TikTok star Quentin Blackwell has reignited online rumors that Diplo groomed her as a teenager in new viral TikToks, as she spoke about how she was “not in a good situation” and accused “40-year-olds” of normalizing an inappropriate relationship she had with an unnamed person.
In the first TikTok, she said, “Throwback to that time I was getting groomed and all the 40-year-olds around me were like: ‘Your souls are so in sync.’”
She continued, “Like, can anyone call the police? ‘Cus I’m not in a good situation and ya’ll are just making it worse.”
The TikTok was captioned with, “Never link with 40-year-olds.” With over 838,000 views, the viral clip was flooded with comments of users naming Diplo as the unnamed groomer Blackwell is referring to in the clip.
In October 2020, when Blackwell was 19, she revealed in a series of TikToks that she was living with the then-41-year-old musician. The Daily Dot reported at the time how fans expressed concern over the living situation and accused Diplo of grooming the teenager. With countless users assuming that Blackwell’s latest TikTok referred to Diplo, many showed their support to the former Vine star.
“Shout out to you for figuring it out and getting yourself out of there,” one user wrote. “Why did I think he was just being a nice man by letting you live with him?” another asked. “We was scared for you,” a third comment read.
Days after posting the first TikTok, Blackwell posted a second one sharing a screen recording of a purported text conversation between her and an unnamed person. From the screen recording, it appears that the person texting Blackwell is the groomer she referred to in the first TikTok.
Duetting her original TikTok, Blackwell shares purported text messages from the unnamed person reacting to the video. In one text message, the person appears to say, “I’ve done too much for you just to ignore me. These things create so many problems for me. Why don’t you understand that?” Another text message reads, “I only went and touched your nipple once, that don’t count as grooming.”
In the screen recording, this person also appears to ask Blackwell to “make a comment that says this is not about me so it won’t go viral and make my life a nightmare,” promising to buy her dinner from Nobu in return.
“Just do this one thing for me,” the purported text message reads. In the caption for the TikTok, Blackwell wrote, “I refused to be revictimized, look how WEIRD this is. Y’all please beware of these WEIRDOS.”
As with the first TikTok, multiple commenters assumed that the person purportedly contacting Blackwell was Diplo, with several users asking Blackwell to confirm the identity of the person she was talking about.
Despite heavy speculation that Diplo is the person Blackwell is referring to in her latest TikToks, she has not confirmed the identity of her purported groomer. The Daily Dot were unable to independently verify whether or not Diplo was the alleged groomer Blackwell was referring to in her latest TikToks. Blackwell did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment. We’ve reached out to a representative for Diplo listed on his IMDB Pro page.
When Blackwell revealed she was living with Diplo in October 2020, the Daily Dot reported how multiple social media users posted purported evidence that the rapper was, as one Twitter user at the time put it, “always messing with teenage black girls.”
One thing that was unearthed was a recording of Azealia Banks’ podcast Cheapy’s Two Cents, during which the rapper claimed Diplo had sex with her when she was 17 years old. “I always give [Diplo] credit for launching my career off, but yeah I had to give him some teenage pussy to do it,” Banks says in the clip.
Screenshots of a purported tweet made by Diplo, where he allegedly wrote “Low-key sent [his] CV for R Kelly sex cult membership” also resurfaced, which was allegedly posted and quickly deleted the day after a report into sexual misconduct allegations against R Kelly was published.
Following widespread concern, with countless social media users accusing Diplo of grooming Blackwell, the musician said on Twitter that he merely acted as Blackwell’s landlord.
“OK so I rent one of my properties to [Blackwell],” he wrote. “And yes, I use the studio that is in that building. Her social media is sarcastic and chaotic and I can see you can get a twisted idea but there is nothing but a friendship between us.”
In her own Twitter statement at the time, Blackwell said, “I’m an adult, I’m not being groomed. Platonic relationships exist.” She added, “My parents trust him. I trust him.”
From there, concerns around Diplo’s behavior faded; but they resurfaced once again last summer. In June and July, two separate lawsuits were filed against Diplo: One by Shelley Auguste and one by an unnamed woman for damages related to sexual coercion and sexual battery, respectively.
In Auguste’s lawsuit, she accuses Diplo of having sex with her when she was 17 as well as acts like revenge porn, sexual assault, filming them having sex without her consent, and allegedly giving her an STD. The lawsuit, as quoted by Rolling Stone, reads, “Diplo is a highly successful songwriter and record producer. He is also a middle-aged white man who targets very young Black women and girls for sexual assault.”
At the time, Diplo’s lawyer denied the allegations made in both lawsuits to TMZ, with BuzzFeed News reporting that the second lawsuit was later dropped. As of October, the outlet report that L.A. prosecutors are considering criminal charges against the rapper in relation to claims made in Auguste’s lawsuit.
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