Nas and Busta Rhymes’ music has landed a New Jersey judge in hot water after he allegedly rapped along to their songs in various “inappropriate” TikTok videos.
According to New Jersey Globe, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct filed a complaint against Superior Court Judge Gary N. Wilcox on Friday (June 30).
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Between April 2021 and March 2023, Wilcox created 40 TikTok videos under the username “Sal Tortorella,” which the complaint says contained “profanity, graphic sexual references to female and male body parts, violence, misogyny, and racist terms.”
Some of these videos were recorded at the Bergen County courthouse while Wilcox was wearing his judicial robe, while others were filmed in his car and his bed.
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Per the complaint, in one the TikTok videos, Wilcox walked around Bergen County courthouse in a Beavis and Butthead T-shirt while Nas’ 2003 track “Get Down” played in the background.
The complaint notes how “the song contains explicit lyrics concerning a criminal case and a courtroom shooting as well as derogatory and discriminatory terms, drug and gang references, and the killing of a doctor in a hospital who treated another gang member.”
In another video, Wilcox was seen smiling alongside the caption: “When an ex-girlfriend calls you ‘Santa’ because of your new white beard,” while lip-synching Busta Rhymes’ 2006 hit “Touch It.”
The lyrics he mouthed were: “For the record, just a second, I’m freakin’ it out/ While she tryin’ to touch, see, I was peepin’ it out/ She turned around and was tryin’ to put my dick in her mouth/ I let her.”
The complaint also cites TikTok clips soundtracked by Rihanna’s “Jump” and Miguel’s “Sure Thing,” as well as one featuring the phrase: “You think you can run up on me and whip my monkey ass? Come on. Come on!”
While the 59-year-old’s actions have been deemed offensive in the complaint, his lawyer, Robert Hille, said that his client wasn’t acting in a malicious way.
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“I don’t think that at the end of the day anybody is going to believe there was any desire to do any harm here,” Hille said, according to The New York Times. “Hindsight is 20-20.”
Wilcox, who was admitted to the New Jersey bar more than 30 years ago and has been a Superior Court judge since 2011, is due back in court later this year. His potential discipline ranges from a reprimand to dismissal from the bench.
