Three years ago, one of the most peculiar and disturbing news stories in hip-hop history broke as the headline “Wu-Tang Member Cuts Off His Own Penis” spread through the internet like Killa Bees on the swarm. As crazy as the details sounded, they were mostly true: A Wu-Tang affiliate (not a core member) had severed his own penis and jumped from the balcony of his second-floor Studio City apartment in an apparent suicide attempt.

But in a more innocent time before we had the term “fake news” to throw around, a headline like “Wu-Tang Rapper Chops Off His Dick” was too important to spread to the masses before all the facts — including which Wu-Tang affiliate it actually was — could be confirmed. In fact, the wrong rapper was alleged to have removed his manhood, which led to a lawsuit as well as, just yesterday, definitive proof that his own “36th Chamber” is still “Forever.”

Here are the facts (which we’ve been correct with since the story first broke):

The Wu-Tang affiliate who dismembered his member was Christ Bearer of the group Northstar, RZA’s frequent right-hand man and an early West Coast Wu-Tang signee, whose real name is Andre Johnson.

The Wu-Tang affiliate whose penis was never at any point detached from his body is North Carolina rapper Andre Roxx, whose real name is Marques Andre Johnson.

Given that there’s quite a number of Wu-Tang affiliates, we can see how one might confuse the names Andre “Christ Bearer” Johnson and Marques “Andre Roxx” Johnson. TMZ ran the story with the “Andre Roxx” attribution first, and before it could issue a correction, word shot through the entertainment world falsely naming Marques as the genital mutilator everywhere from BET to USA Today to even the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

The story got so big that the Wu-Tang website added further confusion by just posting Marques’ image with the sole explanation “this motherfucker ain’t got shit to do” with “the Wu-Tang brand,” an untrue statement in itself, as footage of top Wu-Tang affiliate Killah Priest naming Marques an “official Wu-Tang Killa Bee” has existed online since 2012.

Making matters worse, Marques had been incarcerated in Pennsylvania at the time and, according to court documents, had to be put into protective custody due to harassment from the other inmates.

Marques was released from prison in July 2015 and the following March filed for libel and “false light invasion of privacy” against Warner Bros., TMZ, Viacom and several other entities that allegedly used his name and likeness erroneously with the story. Yesterday a Delaware judge threw the case out as Marques was a Pennsylvania resident at the time and didn’t file suit within Pennsylvania’s one-year statute of limitations.

So Marques, who claims to still be suffering from harassment and lost professional opportunities due to the incorrect attribution, took matters into his own genitals yesterday and tweeted a photo of himself naked, with his still-attached Iron Flag unmistakably visible. (NSFW and NSFWu photo here)

Meanwhile, the actual gentleman who cut off his own penis, Christ Bearer, has made no secret of his actions. He even told DJ Vlad in 2015 that he was “proud” to have done it. “In the annals of history, I don’t think you got anybody who ever did it,” he said.

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