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The-Dream, the prolific producer and songwriter behind hits like “Umbrella,” “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It),” and “Baby,” has been sued for rape, sex trafficking and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday.
In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California, Chanaaz Mangroe — professionally known as Channii Monroe — alleges that in 2015 Dream, whose real name is Terius Gesteelde-Diamant, used his stature as a close collaborator with artists like Rihanna and Beyoncé and “lured the young and vulnerable artist into an abusive, violent, and manipulative relationship filled with physical assaults, violent sexual encounters, and horrific psychological manipulation.”
Mangroe claimed that among other allegations, Gesteelde-Diamant had forced her to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, choked her multiple times and at one point recorded sexual acts with her then “used the existence of the recording to threaten Ms. Mangroe into silence.”
Gesteelde-Diamant remains one of the most sought-after hitmakers in the music industry, having worked with Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Justin Bieber, and Mariah Carey, among others. He’s won eight Grammy Awards on 21 nominations, and most recently produced several songs on Cowboy Carter, including “Levii’s Jeans” with Post Malone.
A rep for Diamant did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told the New York Times, “These claims are untrue and defamatory. I oppose all forms of harassment and have always strived to help people realize their career goals. As someone committed to making a positive impact on my fellow artists and the world at large, I am deeply offended and saddened by these accusations.”
Mangroe alleged that she first had contact with Gesteelde-Diamant after a childhood friend of his reached out to her at the end of 2014 on Instagram, encouraging her to send her music to Gesteelde-Diamant’s manager.
By early 2015, she alleged, his manager helped arrange a trip to Atlanta for Mangroe to meet with Gesteelde-Diamant. Gesteelde-Diamant took her to a club that night along with several others. She recorded several songs, with Gesteelde-Diamant taking her to a strip club later that night, she says in her lawsuit.
The next day, Gesteelde-Diamant texted Mangroe for the first time, she alleged, claiming that “after saying hello, the first thing Dream texted Ms. Mangroe was “Do you have a boyfriend, boyfriends aren’t allowed. It’s a distraction.” Before she left Atlanta, Mangroe alleged that Gesteelde-Diamant told her he wanted to sign her to his record label, Contra Paris, and that “he would make her the next Beyonce and Rihanna.”
“Dream led Ms. Mangroe to believe through manipulation and coercion that if she allowed him to completely control every aspect of her life, they could create the ultimate ‘sanctuary’ that would surpass anything he accomplished with Beyonce or Rihanna,” the lawsuit states.
In February 2015, according to the suit, Mangroe went to record music with Gesteelde-Diamant at a studio at and once there, she says he had allegedly become “aggressive in pressuring Ms. Mangroe to have sex with him,” telling her it was “part of the process.”
Mangrove claims in her suit that the producer “locked [her] in a dark room adjacent to a recording studio, violently having sex with her and then leaving her alone, naked in the dark, for hours on end, returning to again have sex with her and demand that she tell him she loved him.” She claims that if the two were in the studio at the same time, “he expected her to be available to have sex with him whenever he demanded it,” and added later that “violent sex, control, and manipulation became more and more common as the days passed.”
“Choosing to speak out about the trauma I survived has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life, but ultimately, what Dream did to me made it impossible to live the life I envisioned for myself and pursue my goals as a singer and songwriter,” Mangroe said in a statement. “Ultimately, my silence has become too painful, and I realized that I need to tell my story to heal. I hope that doing so will also help others and prevent future horrific abuse.”
The suit also alleges that the producer would get angry upon discovering that Mangroe was taking birth control pills and “demanded that she throw them away. According to Dream, it was a sign of disrespect to try to prevent a pregnancy by him. Ms. Mangroe, who had no desire to be pregnant at that time, began hiding her birth control pills under her mattress,” the suit said. On another occasion, the complaint says, the producer forced Mangroe to have sex with him and recorded it. He later threatened her, telling her he would show the footage to other people.
The lawsuit points to numerous allegations of sexual violence against Mangroe, with one graphic incident alleging that Gesteelde-Diamant “began to choke Ms. Mangroe with both hands” while forcing her to perform oral sex on him. “When she attempted to signal with her hands that she was choking, he said that he was her boss and continued forcing himself inside of her,” the suit claims. “As she began to pass out, Dream continued to scream that she was taking advantage of him.”
Mangroe’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Meredith A. Firetog, who represented Cassie Ventura in her lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, called the allegations “yet another horrific example of how men in the music industry use their power and influence to manipulate and harm others.
“Dream, like Sean Combs did with Ms. Ventura and others, used his standing as a prominent recording artist and producer to subject Ms. Mangroe to vicious physical, psychological, and sexual abuse,” Wigdor and Firetog said.“While she will never fully recover from what he and those who supported him did to her, her willingness to speak out now is evidence of her extraordinary strength.”
