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Diddy has more explaining to do. A former male producer is making some stunning claims that the mogul sexually assaulted him.
Variety Magazine is reporting that the Bad Boy Entertainment founder is now facing some new allegations regarding his behavior. On Monday, Feb. 26 producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit against Sean Combs stating the music executive made several sexual advances toward him during the recording of The Love Album: Off the Grid and was “subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy at his direction.” Jones also faced “constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus” and was even made to work in the bathroom while Diddy showered.
But wait it gets worse. Aside from the inappropriate advances Jones says that Combs frequently hired sex workers and offered them illegal drugs and laced alcoholic beverages. Additionally, the producer says he was also drugged and woke up on Feb. 2, 2023 in bed naked with Diddy and two sex workers. As expected lawyers for Combs have denied in a statement to Variety Magazine. “Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 billion lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday,” Shawn Holley said. “His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines. We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies.”
This one of many lawsuits against Diddy with claims of sexual misconduct. According to HipHopDX on Friday, Feb. 23 his lawyer Jonathan Davis described him and former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre in a filing as “victims of the ‘cancel culture’ frenzy in the courts”. The two businessmen are defendants along with another unnamed individual are alleged to gang raping a 17-year-old girl back in 2003. Both have plead not guilty and have asked the suit to be dismissed.
As debate continues over contemporary hip-hop’s ability to top the charts, producer Sean Momberger reached into the past to help the genre regain its pop dominance — and score his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. “Lovin on Me,” which borrows from a 1990s Detroit hit, became Jack Harlow’s third Hot 100 leader, continuing the Louisville, Ky., rapper’s success […]
“Shellback was bored,” ILYA says, reflecting on how he and the Swedish hit-maker ended up working together for the first time — ultimately changing the course of his career. Having grown up in what he calls “the hood of Sweden,” ILYA’s discovery of music production was a bit of a surprise — quite literally, as he found a CD of the music-making program Dance eJay in a cereal box. From there, he says, he “fell in love with creating.”
By his late teens, in 2005, ILYA signed a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and remembers “grinding, grinding, grinding… with not a lot happening.” Several years later, he met Shellback (Britney Spears, P!nk, Taylor Swift), who eventually asked ILYA what he was working on, and later suggested to his close collaborator Max Martin that they should all team up. “Coming up to that point, I had a lot of almosts,” recalls ILYA, now 37. “I had songs with One Direction that just fell off and didn’t make the albums. All those years were so important to learn how to act in the room, how to deal with people’s emotions and all these things leading up to when I got the shot from Shellback and Max.”
Almost immediately, ILYA scored a major win as a co-producer and co-writer on Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea’s 2014 smash, “Problem,” which hit No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Every time I make music today, I try to channel the energy I had when we did ‘Problem,’ ” says ILYA, who has continued his relationship with Grande for a decade, leading into her current era. “Making that beat, it was like, ‘I’m just going to do me.’ And when that success finally happened… It was unbelievable.”
Ariana Grande, “Yes, And?”
“This whole song was her idea — she had a vision. I remember we were going through chords and she was like, ‘It needs to be more confident. It has to be more sassy.’ When Ari’s describing an emotion she wants to have, I instantly go, ‘What sounds can make that emotion come to life?’ And to me, the 909 drums are what that vibe is. In the bridge there are all these funny Mellotron sounds that are really ’60s, Beatles-esque, and a flute that Max played that I laugh at every time I hear it. Once we finished it, that’s when I fell in love with it.”
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Tate McRae, “Guilty Conscience”
“The first time I worked with [Tate] she seemed very unsure of everything. There was one song we did so many versions of because she couldn’t decide which one was the best. But I think growing up, she feels much more confident in what she likes, which helps me a lot. I’ve never finished a song as fast as this one… it was all her initiative. We wrote it and then had to turn it in that week or the week after. Everything [came] from whatever happened that day.”
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Conan Gray, “Never Ending Song”
“Conan started working with Max for a few days and they cracked this sonic direction, but not the details. And then Max came to me and was like, ‘Conan would love to work with you for this next round.’ Once the song was done, [Max and I] spent a lot of time running stuff through analog gear. Sometimes it’s cool if a song sounds like it’s made quickly — but the details and tasteful stuff that you can get from analog gear, you can’t beat that.”
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This story will appear in the Jan. 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
“S–t’s so beautiful,” Metro Boomin beamed during his Red Bull Symphonic concert at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre Thursday night (Oct. 26).
His one-night-only experience marks the West Coast premiere of the Red Bull Symphonic, which showcases a collaboration between a modern artist and a classical musical director, together with a full-scale symphonic orchestra. It made its U.S. debut last November, when Rick Ross teamed up with conductor Maestro Jason Rodgers and the 50-piece, all-Black Orchestra Noir in Atlanta.
But this time around, the hip-hop super-producer partnered with conductor Anthony Parnther (Encanto, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Creed II, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and the Symphonic Orchestra to reimagine many of his biggest hits, including Future‘s “Mask Off,” Migos and Lil Uzi Vert‘s “Bad and Boujee,” Post Malone and Quavo‘s “Congratulations,” Kanye West‘s “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” and his own “Creepin’” alongside The Weeknd and 21 Savage. Considering his star-studded list of collaborators, Metro treated attendees with surprise guests John Legend, Swae Lee, Nav and Roisee to perform songs from his 2022 Billboard 200-topping album Heroes & Villains, and the 2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack he executive produced.
It’s rare to see Metro’s DJ controller not be the main instrument of his show, but the 45-piece ensemble elevated the cinematic, orchestral elements embedded in his production’s DNA. And while the Symphonic Orchestra adhered to every one of Parnther’s precise, nimble hand gestures, the black tux-clad hitmaker still ran the show from behind the booth (and sometimes from standing on top of it), his white-gloved hands waving through the air. Metro’s recent ascent into rarefied air as a producer-turned-superstar artist has allowed him to continue headlining major gigs and building out his own sonic, heroic world on new stages across the world.
“Tonight is a celebration. We celebrate music, we celebrate culture, we celebrate y’all for listening to this music and making it what it is,” Metro told his devout fans.
Check out Billboard‘s five biggest highlights from Metro Boomin’s Red Bull Symphonic concert below.
Metro’s Biggest Hits Sounded Larger Than Life
Metro Boomin stopped by Billboard News during his Billboard cover story shoot to talk about working alongside superstars like Future, 21 Savage and more. But the hitmaker encountered a slight hiccup when he was cooking up beats for Pluto, presumably for their highly anticipated joint album. “They was beats I was making for the next […]
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During a recent podcast appearance, legendary producer Jermaine Dupri opened up a little about his relationship with Janet Jackson, which lasted from 2002 to 2009, according to Complex.
Apparently, Dupri’s reluctance to produce for Janet caused issues in their dating life, which is wild because, of all the win-wins in the world, being able to date Janet Jackson and say you’re responsible for some of her music has to be among the win-winningest.
But during the episode of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, Dupri was asked how he was able to “pull” Jackson, which, frankly, a lot of people were asking throughout their relationship.
From Complex:
It was suggested that he got her in the studio to produce music, but he clarified that he didn’t want her to think he had some sort of agenda.
“It wasn’t about no music sh*t,” he explained. “I was just on some like hang out. I wasn’t on no music sh*t, though. I never wanted to produce her. We got in an argument about me not producing her because she was around me watching everybody else get hit records. I never wanted her to think that’s what my agenda was. ’Cause so many people was saying that… When Janet met me she got picked up from the airport in a [Bentley] Continental T. … It wasn’t never no situation where I wanted her to believe that I was trying to do this.”
Dupri admitted that he didn’t really know how to talk about the situation with her, and said he didn’t want to “be the person to mess it up.” At the time Janet Jackson was working with the likes of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, so ultimately Dupri believed that she didn’t even need him to work on great records to begin with. “You don’t need me, but in her eyes… It didn’t sound right,” he said. It caused “a little bit” of a rift throughout their relationship.
OK, I get Dupri wanting to make it clear that he wasn’t trying to finesse a studio session into a courtship with the Queen of Pop. But if you’re already in the relationship men all over the world are bound to be envious of—and Janet is clearly more offended by you not producing for her than any “agenda” one might perceive—I’m just saying, maybe the “Welcome to Atlanta” producer was trying to be a little to chivalrous for his own good.
Anyway, Dupri ultimately did end up putting in a lot of work on Jackson’s 2006 album 20 Y.O., but the relationship was still a wrap a few years later. So obviously, his initial refusal to produce for her wasn’t the only issue. It’s still weird that he allowed that to be an issue at all.
I mean, it’s Janet Jackson.
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