Six months to the date after music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a bombshell sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs, he’s finally breaking his silence on the matter.
Speaking in his first ever interview with Rolling Stone released on Tuesday, Jones — who produced Combs’ 2023 record “The Love Album: Off the Grid” — declined to elaborate on the more shocking details within the suit, and instead opened up about how life has been for him since that filing. He also detailed what the aftermath has looked like with regard to his career and mental and emotional well-being.
Describing Combs as a “monster,” Jones said that he’s been blackballed from the music industry since filing his suit.
“Because of this lawsuit, most people don’t want to come near working with me for whatever reasons, whether they’ve been in partnership with Puff or they want to just sit back and see what happens,” he said. “He’s a gatekeeper in the music industry.”
He went on to share how he’s upped personal security for himself, and revealed he’s received threats that make him anxious to travel, live, and perform in public. After a recent performance with T-Pain at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in June, Jones said that he was scared, uncomfortable and left wondering where his future career prospects.
“I had a couple mental breakdowns. I almost felt like it was too soon for me to try to come back outside to work. My anxiety was out the roof,” he explained. “I saw different guys backstage I didn’t know and got scared. I wondered where the security was. It made me very uncomfortable. It’s not a good feeling wondering if someone was there to attack me. It was just hard for me to do my job comfortably.”
He later added: “Here I am standing up for justice, for what I believe is right for my life, and I’m being punished for that.”
Jones also revealed that he currently has “no source of income,” and referred to Combs as a “thief” who “has no soul.”
“He’s nothing more than a shrewd, crooked businessman. He’s stolen publishing for years,” he said. “He lives off other people’s gifts and talents. It’s not a human way to live.”
As previously reported by The Root, the over 70-page suit detailed several alleged incidents of sexual assault, sexual harassment, grooming of homosexual sex, threatening, attempted drugging and more.
Attorneys for Combs have subsequently responded and filed a new motion for the suit’s dismissal ,citing specific legal rebuttals to the claims of sexual assault, emotional distress, breach of oral contract, premises liability, TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act), and RICO.
Combs’ attorney issued a statement to The Root on Monday:
“Mr. Jones’s lawsuit is pure fiction — a shameless attempt to create media hype and extract a quick settlement. There was no RICO conspiracy and Mr. Jones was not threatened, groomed, assaulted, or trafficked. We look forward to proving – in a court of law – that all of Mr. Jones’s claims are made-up and must be dismissed.”