Diddy has been accused of sexual assault once again following the string of lawsuits filed against the artist last year. Diddy, otherwise known as Sean Combs, has been sued by music producer Rodney Jones Jr. — who works under the name Lil Rod — and is accused of sexual assault, grooming and improper payment. As reported by The New York Times, Jones filed the lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan earlier today (February 27).
The following article contains potentially triggering material relating to sexual assault and violence. If you believe you have experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct and are looking for support, consult the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime to find resources in your area.
In 2022 and 2023, Jones worked on nine songs that appeared on Diddy’s most recent album, The Love Album: Off the Grid. According to Jones’s 73-page lawsuit, Jones lived with Diddy for months while working on the album. During this time, Jones alleges that Diddy grabbed his genitals without consent, forced him to hire sex workers and participate in sex acts with them, and “groomed” him into having sex with another man, something that Diddy allegedly said was “a normal practice in the music industry.” The lawsuit claims that Diddy manipulated and maintained control over Jones by promising awards, fame and connections.
Jones also alleges that he was forced by Diddy to drink tequila shots laced with drugs while at a listening party at the hip-hop mogul’s home in July of last year. The suit describes how Jones eventually blacked out and woke up “at 4 a.m. the following morning naked with a sex worker sleeping next to him.”
Jones also lists Universal Music Group and several of the company’s executives as defendants in the lawsuit, claiming that he wasn’t properly paid for his work as a producer on The Love Album.
This marks the fifth suit in a matter of months that accuses Diddy of sexual misconduct. Most recently, a woman identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit claiming that Diddy, former Bad Boy Entertainment president Harve Pierre and an unnamed third person “sex trafficked and gang raped” her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
Jane Doe is represented by the same law firm that supported Cassie’s now-settled sexual assault lawsuit against Diddy. Following Cassie’s settlement, two other women filed lawsuits against Diddy — Joi Dickerson-Neal alleges that in 1991, Diddy drugged and sexually assaulted her, filming the assault without consent, while Liza Gardner claims that Diddy and R&B singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her and a friend in the early ‘90s.