Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued over accusations of sexual assault for the fifth time in less than four months. But in the new lawsuit, filed Monday in New York, Combs is also accused of a litany of other crimes, including participating in an apparent unsolved shooting.
The lawsuit was filed by music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, who worked for Combs from September 2022 through November 2023, during which time he produced several tracks on Combs’ most recent album. Jones says that he effectively lived with Combs full time during this period and that Combs ultimately never paid him for any of his work.
Jones is seeking $30 million and is demanding a jury trial.
Representatives for Combs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a statement provided to NBC News, Combs’ attorney Shawn Holley dismissed “reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen,” calling the lawsuit “nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines.”
“We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. Our attempts to share this proof with Mr. Jones’ attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, have been ignored, as Mr. Blackburn refuses to return our calls. We will address these outlandish allegations in court and take all appropriate action against those who make them,” the statement concluded.
According to Jones, Combs repeatedly sexually assaulted and harassed him, in addition to repeatedly pressuring him to have sex with other men as well as female sex workers. As part of this, Jones specifically names actor Cuba Gooding Jr.; according to the suit, Combs was “grooming him to pass him off to his friends,” including Gooding, who Jones says groped and fondled him nonconsensually. Gooding Jr. is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Jones also said that Combs repeatedly pressured him to use drugs including cocaine and MDMA, and later drugged him, after which Jones said he woke up naked in bed with Combs and two sex workers with no memory of what happened. In addition, Jones accuses Combs of forcing him to buy the services of sex workers and to buy drugs on his behalf.
The suit also contains shocking descriptions of an incident, said to have happened at Chalice Recording Studio in Los Angeles, in which Jones said he was witness to a heated argument between Combs, Combs’ brother and a third man named “Mr. G.” The three went into another room, Jones alleges, after which Jones heard several gunshots. Jones said he then saw that “Mr. G” was bleeding and attempted to help him and was later “forced … to lie to the police by telling them that G was shot standing outside the studio by a drive-by assailant.”
Jones also said he recorded “hundreds of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity,” including some prominent music industry figures.
The suit names Combs, his adult son Justin and his chief of staff Kristina Khorram, as well as Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge and former Motown Records CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam.
Representatives for Universal Music Group didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
