A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against rapper 50 Cent, saying he “destroyed” her reputation.
Lastonia Leviston is suing the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, claiming he doctored and released her private sex tape during a feud with Rick Ross, with whom Leviston has a child, report the New York Daily News.
50 Cent narrated the entire tape and spent the narration calling Leviston vile names while giving vulgar descriptions of her body parts. At the end of the tape, the rapper says, “She dead.”
“She dead! … meaning he’s done destroyed her — destroyed her reputation,” Leviston’s lawyer Philip Freidin said as she sobbed.
But 50 Cent’s lawyer, James Renard, said that Leviston’s life had improved since taking the suit to court, pointing out that Ross had moved her into a nice three-bedroom home.
“Her life is better because she filed this lawsuit against Rick Ross’ rival,” he said.
The tape, Leviston contended, was used in order to generate traffic for the rapper’s website, where concert tickets could be purchased. Although 50 Cent did not know Leviston personally, he received the amateur tape when an ex-boyfriend, Maurice Murray, brought it to him and told him that Leviston was okay with him using it.
‘In relying on Murray’s representation that he consented and his long-term girlfriend consented, Jackson formed a reasonable belief that he could use that video. He is not a lawyer,” Renard said.
50 Cent blurred Murray’s face in the tape and inserted a cartoon version of himself named “Pimpin’ Curly.”