You’d think once a rumor was cleared up last year, you wouldn’t have to address it again. For whatever reason, all of the people who didn’t receive the misleading video clip of rapper-turned-record executive Jay-Z striking a female backstage at a show a year and half ago when the e-mail first circulated, are getting it now.

Inside the Buzz

The Truth About the Jay-Z Smackdown: Director Chris Fiore says, “The shot in question was taken out of context by me, and was used in the film to create a sense of heightened tension at the end of the tour.”

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My e-mail account has been fluttered with forwards from readers wanting to know if it’s true. Well it’s not!

The footage is a scene from a 2000 concert documentary ‘Back Stage.’ The female shown is one of the rapper’s best friends, Chaka Pilgrim, and the two were only joking.

‘Back Stage’ director Chris Fiore also corroborated that the hand-to-face smoosh was “playful” when asked about it in June 2005. “The shot in question was taken out of context by me, and was used in the film to create a sense of heightened tension at the end of the tour,” Fiore said then.

Pilgrim, who works for Jay-Z’s Rocawear company, even confirmed she and Jigga are still good friends and told the New York Daily News that “we were just playing around.”

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