Fat Joe’s former hype man has filed a lawsuit in New York alleging that the rapper “engaged in coercive labor exploitation, financial fraud, sexual manipulation, violent intimidation, and psychological coercion.”
According to Variety, the suit filed by Terrance “T.A.” Dixon also alleges that Fat Joe suppressed and minimized Dixon’s “creative, artistic and commercial contributions” to enrich himself and used those contributions to establish and expand his brand. Dixon is suing Fat Joe, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, for $20 million in damages.
Dixon’s suit alleges that Fat Joe engaged in sexual relations with minors as young as 15—which he claims to have personally witnessed—over several years, including several very specific instances in his suit against the Bronx rapper. Dixon also alleges Fat Joe forced him into “humiliating situations, including sex acts performed under duress and surveillance, accompanied by threats of abandonment in foreign countries if [he] refused compliance” over 4,000 times during their 16-year professional relationship.
Artist management company Roc Nation—owned by Jay-Z—is also named in the suit. Fat Joe is managed by Roc Nation, who Dixon claims essentially “cooked the books” to minimize his financial compensation and then used intimidation tactics to deter Dixon from seeking retribution. He also alleges that Fat Joe and two other named defendants resorted to tax fraud to “conceal their extensive wage theft, artificially inflate Dixon’s tax liabilities, expose him to unwarranted tax audits and penalties, and systematically obscure the exploited labor.”
The lawsuit even cites a whistleblower who worked in accounting and came forward with the information upon which Dixon is basing his claims.
Dixon’s suit comes after Fat Joe filed a lawsuit against Dixon for slander in April after Dixon took to social media, alleging that Fat Joe used to fly minors across state lines for sex. Fat Joe’s suit claims that Dixon and his lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, were attempting to shake him down for money.
Dixon’s suit goes quite in depth about the allegations, in essence alleging that Fat Joe used his status and power to force him and others into unwanted sexual situations, using coercion and humiliation and even filmed most, if not all of it, and that the “sex-based” abuses happened in the United States and overseas.
Dixon has alleged that the rapper threatened his life if Dixon spoke out against him. In the 157-page suit, Dixon claims to have submitted to the mistreatment out of fear for his life because of Fat Joe and his associates.
Fat Joe’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, who has defended A$AP Rocky and Donald Trump, slammed the lawsuit as a “blatant act of retaliation” in a statement provided to Variety.
“[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.”
