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Rihanna's former publicist, Jonathan Hay, recently told AllHipHop about how and why he began rumors about Jay-Z's love triangle with the Barbadian singer. The news gained attention following the release of a YouTube documentary titled The Disturbing Death of Jay-Z's Mistress about two weeks ago. Hay was mentioned in this 49-minute documentary as well.
Hay, who was Rihanna's publicist at the beginning of her career, initially put up a post on Instagram, where he admitted to spreading rumors about Jay-Z and the singer. On July 17, in an Instagram post, Hay wrote,
"It’s time for me to finally set the record straight once-and-for all... Prepare to be blown away as what @iamcaptainchronic and I have been through over the years involving this historical scandal that needs to be put to bed for good..."
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The former publicist further claimed that he was doing all of it to gain publicity for the Fenty Beauty owner's debut song Pon de Replay. In 2015, in an interview with HipHopDX, Hay spoke about the rumors and said,
"In 2005 the rumor was just a pitch to try and get people talking about Rihanna. It was never intended to be a big ordeal, it was just intended to get people asking, Who’s Rihanna? It was just gossip..."
48-year-old Jonathan Hay worked as a publicist for several artists and bands like Quo, Days Of The New, Whitney Houston, Drake, Ariel Winter, and the Kardashians, to name a few. He had previously been linked to Adele for having a romantic relationship as per several publications, including The Mirror, however, there was no confirmation from either end.
Jonathan Hay was questioned by feds regarding Jay-Z and Rihanna's relationship
In a 2015 interview with HipHopDX, Jonathan Hay mentioned that he had just come across Vada Nobles, in 2004 in Orlando. Nobles was then co-producing Rihanna's debut song. The singer, who was then signed with Def Jam, was only 16 years old and was an unknown face in the industry. The publicist further claimed in the interview that she never meant these rumors to be "malicious."
In the latest interview with AllHipHop published on July 25, Hay stated that back then he was already mad at Jay, since he was then dissing Amil, who had already left the music industry. The publicist continued:
"I was like f### JAY-Z, since he won’t give us any attention and he’s being disrespectful to Amil, who was a single mother. I’m going to get his attention and be disrespectful back to JAY-Z, as Rihanna was the best thing on Def Jam by far."
The publicist stated that he was also interrogated by the feds, who asked him questions about Jay-Z. According to them, Jay was involved in s*xual activity with an underaged Rihanna. While he tried to tell them that those were rumors, the feds believed otherwise. That was when Jonathan Hay realized that the situation had gone out of hand.
According to Hay, Jay-Z's team also later asked him to issue public statements and take full blame for the rumors.
More about record producer and publicist Jonathan Hay's career and life
Born in December 1975, Hay is a publicist based in Brooklyn. He began his music journey from his hometown in Louisville. Hay grabbed the spotlight when he worked as a publicist for Rihanna during the release of her debut track.
He was further known for spreading rumors about Jay-Z and Rihanna at that time to gain more attention on the singer then. In 2015, Hay told Inside Edition that the two artists didn't have any romantic relationship at all.
While Hay had worked with a number of popular celebrities over the time, he was also a part of several scandals. Jonathan Hay also opened a record label named SMH Records with Mike Smith. He also worked as an executive producer and one of the several music producers for Crooked I's second studio album S*x, Money and Hip-Hop. The official website of Jonathan Hay has a "What we do" section, which reads:
"We implement strategic media campaigns to maximize brand exposure for our PR clients. We proactively build relationships with media outlets to enhance your brand visibility at the highest-level..."
In 2016, Hay worked for Snoop Dogg to produce a single track for his record label Doggy Style Records. Over the period from 2018 to 2019, Hay produced three jazz albums as well that made it to the Billboard Jazz Albums. His debut release was Jazz (Deluxe), and then came Jazz Part Two in 2019. He finally produced Follow The Leader on July 26.
In an interview with Billboard in 2019, Jonathan Hay said,
"This was a magical evening when Benny Reid and I worked on this 'Follow the Leader' remix at the legendary Quad Recording Studios. I literally met the love of my life that night. It was crazy."
Born in Leesburg, Florida, Hay was initially a student at Waggener High School. He later shifted to a private Christian school named Christian Academy of Louisville, where he played basketball.
