Hip-hop producer Metro Boomin faces rape charges | Music

A Los Angeles woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that Metro Boomin, a Grammy-nominated producer who has worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, raped her in 2016 and left her pregnant as a result of the attack had become.

The producer's lawyer believes the allegations are false and said the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court is “pure extortion.”

Vanessa LeMaistre, 38, says in the lawsuit that she became friends with Metro Boomin, whose real name is Leland Wayne, after the death of her 9-month-old son. When she visited him in a recording studio months later, she lost consciousness and woke up on a bed to find Wayne raping her, the lawsuit says.

A few weeks later, she learned from the attack that she was pregnant, the lawsuit says.

An attorney for the 31-year-old St. Louis-born producer immediately denied the allegations.

“This is a pure shakedown. These are false allegations,” Lawrence Hinkle II said in a statement Wednesday. “Mr. Wayne refused to pay them months ago and he is refusing to pay them now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. Once he prevails, he will file a malicious prosecution lawsuit.”

Wayne curated the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and co-produced most of the album's songs. His 2022 album Heroes & Villains, with contributions from John Legend, The Weeknd and Travis Scott, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. He has also worked with Future, Kendrick Lamar, Offset, 21 Savage and A$AP Rocky.

LeMaistre said in the lawsuit that she met Wayne at a party in Las Vegas in the spring of 2016 and that they met several times over the next few months and that she “believed they were amazed by music's ability to connect people at their darkest.” to help, “moments”.

Around September, she visited him at a California recording studio, where she was given a shot of alcohol and took half a bar of Xanax.

“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre remembers is waking up in a bed in another location with Wayne raping her and completely unable to move or make a sound,” the lawsuit says . “She was in and out of consciousness for an unknown period of time, but eventually awoke when Wayne performed oral sex on her.”

She was never able to consent, the lawsuit says.

A few weeks later, she learned she was pregnant and there was no question that the child was Wayne's, the lawsuit says. She had an abortion shortly afterwards.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as LeMaistre did. She is named in the lawsuit and agreed to be publicly identified by her attorneys.

Her sexual assault and gender-based violence lawsuit seeks damages, which will be determined in court.