The-Dream is the latest musician who has been sued for sexual assault and more.
The multi platinum artist and very successful songwriter is being sued by Chanaaz Mangroe aka Channii Monroe who filed her lawsuit today (June 4) in a California federal court.
In her complaint, confirmed by Pitchfork and TMZ, Mangroe says that she met The-Dream in 2014 when she was 23 years, coming to the United States from Netherlands, “hoping to land her big break as a singer and a songwriter.” The lawsuit states, “Under the guise of pursuing a legitimate recording and publishing contract with Ms. Mangroe, Dream lured the young and vulnerable artist into an abusive, violent, and manipulative relationship filled with physical assaults, violent sexual encounters, and horrific psychological manipulation.”
The lawsuit alleges that Dream used his fame and connections with Beyoncé, Rihanna, Jay-Z, and others to manipulate Mangroe. “For a new artist, the thought of becoming the next Beyonce or Rihanna was obviously intoxicating,” the lawsuit reads, “and Ms. Mangroe was willing to work as hard as possible to make her recording dreams come true.”
The lawsuit further states that during their first night at the recording studio, The-Dream “pressured her to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana in excessive quantities,” and also pressured her “to have sex with him. He assured her that sex with him was ‘part of the process’ and he could only write hit songs for her if she agreed to let him know everything about her,” the lawsuit claims. The-Dream allegedly brought Mangroe to a bedroom and had sex with her; the producer left Mangroe in the bedroom and returned intermittently to continue having sex with her, the lawsuit claims.
“She returned to her hotel confused, but tried to remain grateful and hopeful for what she believed was her big break,” according to the complaint. “Throughout her time in Los Angeles, if Ms. Mangroe and Dream were in the studio at the same time, he expected her to be available to have sex with him whenever he demanded it.”
“Dream became increasingly controlling after Ms. Mangroe moved to Atlanta,” she claims in the complaint. “He told Ms. Mangroe that she needed to check in with him every day, she needed to be available to him whenever he called, and that she should depend only on him for anything she needed.”
By May 2015, she signed her contracts with Contra Paris (Dream’s record label) and Epic Records, but “Dream maintained complete control over communications concerning Ms. Mangroe’s deal and Epic—he refused to connect her to anyone directly, or even to include her in email or text chains with the executives from the major record label she was now signed to,” according to the complaint.