“For me, if you keep it hip-hop, nothing can be taken away from Afrika Bambaataa“.

Hip-hop figureheads have gradually weighed in on Afrika Bambaataa’s recent child molestation allegations since they were made last month. As Complex points out, KRS-One recently defended the hip-hop pioneer, saying whatever comes of the allegations it shouldn’t tarnish the influence Bambaataa has had on the genre.

“If you want to dig into dude’s personal life and accusations that’s being made and so on … personally … I don’t give a fuck,” he said in a now-deleted interview on the Drink Champs podcast, adding: “If somebody was harmed or whatever, y’all gotta deal with that shit … that don’t stop what you did for hip-hop.”

The rapper didn’t take a side on whether he believes the allegations.

“It don’t take away none of it. History is history. But deal with that. That’s personal,” he said.

Bambaataa recently dismissed the accusations, which began with Bronx politician Ronald Savage and have caused three other alleged victims to speak out.

“It’s people that’s trying to sell a book,” he said, referring to Savage’s memoir that brought up the alleged assault.