Every now and then, the bubble in which the superstars of the EDM world live in blows up. Given some of the things which get sent my way – most of which would almost certainly result in a libel suit if I published them – the only surprise is it doesn’t happen more often.
A long post from EDM superstar Diplo this week is a case in point. He says he’s going to keep the story “easy to read”, yet proceeds to write a ten-page essay which just comes across as rambling. I’ve read it so you don’t have to – but if you fancy having a go, feel free…
Rambling aside, it’s a pretty intriguing story. As he tells the story, he appears to have encountered a woman online, spoken to her for a while, met up and had sex with her, stopped speaking to her and then she blackmailed him by threatening to reveal what had happened if he didn’t pay up.
It’s a curious story from a man with a very curious private life. The specifics of his story actually reference a woman called Shelly Auguste, who got a restraining order taken out against Thomas Wesley Pentz, to use his real name, in November 2020. And she made some extraordinary allegations against him – such as that he groomed her, hired a private investigator to keep an eye on her and of distributing revenge pornography.
And if you look further back in time, few people have a good word to say about him. Rapper M.I.A. dated him for five years and said emotional abuse took place in the relationship. Azealia Banks says he helped out her career in exchange for sex. And he’s faced a raft of allegations of predatory behaviour over the past year.
Oh, and top of that, Pentz could now be facing charges including deliberate giving someone chlamydia, recording sexually explicit videos without permission and sharing at least one of those recordings.
Whoever advised him to post this is an idiot. And he’s even more of an idiot for making the final call to do it…
