A 38-year-old woman living in California filed a lawsuit against Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer Metro Boomin on Tuesday, accusing him of raping her in 2016 while she was unconscious and writing a song about it.
Attorneys for Vanessa LeMaistre say Leland “Metro Boomin” Wayne raped her after gaining her trust under the guise of friendship following the death of her 9-month-old child. She became pregnant from the rape and, because of the trauma of the rape and her ongoing grief, terminated the pregnancy, says the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Wayne’s lawyer Lawrence Hinkle II called the lawsuit “a pure shakedown” in a statement shared with HuffPost on Wednesday.
“Mr. Wayne refused to pay her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now,” the statement said. “Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he prevails.”
LeMaistre’s attorney responded to Hinkle’s comments in a statement given to HuffPost, saying, “Making defamatory remarks is not going to help Metro Boomin’s cause and we look forward to proving Ms. LeMaistre’s claims in court and, ultimately, before a jury.”
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According to her lawsuit, LeMaistre was introduced to Wayne by a friend in spring 2016 at a party in Las Vegas, and over time he gained her trust as she shared grief over her 9-month-old son, who had died in February of that year. She believed she and Wayne had bonded over music, and he invited her to his recording studio in California in September 2016, the suit says.
“She was happy for the opportunity to watch him work because she was passionate about music, but more importantly because music provided an escape from the pain she was in after losing her son,” the lawsuit says.
When LeMaistre arrived to the studio, she took half a Xanax, which she had been using to cope with anxiety following her son’s death, then she was immediately given a shot of alcohol, according to the lawsuit. After having a conversation, Wayne went into the studio to begin working, and LeMaistre settled onto the couch, where she blacked out.
LeMaistre woke up on a bed in an unknown place as Wayne was sexually assaulting her, according to the lawsuit. She recalled not being able to move or make noise as she kept slipping in and out of consciousness, the suit says.
When she woke up again, Wayne told her they were in a hotel room in Beverly Hills and to get her things, according to the lawsuit, and she was driven back to her car, which was parked at the studio.
Her attorneys say in the lawsuit that LeMaistre tried to convince herself that
the sexual assault did not happen and that she would occasionally reach out to Wayne to ask how he was and say a kind word.
“She thought in doing so that she could trick her own mind into thinking he was an actual friend to her,” the lawsuit says.
A few weeks after the alleged rape, LeMaistre found out she was pregnant, and because she did not have sex with anyone else in that time, she knew it was the producer’s child, according to the lawsuit, which adds that her mental health was declining as she was still grieving over the loss of her child and she knew she could not continue the pregnancy knowing its circumstances. LeMaistre had an abortion in November 2016, the lawsuit says.
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A year after the alleged sexual assault, Wayne, who lives in Georgia, produced “Rap Saved Me,” featuring artists 21 Savage and Offset, a song the lawsuit claims referenced LeMaistre’s sexual assault and pregnancy.
The lawsuit cites the lyrics, “She took a xanny, then she fainted, / I’m from the gutter, ain’t no changing, / From the gutter, rap saved me, / She drive me crazy, have my baby.”
The lawsuit includes several screenshots of what it describes as Wayne’s “offensive tweets and re-tweets.” The tweets have since been deleted.
In a joint statement, LeMaistre’s attorneys Michael J. Willemin, Monica Hincken, Omar H. Bengali and Robert J. Girard II said Wayne’s lyrics and social media posts “are not only offensive but also explicitly outline his intentions to harm women.”
“These are more than mere words, and it’s time for him to be held accountable for his manipulative tactics and unacceptable behavior,” the attorneys said.
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