Reports from America say that Fat Joe has been sued for a whopping $20million (£14.8m) over claims of unpaid wages and underage sex with minors.
The New York rapper, 54, whose real name is Joe Cartagena, rose to fame in the mid-to-late 90s as a solo performer and as a member of the Terror Squad.
He landed his biggest UK chart hits in 2002 and 2005 when he teamed up with Ashanti for What’s Luv? and with Jennifer Lopez for Hold You Down – both top 10 singles.
Now, his former hypeman and stage partner of 16 years, Terrence Dixon – better known by his stage name T. A. – has filed a lawsuit against Cartagena in federal court.
Dixon is alleging that Cartagena engaged in ‘coercive labor exploitation, financial fraud, sexual manipulation, violent intimidation, and psychological coercion’ – claims that Cartagena denies.
Further reports (via Variety) indicate that the lawsuit also accuses the Feelin So Good rapper ‘deliberately suppressed, silenced and erased Dixon’s substantial creative, artistic, and commercial contributions’.
The complaint, which is 157 pages long, has been filed in the US District Court, Southern District of New York, and contains a trigger warning in its contents.
Dixon accompanied Cartagena on stages across the world for 16 years, often working up and energising the crowd before and during sets.
During this time, he alleges, the Lean Back rapper forced him ‘into humiliating situations, including sex acts performed under duress and surveillance, accompanied by threats of abandonment.’
Cartagena is represented in the case by celebrity attorney Joe Tacopina, who has represented, among others, US President Donald Trump and rapper ASAP Rocky.
‘The lawsuit filed by Tyrone Blackburn and Terrance Dixon is a blatant act of retaliation,’ a statement from Cartegana’s representatives began.
‘[It’s] a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the civil suit we filed first, which exposed their coordinated scheme to extort Mr. Cartagena through lies, threats, and manufactured allegations.’
The latest development follows Cartagena’s filing of his own lawsuit against Dixon in April of this year, in which he claimed that his former hypeman had slandered him on social media.
Claims are made in Dixon’s suit that he was personally coerced ‘into more than 4,000 sexual acts to maintain his standing’ within Cartagena’s musical enterprise.
The most shocking claim made is that the hypeman ‘personally witnessed [Cartagena] engage in sexual relations with children who were 15 and 16 years old.’
Three Jane Does – a 16-year-old girl from New York, a 15-year-old girl from outside the USA, and another 15-year-old girl – are listed in the document.
Dixon alleges that Cartagena ‘contemplated leaving his wife’ after ‘falling in love’ with the third girl, who it’s claimed he met with just before she turned 16.
The response from Cartagena’s legal team continued: ‘The allegations against Mr. Cartagena are complete fabrications – lies intended to damage his reputation and force a settlement through public pressure.’
Dixon is credited as a musician and lyricist on several of Fat Joe’s songs that were released around the late 2000s and early 2010s, specifically on the album Jealous Ones Still Envy 2.
The hypeman – also known as Population One in the music industry – is said to be represented for the lawsuit by Tyrone Blackburn, who is currently lead counsel in the high-profile Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs case.
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