Music industry titan **L.A. Reid**, the Grammy-winning executive behind hits from **Usher**, **Pink**, **Mariah Carey**, and **TLC**, has reached a confidential settlement with former Arista Records executive **Drew Dixon** who accused him of sexual assault and career sabotage. The agreement, announced Monday in New York federal court, came the same day jury selection was set to begin, averting a high-profile trial, according to reports from the Associated Press via the San Francisco Chronicle and Boston 25 News.[1][2]
Dixon, who worked under Reid during his tenure as CEO of Arista Records, filed the lawsuit in 2023 under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act—a law she publicly advocated for that opened a one-year window for sex abuse survivors to sue beyond the statute of limitations. She alleged that Reid sexually assaulted her twice in 2001 and retaliated by cutting her budget and sidelining artists after she rebuffed his advances, derailing her career trajectory; she left Arista in 2002. Reid’s attorney, Imran H. Ansari, stated that the matter was “amicably resolved… without any admission of liability.”[1][2] Terms of the settlement remain confidential, as confirmed by Dixon’s lawyer, Kenya Davis.[1][2]
Outside the Manhattan federal courthouse, a smiling Dixon, surrounded by family and lawyers, expressed relief and optimism. “I’m excited to get back to making music,” she said, describing the litigation as an “arduous process.” Her mother, former Washington, D.C., Mayor Sharon Pratt, called it an “excruciating journey.” Davis noted the settlement empowers Dixon “to move forward with her creative pursuits on her own terms, with her reputation, her voice, and her career reaffirmed.” Witnesses lined up for Dixon’s side included musicians **John Legend** and Aku Orraca-Tetteh, plus industry exec Roy Lott.[1][2] In a written statement, Dixon added that music remains her “greatest source of comfort and joy,” teasing “big ideas for future projects” driven by creativity and integrity. She hoped her advocacy under the Adult Survivors Act would foster “a music business that is safer for everyone,” offering survivors “a ray of light peeking through the clouds.”[1][2][3]
This resolution caps a saga rooted in Dixon’s 2017 public allegations, amplified in the 2020 HBO documentary On the Record, which spotlighted sexual misconduct in hip-hop and music. Dixon has also accused hip-hop mogul **Russell Simmons** of rape—which he denies—and maintains a pending defamation suit against him. Reid, a 10-time Grammy nominee and co-founder of LaFace Records with Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds (home to **Outkast**, **Boyz II Men**), helmed Arista, Island Def Jam, and Epic Records, exiting the latter in 2017 amid separate harassment claims from a former assistant. The settlement underscores ongoing reckonings in the industry, where power dynamics have long shadowed executive suites, potentially closing a chapter for Reid while bolstering survivor voices like Dixon’s.[1][2][3]
