Source: Patrick McMullan/Getty
Russell Simmons was served with documents related to a defamation lawsuit against him at a Bali resort earlier this month.
Rap despot Russell Simmons was “caught off guard” as he was reportedly served documents related to a defamation lawsuit filed by former Def Jam executive Drew Dixon at a resort earlier this month. According Referencesprocess server, Daniel John Ayoub arrived at Gdas Bali Health & Wellness Spa in Bali, Indonesia on March 5 at 12:30 p.m. local time and managed to enter a VIP area through two security checkpoints.
He sat in the restaurant area and was about to leave when Simmons arrived and sat with a group. Ayoub reportedly said he waited before serving Simmons and informed him the source of the documents was “from the State of New York.” Simmons is then reported to have responded “Ah s—t! F-!” before throwing the cards on the ground.
Ayoub goes on to say that he heard Simmons calling someone on the phone, sounding agitated. “The South African just handed me an envelope. And she's with a big black guy,” she said. “Should I open the document now or wait until later? How did these people get in here?' The server then left the resort, of which Simmons is primarily a founder and investor. Representatives for Simmons and Dixon had no comment when contacted by the press about the matter.
The defamation lawsuit was filed against Simmons in February by Dixon, a veteran music industry executive who also worked at Def Jam and claims he sexually assaulted her while working at the company. Dixon first made the allegations while appearing on On The Record documentary in 2020. He sued Simmons after comments he made during a December 2023 appearance on In Depth with Graham Besinger podcast about the allegations, which according to the lawsuit documents “continued a concerted and malicious campaign to defame Ms. Dixon and so damage her reputation that Ms. Dixon's actual account of what he did to her will not be credited” .
Simmons also faces another lawsuit filed in New York federal court by a victim identified as Jane Doe in February, who claims her career and life were “disrupted and derailed by a devastating experience at the hands of Simmons in addition to false imprisonment. , battery and infliction of emotional distress.
