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Pop star Jason Derulo has been accused in a new lawsuit of dropping a record deal for an aspiring singer after she rejected his sexual advances. In an interview with NBC News, Emaza Gibson, 25, accuses Derulo, 34, of aggressive behavior, sexual harassment, implications that she’d have to have sex with him to advance her career, and fear for her safety.
In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, Gibson says she had already established herself as a successful YouTuber when Derulo approached her in 2021. She claims he offered her a joint deal with Atlantic Records and his own imprint, Future History, that would require her to make an album within six months.
As Gibson worked to fulfill her obligations to the labels, she said Derulo frequently invited her out and pressured her to drink with him in the studio. When she said that she did not want to violate her morals for her career, Gibson said that Derulo told her she might have to engage in “goat skin and fish scales,” which the aspiring singer believed was a reference to sacrificial rituals involving sex.