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    Is Diplo a Predator?

    By 5 Mins Read
    Image credit: ShutterStock

    In 2020, 19-year-old social media star Quen Blackwell moved in with famed DJ/producer Diplo, or as he is known in the court system and by his parents—Thomas Wesley Pentz. Diplo has worked with Beyonce, Justin Bieber, his former girlfriend M.I.A., Missy Elliot, 2Chainz and many more.

    The arrangement was supposed to facilitate some of Quen’s artistic endeavors, even though she had already amassed millions of followers on social media at the time. While living with Diplo, Quen repeatedly denied that she and he had a sexual relationship and asserted that he was her landlord while also posting a video on her TikTok featuring the DJ, with the caption, “When you don’t have to pay rent.” After about two years of living together, Quen moved out and began posting cryptic messages about someone from her past, including one where she states that she was groomed and all of the 40-year-olds around her sanctioned the grooming. 

    She does not mention Diplo by name, but she does share screenshots of him stating how he only touched her nipple. 

    A model, Gena Tew, has been diagnosed with HIV, and while she was not sure exactly when she contracted the virus that eventually became AIDS, her doctors believe that she contracted it when she was around 17 or 18 years old. Gena confirms this is when she was intimate with Diplo. Additionally, Shelly Auguste, who alleged that Diplo posted revenge porn of her engaging in sexual activities, and is in an active suit against the DJ, also stated that Diplo sent her pornographic images of him having sexual relations with Jena to entice the then-teenager into having sex with him. In her suit, Auguste alleges that Diplo knowingly infected her with chlamydia after losing her virginity to him. She recounts that he pressured her and another woman into not using condoms by continuously asserting that he was STI-free. As part of the suit, she states that he and his lawyers continue to allege that he does not have Herpes or HIV. To further prove that he was negative for HIV, Diplo posted a screenshot of his STI panel of testing, which showed negative results, but a simple zoom-in shows that he is, in fact, positive for HSV1, which is the oral form of the infection. 

    Azealia Banks, who is sometimes known more for her social media antics than her music, also alleged that at the age of 17, Diplo engaged in sexual activity with her and that she felt pressured to do so because of his social status in the music industry. While she may not make the most credulous source, there have been far too many other women alleging a similar pattern of abuse from the super producer, and even some hints at his true self from his own words.

    Diplo’s past Twitter exploits are filled with tweets that can easily be taken as tongue-in-cheek, but after allegations of him infecting women with multiple STIs, some of those now-deleted tweets seem much more damning. On May 6, 2015, he tweeted, “@alexxxagrash @Dixiecreamm cool thing about HIV is u can’t get it twice,” followed by a smiley face emoji with its tongue out. A year-and-a-half prior, he tweeted, “If success is a disease, I got full blow [sic] aids.” While these can be written off as insensitive jokes, the most damning is tweeted from June 6, 2010, “girls born in the 90s I hav [sic] to stop sleepin with u.”

    Diplo was 31 when he tweeted that.

    The oldest girl he would have been able to LEGALLY have sexual relations with would have been 20. In July of 2017, when he was 38 years old, he tweeted, “Low key sent my cv for r Kelly sex cult membership,” I’m sure most 38-year-olds would not make jokes about having sex with underage girls well, unless, of course, if they actually wanted to have sex with underage girls.

    Quen moved into his house three years later. 

    Diplo seems to be targeting Black women and women of color, and that does not include the two Black women with whom he has children. His work in the industry shields him from receiving his just punishment for knowingly spreading STIs to young impressionable girls and women; being a rich white man who preys on marginalized groups affords him extra layers of the same protection he denies them. His jokes seem to have way too much truth to them and don’t indicate that he has any sense of moral character, but people still knowingly work with this artist. 

    Hopefully, he will be taken down like Diddy or the same person whose sex cult he wanted to join, R. Kelly; maybe they have a behind-bars chapter of the organization. 

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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