Fats Joe’s former hypeman Terrance “T.A.” Dixon has filed an explosive lawsuit in federal courtroom towards the rapper on Thursday. Dixon is alleging that his former boss, whose actual identify is Joseph Antonio Cartagena, engaged in “coercive labor exploitation, monetary fraud, sexual manipulation, violent intimidation, and psychological coercion.” Dixon provides that the hip-hop star behind such chart-toppers as “What’s Luv?” acquired wealthy and well-known whereas he and his associates intentionally suppressed, silenced and erased Dixon’s substantial artistic, inventive, and business contributions, which had been foundational to Fats Joe’s skilled success and private model. He’s searching for as much as $20 million in damages.

The criticism, filed in U.S. District Courtroom Southern District of New York, comprises so many disturbing claims about Fats Joe’s alleged sexual relations with ladies — together with minors — that it comprises a set off warning on the primary web page of the 157-page doc.

For 16 years, Dixon served as Fats Joe’s so-called hypeman, a typical determine in hip-hop who helps the artist by energizing the group and enhancing the general efficiency. He additionally contributed as a lyricist and background vocalist on such hits as “Congratulations,” “Ice Cream,” and “Cash Over Bitches.” In line with the criticism, he had an unmatched vantage level to look at the rapper’s off-stage way of life and conduct.

Dixon is represented by Tyrone Blackburn, who can be the lead counsel in a high-profile case towards Sean “Diddy” Combs. In February 2024, Blackburn filed a lawsuit on behalf of Diddy accuser Lil Rodney, alleging sexual assault, sexual harassment and failure to pay his underling. One month later, Division of Homeland Safety brokers performed raids at Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.

Dixon states within the criticism that Fats Joe pressured him “into humiliating conditions, together with intercourse acts carried out underneath duress and surveillance, accompanied by threats of abandonment in international international locations if [he] refused compliance.” By his personal estimation, Dixon states within the go well with that “he was coerced into greater than 4,000 sexual acts to keep up his standing throughout the Enterprise.”

Most shockingly, the go well with claims that Dixon “personally witnessed [Fat Joe] have interaction in sexual relations with youngsters who had been fifteen and sixteen years previous” and lists three such Jane Does together with a 16-year-old Dominican lady in New York, who “in trade for money, clothes, and cost of her mobile phone invoice … would [perform] oral intercourse and different sexual acts” on the rapper. Minor Doe 2 is a Caucasian feminine and never a United States citizen. “[Fat Joe] started having sexual relations with Minor Doe 2 when she was 15 years previous after a live performance abroad. Defendant flew Minor Doe 2 to New York Metropolis and Miami, Florida, on a number of events. On account of Minor Doe 2’s physique being adolescent and never absolutely shaped, Defendant paid for her to get a Brazilian Butt Carry. Minor Doe 2 finally left Defendant and is now married to an expert athlete,” the criticism says. Minor Doe 3 is a Latina feminine who “met the defendant when she was 15 years previous, turning 16.”

In line with Dixon, “Defendant was in love with Minor Doe 3. He even contemplated leaving his spouse. The Defendant paid all Minor Doe 3’s payments and even took her abroad to his tour stops. He introduced her to Florida and would put her up in a rental he rented a number of blocks from his home together with his spouse,” the lawsuit states. “In a recorded dialog, Minor Doe 3 and her 15-year-old cousin describe intimately to Plaintiff how ‘inappropriate’ it was for Defendant, who was in his late 30s on the time, to be fawning over youngsters.”

Defendants within the go well with additionally embody Pete “Pistol Pete” Torres and Richard “Wealthy Participant” Jospitre, who the criticism refers to as key associates in Fats Joe’s “legal enterprise,” asserting civil claims for violations of the Trafficking Victims Safety Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (also called Civil RICO in addition to associated violations underneath New York and Florida regulation together with “unjust enrichment, quantum meruit, fraudulent concealment, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional misery, and cash laundering.”

The go well with moreover names Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, claiming that the corporate, which represents Fats Joe, knowingly participated in “concealing, transferring, and manipulating” Dixon’s authorship rights and royalty pursuits and sought to intimidate, harass and impede the hype man’s professional claims towards Fats Joe, Torres and Jospitre.

In line with the lawsuit, the defendants “engaged in deliberate tax fraud schemes” in an effort to hide their intensive wage theft, artificially inflate Dixon’s tax liabilities, expose him to unwarranted tax audits and penalties and systematically obscure the exploited labor. The criticism cites a whistleblower accountant who got here ahead final 12 months in addition to recorded telephone calls that helped paint the image of the alleged misdeeds.

The transfer comes after Fats Joe sued Dixon in April for slandering him on social media by claiming that the Bronx-born rapper who enjoys excessive stage political connections flew a 16-year-old lady throughout state traces for intercourse. That go well with additionally named Dixon’s lawyer Tyrone Blackburn, claiming the pair tried to shake him down for a settlement.

“That is the appropriate technique to combat Joe — by the system. You’ll be able to’t combat him no different approach,” Dixon tells Selection in an unique interview. “Joe assume he’s a god. Joe thinks he’s untouchable.”

Dixon’s go well with towards Fats Joe goes a lot additional than his social media posts and states that he endured “a large spectrum of sexual coercion, psychological management, pressured exhibitionism, and surveillance-based humiliation, together with being compelled to carry out intercourse acts underneath commentary, being filmed, or directed by [Fat Joe] within the presence of others — ways designed to manage Plaintiff’s physique, erode his autonomy, and guarantee silence.” It provides: “These sex-based abuses weren’t non-public, incidental, or remoted. They had been integral to the enterprise’s tradition of dominance and humiliation, enforced by Defendant’s associates comparable to Pistol Pete, JB, and others, and sustained throughout quite a few tour places together with Miami, North Carolina, Germany, Spain, and Wisconsin.”

Fats Joe is represented by superstar legal lawyer Joe Tacopina, who has defended everybody from A$AP Rocky and Donald Trump in high-profile circumstances. Selection has reached out to Tacopina for remark.

In Thursday’s criticism, Dixon claims that the exercise occurred on Market America’s company yacht and at its mansion properties, the place Fats Joe “orchestrated repeated orgies involving Plaintiff, feminine dancers and minors. Defendant used.” The lawsuit provides that Fats Joe used his standing as a hip-hop star to compel Dixon and others into “degrading sexual performances,” usually whereas Fats Joe watched, recorded, or directed the encounters. “These incidents occurred underneath situations that included the presence of company safety employees, surveillance cameras, and Defendant’s administration entourage, but no intervention occurred, supporting the inference that these acts had been facilitated by — and coated up by — the broader enterprise and its associates,” the criticism continues. “[Dixon] didn’t willingly consent to take part in these acts; as an alternative, Plaintiff submitted solely out of concern of speedy retaliation, which Defendant repeatedly demonstrated would come with monetary punishment, skilled sabotage, abandonment in international international locations, or bodily hurt.”

The go well with claims that Fats Joe additionally issued veiled demise threats and witness intimidation through direct messages comparable to “You’re keen on your loved ones, proper?” “Fall again in 48 hours” and “We allow you to stay.” 

Although Fats Joe hobnobbed with among the largest names in politics, together with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, there was a minimum of one brush with scandal again in 2010. He and members of his entourage had been detained and questioned after a College of Wisconsin pupil reported an alleged sexual assault following a efficiency on the metropolis’s Orpheum Theater. On the time, Fats Joe’s lawyer referred to as the lady a “pretender groupie” who was making an attempt to “shake down” the rapper for cash.