Soulja Boy accused of blackmailing woman with sex tape in civil trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A woman suing rapper Soulja Boy for rape, assault and labor violations testified on Thursday that at one point in their tumultuous relationship, he blackmailed her with a sex tape in order to make her stay with him, as both his employee and romantic partner.

In the second day on the stand, the woman — who filed her complaint under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” and who has asked to remain anonymous throughout the trial — described in great detail the physical, emotional and sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of the “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” rapper over the course of nearly two years.

Hired as his assistant in late 2018, she quickly became his prisoner, according to her previous Wednesday testimony, not allowed to leave his remote canyon house on the outskirts of Malibu. Under his employ, he would routinely rape her, hit her, insult her in the most demeaning ways, she said.

Back on the stand on Thursday, the woman took the jury through the last year of their relationship, with the help of their long text message thread.

The pair were, at times, quite warm with each other, texting “I love you” back and forth. Other times, he was commanding, telling her to pick up food from Wendy’s or marijuana, which he would call “gas.” Other times, his tone would turn abusive.

The texts, she said, mirrored their real life relationship. Soulja Boy, whose real name is DeAndre Way, could be affectionate and tender, she said, then days later turn violent.

“One of the occasions, I woke up with him on top of me, he was choking me, and he was telling me I was gonna die that night,” the woman said.

She left him many times, she said, only to return.

“He had a way of always convincing me to come back,” she said. “It was through threats, or scaring me or making me feel bad.”

One of those threats was to post, on the internet, a video of them in an intimate act.

“He took a video of me that I wasn’t too proud of, sexually,” the woman testified. “On one occasion he punched me in the lip, and busted it, and he made me perform oral on him and he recorded it. And he hit me afterward for getting blood on his penis.” The video became blackmail, she said.

At other times, she said she returned simply because she felt sorry for him. Once, she went back because she “didn’t want him to spend his birthday alone,” she said, adding: “He wasn’t always mean. Sometimes he would be nice.”

The 34-year-old Way, best known for the 2007 viral hit single “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” which spawned an internet dance craze, has denied ever abusing the woman.

His attorney, Rickey Ivie of Ivie McNeill Wyatt Purcell & Diggs, told the jury during his brief opening statement that the woman was never formally employed by Way in any capacity. She was simply offered a room in Way’s house in exchange for rolling blunts, he said. The two became lovers, Ivie said, though their relationship was always a tempestuous one.

But screenshots and text messages shown to the jury on Thursday bolstered the plaintiff’s argument that she was Way’s assistant, tasked with a range of things, like making travel arrangements, styling Way’s hair, managing his Twitch account, which Way used to broadcast himself playing video games, and perhaps most of all, keeping him supplied with a steady stream of fast food and marijuana. Way, she said, was something of a recluse, afraid to be out in public, especially alone.

Even when the couple was at their most loving, she reportedly still played a subordinate role in their relationship. When he would travel to perform, she would sometimes go with him, though their seats were separate.

“He usually flew first class and I would get economy in the back,” the plaintiff said on the stand.

Whenever she would leave the house, he would demand that she share her location with him on her phone, and FaceTime him at certain intervals. Forgetting to do so might push him into a rage, she testified.

“Why the Fuk is u not answering the phone,” Way texted her in March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was setting in. “All I’m Tryna tell u grab Mc Donalds.”

A month later he texted: “Fuk u bitch. I hope u die slow.”

In their text messages, both Way and the plaintiff could be contrite at times, apologizing profusely, begging for forgiveness. There appears to have been a desire, at times, for their relationship to work out.

But the texts also seemed to confirm the woman’s story of physical abuse.

“Bye. You think you can keep hitting on me you are crazy,” the woman texted Way in late April.

“Fuck u bithch,” Way responded. He accused her of stealing the car which Way had bought for her to use to run errands. “U a broke hoe that’s why u gotta steal.**** U could have just left.”

“Your going to keep hitting me if go [back] I ready know,” the woman replied.

But again, she returned to Way.

“I was just lost,” she said.

The plaintiff will return to the stand on Monday. Her attorney, Ron Zambrano of West Coast Trial Lawyers, has said that after she testifies, he intends to call Way as a hostile witness.

Follow @hillelaron