Back in September, following a scathing post that went viral on social media, Your EDM wrote an article entitled “Detroit Techno Pioneer Derrick May Hit With Waves Of Sexual Assault Accusations.” The article was taken down following a cease & desist from May’s lawyer.
A statement from his representation a few days later read, in part, “These statements are patently false, libelous, and calculated to ruin Derrick May’s professional career. Derrick May does not and has not ever used drugs, nor would he ever have unwanted sexual relations with anyone.”
Now, two months later, both DJ Mag and Resident Advisor have published accounts from seven different women alleging acts of sexual assault and harassment against May. DJ Mag interviewed four women while Resident Advisor interviewed six, with three women giving their story to both publications. In total, seven women came forward with their stories.
In one account from an intern working at a hotel in Amsterdam in 2008, referred to as Nina, RA writes, “Nina showed May to his room, as is custom in a boutique hotel. He closed the door behind them. She was showing him the bathroom and when she turned around, she says, May had his clothes on, but he had a really big erection and he was grabbing at it and saying, ‘Look at how excited you make me, look how much you turn me on.’”
He then allegedly proceeded to pin her against the wall and begin groping her as he pulled down his pants and begin rubbing against her. After telling her supervisor what happened, he “put a note in the computer system saying that no woman and no female employee was to be alone with him.” No criminal charges were made.
In another story from 2012 in Detroit, a women referred to as Mona said May “surprised me and started forcibly kissing me. And I just was kind of taken aback, you don’t know what to do so you kind of just like, stand there. And then he pulled my shirt down with both hands and exposed my breasts and then made a negative comment about them, like he was negging me. Like, if he could get me to feel bad about my body or something? It just really repulsed me and disgusted me, and I just pulled my shirt up and said, ‘This isn’t happening.’”
In response to the allegations, May had this to say:
“As a black man working in a white-dominated and openly biased industry, am I expected to have learned the painful lesson that there is no such thing as truth, fairness, or due process?
“When will the long, storied history of weaponizing the sexuality of African American men end?
“Must I collaborate under duress with my own victimization at the hands of an openly hostile press that amplifies the so-called fears of privileged, anonymous women in an internet-mediated lynching?
“I have no interest in legitimizing these distortions.
“Women are the conduit of life, and as such, are to be protected, and not exploited. I live by those words.”
