Producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones accuses Sean Combs of sexual assault, harassment and not paying him for his work on “ The Love Album “.
A music producer has sued Sean Combs (known as Puff Daddy) in a high-profile new lawsuit, accusing the hip-hop mogul of sexually harassing him, pressuring him to take drugs and cheating him out of $50,000 for his work on Tea Love Album: Off the Grid, recently nominated for a Grammy Award.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a 70-page lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on Monday. Other defendants include Kristina Khorram, Combs’ chief of staff, his son Justin Combs, Motown Records and Universal Music Group, among others. Yung Miami of City Girls and actor Cuba Gooding Jr. are also named in the lawsuit, but are not among the defendants.
Jones is the first man to publicly accuse the Bad Boy Entertainment founder of sexual harassment and assault. The new lawsuit follows five other lawsuits filed against Combs, including by singer Cassie, who claims Combs made her a victim of sex trafficking and physical assault throughout their relationship, which lasted almost ten years. Combs denied any wrongdoing and the parties reached a private settlement within 24 hours.
Jones describes himself as a musical prodigy, playing with gospel musicians like Donald Lawrence, the Clark Sisters and the Smokie Norful. In August 2022, he said he was hired to work on Combs’ new album and produced nine songs for the project. “ Throughout his collaboration with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones witnessed, experienced and endured many things that went far beyond his role as producer on the album Love, the lawsuit claims. Mr. Combs required Mr. Jones to constantly record him… As a result, Mr. Jones obtained hundreds of hours of video and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff and his guests engaging in serious illegal activities. »
While working on the album, Mr. Jones claims to have lived with Mr. Combs for months at his various residences in New York, California and Florida, but he was not compensated for his time. While Jones claims he would have accepted $50,000 for his work, plus publishing rights and royalties, Combs only offered him $29,000 for 13 months of work.
At several points in the trial, Mr. Jones claims to have physical evidence of certain charges, including video footage. In February, he posted a video showing Combs laughing while one of his associates read texts calling Mr. Jones a “ shit “.
In a statement to WECBCombs’ attorney, Shawn Holley, called Jones “a liar ” Who ” shamelessly seeks undeserved remuneration. His careless allusions to events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen are nothing more than a transparent attempt to grab headlines. »
Sean Combs has denied any wrongdoing in all matters involving him. He nonetheless stepped down as chairman of his media company Revolt last year as more than a dozen companies fled its e-commerce platform, and he did not attend the Grammy Awards in February .
