Smart
Image: Shutterstock
This story was updated on January 21, 2021.
Last year, the original Hot Girl, Megan Thee Stallion arguably had one of the most successful years of her career—and considering how brutal 2020 was, that’s a truly impressive feat. The 25-year-old Houston rapper not only had her first number-one singles with the “Savage” remix (featuring Beyoncé) and her feature on Cardi B’s “WAP,” but she also released her first studio album, Good News, and racked up plenty of well-deserved awards and titles (including earning four Grammy nominations, cleaning up at the BET Hip Hop Awards and being named rapper of the year by GQ and Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Apple Music Awards). And she also somehow found the time to perform on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel Live, write a powerful op-ed for the New York Times advocating for Black women and curate a Fashion Nova collection.
But amidst all of her professional success, there was one traumatic outlier that followed her for almost the entire second half of 2020: being shot, allegedly by fellow rapper and Brampton, Ont. native Tory Lanez.
This story hasn’t stopped adding to itself since the night of the shooting—mostly because Lanez won’t stop talking and the internet sucks—but it has also become a vehicle for larger conversations around racism, the protection of Black women (or the lack thereof), transphobia, misogyny and police brutality. The timeline has been pretty messy, so if you’ve had a hard time keeping it all straight, you’re not the only one. Ahead of Lanez’ next court date in February, here’s what has happened so far:
The Shooting
Early on the morning of July 12 police were called for a disturbance that involved Lanez, Megan and Megan’s now ex-best friend and former assistant Kelsey Nicole.
Originally, TMZ reported that Lanez had been arrested for having a concealed weapon inside a vehicle and Megan was taken to the hospital for cuts on her feet from broken glass.
A few days later on July 15, Megan posted a statement on her Instagram that clarified she had actually been shot. "On Sunday morning, I suffered gunshot wounds, as a result of a crime that was committed against me and done with the intention to physically harm me," she wrote. "I was never arrested, the police officers drove me to the hospital where I underwent surgery to remove the bullets. I'm incredibly grateful to be alive and that I'm expected to make a full recovery, but it was important for me to clarify the details about this traumatic night."
Lanez posted $35,000 bail and was released on July 16. He was also scheduled to appear in court on October 13.
The Memes
Internet trolls wasted zero time making memes out of the full-on trauma Megan had experienced. Celebrities even joined in on it, most notably 50 Cent, Draya Michelle and Cam’ron. Within hours of the news breaking, victim-blaming comments start circulating online—a classic move when women, especially Black women, experience violence.
One Twitter user wrote, “If you dated or hung around a better class of men then horrible things wouldn't happen to you. Black women are targets in this world but a lot of black women love to talk about toxic black guys but never talk about how they love toxic black guys."
Others turned Megan’s iconic “Hot Girl Summer” catch phrase into “Shot Girl Summer” or made faux movie promo posters about the shooting, one of which was shared by 50 Cent. He later apologized, saying he only did it because he didn’t think the situation was real because “it sounded so crazy.” (Cue eye roll.)
Michelle went so far as to compare Lanez and Megan (who were allegedly dating at the time of the shooting) to Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s tumultuous—and at times physically abusive—relationship on an episode of the podcast Wine & Weed. She basically said that she wished she had the type of love where her man would shoot her in the foot. (???) Not only did this completely invalidate the fact that Megan was shot and seriously wounded on top of being traumatized, it also implied she should be grateful to have such a “passionate love.” Absolutely not.
Michelle ended up apologizing when Megan indirectly called her an idiot on Twitter.
But soon, the comments turned into straight up transphobia. Meg had already been the focus of transphobic rumours about her gender based on her height and body type, but now memes started circulating that basically said Lanez shot her because he found out she was “really a man.” Rapper Cam’ron shared one of these posts on his Instagram.
Image: Now deleted from https://www.instagram.com/mr_camron/?hl=en
The entire shitstorm led to Megan speaking out on the reality of how Black women are treated in our society. She tweeted, “Black women are so unprotected & we hold so many things in to protect the feelings of others w/o considering our own. … I’m real life hurt and traumatized."
An article written by Sarah Osei on High Snobiety drew similarities between Meg’s statement and the famous Malcom X quote on Black women being the most the disrespected, unprotected and neglected people in America, writing, “The insensitive videos, dialogue, and memes created at the expense of Megan Thee Stallion reveal that what Malcolm X said in 1962 is still very much the case,” she wrote. “The lack of compassion and accountability in addressing the very real and very public trauma experienced by a Black woman is especially concerning in this climate.”
The Confirmation
On top of the memes making light of the shooting, Twitter users also began playing doctor to cast doubt on the reality of Megan’s injuries. Some people seemed to think that Megan couldn’t celebrate “WAP” hitting number one while being injured and traumatized, which then led to doubts over how she was able to film the music video—and rumours that the entire shooting had been a publicity stunt.
Unsurprisingly, Megan seemed to feel pressure to prove her injuries and trauma to the world. So, she took to Instagram Live to explain in graphic details that she was shot while walking away from Lanez and that she only got her stitches out two weeks before “WAP” hit number one. She even posted (now deleted) photos of her x-rays and stitches on Instagram.
Then, on August 20, Billboard released an article confirming that the Los Angeles District Attorney (LADA) was considering filing charges against Lanez for shooting Megan. Later that day, Megan officially named Lanez as the man who shot her for the first time.
In another Instagram Live, she said “Yes ... Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people going to these blogs lying. Stop lying. Why lie? I don’t understand.”
The Album
For most of the summer, Lanez was pretty quiet on the incident, aside from speaking up to defend his streaming numbers… which had plummeted after Megan publicly named him as the shooter in her Live. But as Megan made reference to on Instagram, there were a lot of people close to him outright denying his involvement in the shooting... despite him being charged with having a firearm and Megan being shot? (And that doesn’t even include his fanbase, who got in everyone’s mentions to passionately defend old Daystar.) Megan also revealed in her GQ profile that Lanez offered to pay her and Nicole to keep quiet when the police came the night of the shooting.
But on September 25, Lanez seemed to be ready to break his silence. That morning, he ominously tweeted that he was finally going to address the shooting later that night tweeting “To my fans… I’m sorry for my silence… but respectfully… I got time today… 9 PM PST."
Then he dropped an album.
No statement. No address. No explanation. Just a 17-track album that functioned as his defence plea, allowing him to take control of the narrative—and to call Megan a liar in crappy lyrics.
The lead track of the album Daystar was “Money Over Fallouts” in which he addressed the incident the most directly. One of the verses says, "Gotta see a couple questions: how the f--k you get shot in your foot, don't hit no bones or tendons? Megan people tryna frame me for a shootin'... Knowin' I ain't do it but I'm comin' at my truest.” The song intro also featured news clips about the shooting.
I can’t even begin to tackle how detrimental this move is for victims of abuse who decide to come forward. In a world where the default is to believe the accused and distrust the accuser and where Black women experience disproportionate rates of violence this career move is significantly damaging.
It’s also hypocritical. His album tries to preach that he’s all about protecting Black women while simultaneously tearing one down.
Shannon Merelo wrote for Jezebel about the situation, saying, “This has nothing to do with protection and everything to do with ego, and in the process, he is inflicting more abuse onto Megan, who had to endure months of people mocking her and disbelieving her story on social media. It was an example of the way Black women are systematically disbelieved by police officers, doctors, non-Black women of color, and Black men on a daily basis—even if they’re celebrities.”
The Charges
But it turns out the LADA wasn’t convinced either; on October 8, almost two weeks exactly after his album dropped, Lanez was charged with one count each of felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm, personal use of a firearm and carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle.
The next day, he tweeted, “the truth will come to light, a charge is not a conviction… If you have supported me or meg thru this, I genuinely appreciate you.” (Though why he decided to include Megan in that as if their supporters were of the same opinion is honestly beyond me.)
His original arraignment was scheduled for October 13, but it ended up being postponed to November 18. At that court date, he pled not guilty through his attorney. His bail was set at $190,000 and he was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Megan and refrain from making any type of contact with her. He was supposed to return to court on January 20, but according to DJ Akademics, his hearing was rescheduled due to U.S. President Joe Biden’s inauguration. (Outlets like The Source initially reported the charges had been dropped due to a clerical error on the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s site.) He’ll return to court in February. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 22 years and eight months in prison.
Lanez’ most recent proclamation of innocence happened on his Instagram Dec. 4. He replied to a comment asking if he had shot Megan saying “I realize that not every body heard me say 'no I did not' on my album... becuz they mistaked [sic] a black man expressing his innocence for insensitivity ... as if we ain't all fighting the same fight, as if exiling a successful man is the answer to a problem bigger than him ... you'll get more than u need to know when court resume."
What Happens Next?
I have complicated feelings about all of this. When rumours started swirling that the charges had been dropped, I was immediately disappointed—I think there has been enough proof to justify the charges against Lanez, largely thanks to Megan feeling the burden of proving her own trauma to the world. But is sending him to jail for over two decades the outcome we should be hoping for?
Megan deserves justice, period. I’m just not sure if throwing another Black man in the U.S. prison system is the justice we want, even if he is guilty? As she told GQ in the Rapper of the Year article, at first, Megan protected Lanez because she was worried they would both end up the victims of police brutality if she told the cops the truth. That reaction only highlights how incredibly flawed the American legal system is.
We’re left with a really complicated problem: what does justice even look like in a world that wants abolition, but hasn’t gotten there yet? For me, that’s one of the biggest questions to come out of this whole awful situation.