Fat Joe, whose legal battle with his former hype man is getting even uglier. Photo Credit: Timothy M. Moore
Two complaints and all manner of serious allegations later, the Fat Joe v. Terrance Dixon legal battle – now featuring a pair of dismissal pushes– is getting even uglier.
Those motions to dismiss – one spearheaded by Roc Nation, the other by individuals including Fat Joe’s former hype man – just recently surfaced. As some know, the convoluted showdown consists of two separate actions, the first submitted by Fat Joe (real name Joseph Cartagena) in late April.
Naming as defendants the aforementioned hype man (Terrance Dixon, aka TA), attorney Tyrone Blackburn, and Blackburn’s law firm, Fat Joe’s defamation suit centers on allegedly false statements made by Dixon.
The way Roc Nation-managed Fat Joe tells the story, Dixon became disgruntled after their 13-year professional relationship “amicably” ended. Then, he (TA/Dixon) allegedly levied a multitude of false allegations (concerning “vile sexual misconduct, pedophilia, statutory rape, violence and stealing”) against Fat Joe on social media as part of a “campaign of harassment and extortion.”
Far from prompting a retreat, Fat Joe’s claims elicited a firmly worded response from the aforesaid Blackburn, who doubled down on his client’s position and promised to litigate against the plaintiff rapper.
Right on cue, a more than 150-page follow-up action arrived last week. We broke down the standalone $20 million lawsuit – filed by TA/Dixon against not only Fat Joe, but Roc Nation and several others – in detail then.
In a nutshell, the no-holds-barred complaint elaborates upon TA’s shocking allegations. (Fat Joe attorney Joe Tacopina quickly fired back, criticizing the “blatant act of retaliation” as “a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the civil suit we filed first.”)
Now, things are heating up – this time with the initially highlighted dismissal efforts. First, Roc Nation says it has “nothing” at all to do with TA’s “incoherent yet scandalous accusations” against Fat Joe.
“Roc Nation, however, has nothing to do with any of this. Nothing,” the text reads. “Nowhere does Plaintiff allege anything that plausibly suggests that anyone from Roc Nation knew about, assisted, suspected, or otherwise was complicit in any alleged misconduct by Mr. Cartagena or anyone else.”
Not stopping there, the dismissal motion calls out Blackburn’s purported “reputation for filing meritless, kitchen-sink complaints bloated with demonstrably false, inflammatory allegations, baseless claims, and irrelevant defendants in the hope of creating bad press to leverage outsized settlements.”
Shifting to Fat Joe’s case against TA and Blackburn, the suit “is nothing more than a constitutionally impermissible effort to silence criticism through aggressive and meritless litigation,” according to the defendants’ dismissal motion.
Furthermore, the court should toss the action because the central defamation claims have “not alleged any facts showing actual malice,” while TA/Dixon, as demonstrated by his own complaint, has “a genuine, subjectively honest belief in the truth of his assertions.”
“In sum,” TA’s dismissal motion drives home, “this Complaint is an archetype of the kind of case that warrants dismissal at the threshold. It is legally insufficient in multiple independent respects and appears to be fueled by ulterior motives rather than a genuine belief in a viable claim.”
Feature Story, Hip Hop News, Music Industry News, Music Law, 1:25-cv-03552, 1:25-cv-05144
This post was originally authored and published by Dylan Smith Digital Music News via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
