Beyoncé and Rihanna’s top songwriter, the Dream, is being accused of r*pe, Media Take Out has learned.
Terius Gesteelde-Diamant is being accused of s**ual assault by Chanaaz Mangroe, who performed as Channii Monroe,. She claims that in 2015, The Dream promised to promote her career to entangle her in an abusive relationship in which he repeatedly forced her to have s**, strangled her and once made a video recording of an intimate encounter and threatened to show it to others.
The-Dream is an eight-time Grammy winner who helped make some of the biggest pop and R&B hits of the last two decades, including Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body.”
During his career, he’s forged a particularly close creative bond with Beyoncé, credited as a writer and producer on her signature female-empowerment anthems like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Break My Soul,” and working on each of the superstar’s studio albums since 2008.
Channii claims The Dream is as an abusive Svengali-type figure, dangling the promise of fame and success before an aspiring artist while controlling her life, forcing her into unwanted s** and physically abusing her.
The suit also accuses The Dream of s** trafficking, a claim that has been cited in a number of recent civil lawsuits — including against Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Diddy or Puff Daddy — over accusations of harboring or transporting a victim of s**µal assault by fraud or coercion.
The lawsuit cites the sexµal Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, a California law that allows people to bring s**ual assault cases even if the statute of limitations for incidents they allege have expired.
“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,” Ms. 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 Dream responded to the allegations, saying:
“These claims are untrue and defamatory,” he said in the statement. “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.”
Channii and The Dream started off as having a working relationship, but in January 2015, she flew to Atlanta to meet him and he immediately took her to a strip club, began recording with her and, according to the complaint, “told her that he would make her the next Beyoncé and Rihanna.”
Within days, The Dream began to pressure her into s**, telling her it was “part of the process.” At a house with a studio where they were working, the suit says, he locked her in a dark room and “would only stop aggressively having s** with her once she said that she loved him.”
More s**µal encounters continued, the suit says, with The Dream sometimes holding her down and refusing to use a con**m despite her protests. At the same time, the suit says, he made business promises to her, suggesting he could make her the opening act for Beyoncé’s next tour.
According to the complaint, The Dream then became more controlling and violent:
He plied her with alcohol and marijuana, the complaint says, and once forced Ms. Mangroe to have s** with him while he recorded it, and later threatened to show the footage to other people. During s**, the complaint says, The Dream often placed a gun next to her, which she saw as a warning.
At a movie theater one day, The Dream asked Channii to perform oral s** on him, the complaint says. After she said no, he became angry and forced her to have s**, in view of the other theater patrons. “It was a physically painful encounter,” the complaint says. Later that same day, the suit says, The took Channii to his van and again forced her to have sëx, pinning her down and placing his hands over her mouth and nose, leaving her unable to breathe.
The Dream later signed Channii to his record label, Contra Paris, and arranged for a distribution deal for her with Epic Records, a major label owned by Sony. The court papers say that by the summer of 2015, Ms. Mangroe was trying to escape from The Dream’s control and prepare for the release of an album, but her efforts were unsuccessful.
According to the complaint, Channii reported The Dream’s abuse to an Epic executive, who told her that “she needed to figure out a way to work with Dream again.” In July 2016, according to the complaint, Ms. Mangroe was told that Epic was dropping her because The Dream, who still controlled her artist contract, had not delivered music. Epic is also named as a defendant in the suit.
A spokeswoman for Sony did not have an immediate comment. Representatives of Beyoncé and Rihanna did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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