The two women suing Top Dawg Entertainment for sexual harassment, assault, and negligence won an early round in court Wednesday when a judge ruled they can proceed with their doxxing claims against the prominent hip-hop label.
The women first sued TDE in on Dec. 6, 2024, claiming the company and employees including high-ranking executives Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr. and Brandon Tiffith – the sons of TDE founder Anthony “Top” Tiffith, Sr. – allowed a “pervasive” culture of sexual harassment to run unchecked at the label for years, leading to the women’s alleged abuse.
The lawsuit, which referred to the women by the pseudonyms Jane Doe and Jane Roe, flew under the radar for nearly two months. The women’s lawyers then issued a press release on Jan. 31, summarizing the claims.
A day later, the law firm representing TDE responded with a statement identifying the women by name and calling the lawsuit a “shakedown” for $48 million. Four days after that, the women filed an amended complaint that was triple the size of their original, filled with alleged text messages and other evidence to support their claims. They also added the doxxing claims. “Plaintiffs cannot imagine a legitimate, non-harassing purpose behind TDE’s release of their personally identifying information,” the amended lawsuit said.
TDE, the label best known for guiding the careers of Grammy-winning artists Kendrick Lamar and SZA, quickly sought to block the doxxing claims. It said the women’s Jan. 31 press release was so inflammatory, the company had a right to name them to “correct false statements.”
Before the judge ruled in the women’s favor Wednesday, a lawyer for TDE repeatedly argued that the label’s “shakedown” statement naming the women was protected by the First Amendment. She said the women had not pursued, much less received, a court order sealing their identities when TDE named them on Feb. 1.
“There’s no statute, no law, no order that was violated by the any of the contents of the defendants’ statement,” TDE lawyer Allison Hart told Los Angeles County Judge Michael E. Whitaker in a courtroom in Beverly Hills. Hart said the music industry is a “relatively small world,” and TDE identified the women by name to counter the credibility of their “very salacious and false press release.”
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“[The lawsuit] implies that they had some inside, direct knowledge that there is a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment present within our client’s organization. It was necessary to identify the plaintiffs in order to refute that statement,” Hart argued. She said the women were aware of the process for obtaining a court order sealing their names. She suggested they didn’t pursue it in a timely fashion.
Judge Whitaker said it didn’t matter that the women hadn’t yet received the court’s blessing. They still had time.
“Your clients took the next step of identifying them by their names, their true identities,” the judge scolded Hart. “The argument about whether or not they could have proceeded [with pseudonyms] was for another day. If [TDE’s] press release simply said, ‘We’ve been sued by Jane Doe and Jane Roe, and we deny all the allegations,’ that would have been fine. But at that time, according to the public record, they were Jane Doe and Jane Roe.”
In his written ruling, the judge said, “publicly revealing [plaintiffs’] true identities was not a necessary part of correcting the narrative.”
Parties in California civil actions are allowed to proceed to trial with pseudonyms if they can demonstrate that disclosing their real names could result in a specific harm, such as retaliatory physical or mental harm. The potential harm must be such that it creates an “overriding interest” that outweighs possible prejudice to the opposing party or the public’s interest in knowing a party’s identity.
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After the women were named in the statement issued by TDE’s law firm, they filed their amended complaint with their real names, Linda Luna and Ayah Altayri. Luna said the alleged doxxing led to a deluge of harassing messages. She said two of her clients terminated their professional relationships with her amid the firestorm.
In the lawsuit, Luna alleges that while working for TDE starting in 2019, Brandon Tiffith, the company’s chief marketing officer, subjected her to unwanted sexual advances. She alleges that on one occasion, he attempted to force her into oral sex, stating, “You know this was bound to happen.” Luna further claims TDE President Anthony Tiffith, Jr. sexually harassed her repeatedly, including over text, and that TDE failed to pay her.
Altayri alleges she endured multiple instances of sexual harassment and assault by other men purportedly associated with TDE while on TDE property. During one alleged incident, she was coerced into consuming alcohol while underage for the purpose of sexual exploitation, the lawsuit claims.
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“We have the utmost respect for the court, but believe that today’s decision that our clients were not allowed to disclose the plaintiffs’ names was in error, and we intend to immediately appeal and continue vigorously defending against plaintiffs’ bogus claims,” Hart says in a statement sent to Rolling Stone.
Shounak Dharap, the lawyer who appeared in court on behalf of the women, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A trial in the case has been set for May 17, 2027.
