Fat Joe has officially responded to a salacious lawsuit filed by his ex-hypeman that accuses him of pedophilia, forced labor and sex trafficking, taking to Instagram to deny the claims and reassure fans.
The post on Wednesday (June 25) is Fat Joe’s first personal statement since he was sued last week by Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, who accused the rapper of running a wide-ranging racketeering enterprise in which he trafficked underage girls for sex and subjected his employees to abusive working conditions. Fat Joe’s attorneys have vehemently denied the claims and already have a pending counter-lawsuit accusing Dixon and his lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, of extortion.
“I’ve been tested the last few months — I’ve lost my big brother, my father, my mother and now I’m fighting against these disgusting lies,” wrote Fat Joe in the Instagram post. “But please know I will not break and I will NEVER back down.”
The rapper’s statement echoes his attorneys’ allegations that Dixon fabricated the claims in pursuit of a payday. “They figure they can make up the most insane stories and, if they threaten you with a lawsuit, then you’ll pay and they’ll feel like they finally won,” he continued in the post.
“Problem with your theory,” he added, “I’ve never let anyone on the streets extort me, so how would I ever let a crooked attorney and a coward ex-hype man extort me?? I’m from the Bronx!”
Fat Joe’s statement concludes by taking a dig directly at Blackburn: “Since you want the clout, we will finish you in court. The time of lawyers using their law license as a badge to extort people and destroy families with no evidence is over!! I’m not the one!! You’ve messed with the wrong one this time!”
The statement arrived the same day as another strange twist in the dispute, after Blackburn was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with assault for allegedly running over Fat Joe’s process server with his car last month.
Blackburn has pled not guilty to the charges, and his defense lawyer told Billboard the case seems to be “at the very least…a misunderstanding or an accident, and at the most an attempt to extort some money out of my client.”