Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. – better known as T.I. or TIP – and his wife Tameka Cottle (Tiny, a singer and member of R&B group Xscape) are finding themselves embroiled in some rather horrific allegations.
A video press conference held by attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn on Monday revealed that he has asked for authorities in California and Georgia to investigate the couple for alleged sexual abuse and assault against several women between the years of 2005 to 2018.
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Blackburn – who went on to detail the allegations to include sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, false imprisonment, intimidation, assault and harassment – is representing a total of 11 alleged victims of the couple. With the allegations going as far back as 16 years, Blackburn addressed the question of why the allegations were only being brought up now:
“They all have various reasons why they took so long to come out. One of the reasons is that they did not think anyone would believe them.”
Blackburn went on to call deem the allegations “methodical, sadistic abuse”, pushing for the allegations to be investigated for criminal charges. Amongst the 11 women he’s representing is Sabrina Peterson, a friend of the couple who in January, took to social media to allege that T.I. had pulled a gun on her and threatened to kill her after she got into an altercation with his assistant. Following her post, she also shared allegations by other women who had approached her while claiming they had been assaulted and abused by the couple. At the time, T.I. had taken to his own Instagram account to deny the allegations in an 8-minute long video, calling them “disgusting, anonymous allegations”. A military veteran, a former friend-turned-assistant, an exotic dancer and a teenage intern at T.I.’s studio and record label, Grand Hustle, were among the accusers, the lawyer’s letters said.
With the fresh wave of allegations brought up by Blackburn, the couple is once again denying them all. In a statement provided to media, their attorney Steve Sadow said,
“Clifford (T.I.) and Tameka Harris deny in the strongest possible terms these unsubstantiated and baseless allegations. We are confident that if these claims are thoroughly and fairly investigated, no charges will be forthcoming. These allegations are nothing more than the continuation of a sordid shakedown campaign that began on social media. The Harrises implore everyone not to be taken in by these obvious attempts to manipulate the press and misuse the justice system.”
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Whether by coincidence or as a result of the accusations levelled against him, T.I. has also been revealed to have been excluded from the upcoming Ant-Man movie, “Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania”. T.I. has been part of the ‘Ant-Man’ franchise from the start (in 2015) as Dave, a member of Scott Lang’s crew and went on to reprise his role in the 2018 sequel. Although there hadn’t been any indication that T.I. was meant to appear in the third movie, any possibility of it happening has now been dashed following the horrific allegations. All filming for T.I.’s VH1 reality show ‘T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle’ has also been halted.
*Cover image credit: Instagram / @troubleman13
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