22 years after Jay-Z pleaded guilty to stabbing him, Lance 'Un' Rivera says the rapper is innocent

• Lance "Un" Rivera has said that it was not Jay-Z who infamously stabbed him in 1999.
• Jay-Z pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years probation for the attack in 2001.

Former music executive and record producer Lance "Un" Rivera has gone on the record to say that it was not Jay-Z who infamously stabbed him in 1999.

Rivera, once the business partner of The Notorious B.I.G., was stabbed in the stomach and shoulder in December '99 at the now-closed Kit Kat Club in New York City.

The stabbing is alleged to have occurred after Jay confronted Rivera over reports that he had leaked his third studio album, "Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter," before its release.

The "Big Pimpin'" rapper was subsequently charged in connection with the attack and turned himself in to the police the following day. After initially pleading not guilty and denying any wrongdoing, in October 2001, he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and was sentenced to three years probation.

"I stabbed Lance Rivera," Jay said during his court appearance at the time, according to the BBC.

In an interview with DJ Vlad published on Sunday, Rivera recalled his version of what went down on the night.

"Jay, a bunch of us is in there," said Rivera. "I ended up getting surrounded by a bunch of people. It was probably 10 knives that I knew of, and I ended up getting stabbed."

"Me and Jay-Z had a conversation right before I got hit in the head with a champagne bottle," he added. "It was a brief conversation and I was looking at him like, 'What are you talking about? You know you fucking the money up right now.'"

Asked if it was Jay who stabbed him, Rivera replied: "No. Jay-Z was not the guy that actually stabbed me that night."

"I don't know where people got Jay-Z stabbed me from because if anybody knows Jay-Z, Jay-Z's a nice guy," he said. "He's an artist, he's a poet, he's gifted and it's never been his history."

"If Jay-Z had stabbed me, y'all wouldn't have got 'The Black Album' because, through my whole history, I'm an eye-for-an-eye type of guy," he concluded.

Representatives for Jay-Z did not immediately reply to a request for comment.