Russell Simmons was reportedly "caught off guard" when he was served in Bali earlier this month.
The reported serving in question is in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed in February by Drew Dixon, whose music industry career includes time as an exec for Def Jam. Dixon, who previously accused Simmons of sexual assault, sued over remarks made in a December 2023 interview for In Depth with Graham Bensinger. In the interview, Simmons denied the multiple allegations against him.
Simmons was served at Gdas Bali Health And Wellness Resort on March 5, according to a report from AllHipHop, citing recent legal docs. Notably, Simmons is a founder and investor at Gdas. Per the report, a process server made it through “two security checkpoints” before taking a seat in the restaurant.
Roughly an hour later, Simmons showed up with a group in the same area of the resort, at which point he was served. In the report, the process server is quoted as saying that he apologized for the interruption before handing Simmons the legal docs. Simmons then reportedly asked for the source of the docs, with the server telling he had just been served "from the State of New York." From there, the process server alleges, Simmons let go of the docs while saying the words "fuck" and "shit."
Complex has reached out to legal reps for Dixon and Simmons for comment. This story may be updated.
Another ex-Def Jam employee sued Simmons last month, with the Jane Doe in that case alleging that her career had been "disrupted and derailed by a devastating experience at the hands of' the Def Jam co-founder.
In a December 2017 statement released amid initial coverage of the accusations against him at the time, Simmons said he had been "shocked" to his core.
"I vehemently deny all these allegations," he said at the time, adding that his relations have all been "consensual."
