Recently, news came to light that Quenlin Blackwell—a 19-year-old YouTuber, TikToker, and general Internet personality—has been living with none other than Diplo, who is just shy of 42 years old.
Blackwell recently shared her living situation in a TikTok video that’s since been making rounds on Twitter. “I always see y’all staying in my comments like, ‘do your neighbors not file noise complaints? Like, why does no one ever tell you to shut up?'” Blackwell said. “Uh, I live with Diplo right now, and he supports my endeavors.”
Naturally, concerns arose regarding Blackwell’s wellbeing, with fans of the social media star speculating that the DJ might be grooming her. However, Blackwell swiftly denied the allegations.
“I’m an adult,” Blackwell’s follow-up post read. “I’m not being groomed. Platonic relationships exist. I’ve been living here for over a year…I’d rather break both of my legs and be forced to walk than pursue Diplo romantically and he’d rather choke. He’s [barely] in LA bc he’s so busy [sic].”
She continued: “Diplo has given me the opportunity and the security to create. Diplo and his team are my mentors in LA and they are my safety net. Diplo and his team have saved me numerous times from the weirdos in LA. My parents trust him. I trust him. Y’all are making me feel icky. Diplo is my LA dad..nothing more.”
Diplo doubled down on denying the grooming allegations: “OK so I rent one of my properties to @quenblackwell,” he wrote on Twitter. “And yes I use the studio that is in that building. Her social media is sarcastic and chaotic and I can see you can get a twisted idea but there is nothing but a friendship between us.”
But not everybody is so easily convinced that Diplo and Blackwell’s relationship is strictly platonic. Audio has recently resurfaced of a radio interview with rapper Azealia Banks, who claims that she and Diplo had a sexual relationship when she was 17 years old, which would have made the DJ around 29 at the time. “I’ve always given him credit for f*cking launching my career off,” Banks said. “But, yeah, I had to give him some teenage p*ssy to do it.”
In the last couple of months, a number of Twitter threads have circulated outlining Diplo’s alleged predatory behavior—namely towards underage Black women. These include not only physical relationships, but also encouraging teenage girls to share videos of themselves twerking to his music, which he would then occasionally reshare.
A Twitter user named Shelly also shared an extensive thread alleging that Diplo once hired a private investigator to scare her into staying silent about “disgusting details” she knew about him. ” I slowly started to realize he is a huge manipulating liar / gaslighter,” Shelly wrote. “Who PREYS on young [women] of ALL races (to be honest) But primarily young naive women of color.”
And, perhaps most self-incriminating of all, screenshots have resurfaced of a since-deleted tweet from Diplo in 2010, which read, “girls born in the 90s i hav to stop sleepin with u.” At the time the tweet was posted, these girls would have been between 10 and 20 years old, while he was 31.
Other famous female musicians have spoken up about their tumultuous relationships with Diplo. Rapper Kreayshawn, who rose to viral fame in 2011 with her song “Gucci Gucci,” tweeted: “I mean… I have a Diplo story,” linking to a vlog she recorded in 2014 discussing how she once received nude photos from a “fake Diplo.” “I don’t think I was catfished lmao… but, who knows.”
Rapper M.I.A., who collaborated with Diplo on her hit single “Paper Planes” and maintained a romantic relationship with him, has spent years speaking out about the emotional abuse and manipulation she experienced at the hands of the DJ.
“The whole two years I was with him, I just let him dictate,” M.I.A. said in an emotional 2015 interview with Rolling Stone. “I basically had this man dictate to me how everything in America that I experienced was completely, like, irrelevant and it was nothing. So it was kind of a weird time for me. It was only afterwards, when I went into the second record and I went into it without him, I got to enjoy that by myself.”
We might not have an answer now about whether or not Diplo is currently grooming Blackwell, but considering the DJ’s track record, a 41-year-old living with a 19-year-old in any capacity isn’t a good look.
