Artist News Legal Media

Rapper sues TMZ for naming him in penis attack story

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 24 March 2016

Please note that it cannot be stressed enough that one time Wu-Tang affiliate Marques Johnson, aka Andre Roxx, has never even once cut off his own penis. So please do make sure that you check he doesn’t appear on your list of ‘rappers who attacked their own genitalia’.

Roxx is suing TMZ and other media over a story that was widely reported in 2014 about another rapper who did cut off his own penis before jumping off a second storey balcony. That rapper’s name was Andre Johnson, aka Christ Bearer, but – in a confusion caused by their similar names – it was initially reported that it was Andre Roxx that had been involved in that incident. And even when it was clarified that the penis story involved Andre Johnson, many media continued to say that Andre Roxx was one of his on-stage monikers.

Roxx alleges that it was TMZ which first incorrectly associated him with the Christ Bearer story, and while the gossip site did later correct its report, by that time it had been picked up by numerous other media which continued to say ‘Andre Roxx’ and ‘Christ Bearer’ were both stage names used by the rapper involved in this incident.

In a legal complaint that accuses TMZ and various other media of defamation, Roxx’s reps write: “Other than their affiliation with … the Wu Tang Clan, and the fact that they are both African American male musicians, there are and were key differences between the plaintiff and Christ Bearer. Their names, though containing the overlapping (and common) names ‘Andre’ and ‘Johnson,’ are not the same. Christ Bearer’s given name is Andre Johnson; Plaintiff’s is Marques Johnson”.

They go on: “The two did not bear a physical resemblance at the time of the incident: Christ Bearer is at least ten years older than the plaintiff, and the plaintiff’s appearance is distinct due to his green eye colour, which is unusual in African American men”.

Roxx says that he was in prison at the time the Christ Bearer story broke, and that he to go into protective custody because other inmates began harassing him over the penis chopping tale. Meanwhile, since the end of his prison sentence, Roxx has been trying to resurrect his music career, but is struggling because of his continued association with the penis story.

Back in 2014, when the penis snip incident first took place, Team Wu-Tang distanced themselves from the rapper involved, though it’s possible they too were initially confused about who was actually the subject of the story. Christ Bearer had been involved in Wu-Tang affiliated acts, though Roxx’s main affiliation to the Clan is seemingly that he was championed by another Wu-Tang affiliate, Killah Priest, early in his career.

Christ Bearer has subsequently been quite candid about what occurred that day in 2014, blaming a concoction of drugs, a lack of sleep and stress over restraining orders filed by three women with whom he had children as all combining to motivate the self-harm.

Regarding his damaged genitals, he was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying: “I believe sex is for mortals, and I am god, so this is a blessing, not a curse”, while on the balcony jump he added: “How I jumped was just so heroic … I super-manned out that motherfucker”.

Having definitely grabbed everyone’s attention with those quotes, if only he could have added “oh, and I’ve never performed as motherfucking Andre Roxx”, all of this could have been avoided.