Warning: This article includes details of assault and sexual assault
BBC Three has released a new documentary titled Music’s Dirty Secrets: Women Fight Back about sexual assault in the music industry. Taking a close look at a few artists and the people who have enabled them, it shows the rise and fall, to varying degrees, of Erick Morillo, Octavian, Solo 45 and others, their abusive patterns and how they were able to abuse people for so long.
Over the 44 minutes, BBC reporter Tamanna Rahman says she uncovers “a story the music industry might not want to hear. It’s shocking, it’s traumatic, and it’s about the abuse of women.”
Erick Morillo’s abuse has been well documented on this website. The documentary interviews one of his accusers DJ Kristen Knight, who says that Morillo raped her after they played a party in Miami in December of 2019. She also says a date rape drug was found in her system. Morillo died in September after he was arrested and charged with sexual battery in August 2020.
The documentary also looks at those around Solo 45, who was sentenced to prison for raping and imprisoning four women in a brutal manner that included interrogating, rape, torture and water boarding. He is serving 30 years. The doc suggests that Island Records, his former label, turned a blind eye to abusive behavior. A year before he was signed, his girlfriend at the time reported him to police in Cyprus for domestic violence. He was convicted of battery and sentenced to six months in prison. He signed his deal shortly after being released.
In the report, four people at Island say that when he signed at the label, Solo 45 was sending “explicit videos to people in the office…disgusting texts and videos of him with other women.” The label says in a statement that they "ceased all activity with Solo 45 immediately” when he was charged with rape in Bristol, U.K., in 2017. Before that, Island “had no reason to suspect he was capable of the appalling criminal behavior for which he was arrested and convicted.”
Octavian was accused of abuse by Emo Baby (whose real name is Hana), who had a complicated relationship with the hotly tipped rapper. She released videos showing alleged abuse in November before he was supposed to release a new album. The label dropped him the next day. The documentary goes into further detail of the abuse and how he was able to keep up the charade for so long. Hana says that she was pressured to sign an NDA in exchange for £20,000 before she spoke out. Octavian has denied the allegations. Black Butter says they acted "reasonably and properly."
It then takes a larger look at abuse in the business, pointing to a 2019 survey by the Musicians Union, which found that almost nine out of ten people who said they'd experienced sexual assault in the music business didn't report it.
Watch the documentary here. It is only available to watch in the UK, but that is what VPNs are for.
If anyone is affected by sexual assault, whether it happened to you or someone you care about, can find support on the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673. You can also visit online.rainn.org to receive support via confidential online chat.
