Atlanta producer Metro Boomin accused of rape in lawsuit

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American record producer Metro Boomin arrives at the Variety Hitmakers Brunch held at nya WEST on December 2, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles woman has filed a lawsuit claiming that Metro Boomin, a Grammy-nominated producer from Atlanta who has worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, raped her in 2016 and that she became pregnant from the attack.

The producer’s attorney called the allegations false and said the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court is “a pure shakedown.”

Vanessa LeMaistre, 38, says in the lawsuit that she befriended Metro Boomin, whose legal name is Leland Wayne, after the death of her 9-month-old son. When she visited him at a recording studio months later, she blacked out and woke up on a bed to see Wayne raping her, the lawsuit alleges.

A few weeks later, she learned she was pregnant as a result of the attack, the suit said.

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 her months ago, and he refuses to pay her now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a claim for malicious prosecution once he is victorious.”

Wayne curated the soundtrack to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and co-produced most of the songs on the album. His 2022 album “Heroes & Villains,” featuring contributions from John Legend and The Weeknd and Travis Scott, was nominated for a Grammy for best rap album. He has also collaborated with Future, Kendrick Lamar, Offset, 21 Savage and A$AP Rocky.

LeMaistre said in the lawsuit that she met Wayne in the spring of 2016 at a party in Las Vegas and in the months that followed they met several times and she “believed they had bonded over music’s ability to bring people into their lives.” darkest times. moments.”

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

“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre remembers is waking up on a bed at a different location, with Wayne raping her and completely unable to move or make a sound,” the lawsuit said. “She was in and out of consciousness for an unknown amount of time, but at some point woke up again when Wayne performed oral sex on her.”

At no point was she able to give consent, the lawsuit said.

She learned she was pregnant a few weeks later, and there was no doubt the child was Wayne’s, the suit said. Shortly afterwards she had an abortion.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as LeMaistre has done. She is named in the lawsuit and agreed to be publicly identified through her attorneys.

Her sexual and gender violence lawsuit seeks to have damages determined at trial.