Thursday, December 5, 2013

PaRappa the Scammer

 Dred Foxx is a voice actor best known for performing the role of PaRappa the Rapper in the classic series of Sony games. It's my favorite game of all time, so when I heard he was on Facebook I dropped him a line and he added me to the Facebook PaRappa fan group. He seemed like a really cool guy, so when I thought about what I might want to do for my next animation project I figured it would be easy enough to ask him to do some PaRappa lines for a fan cartoon. I asked my friend Jacob if he thought it was a good idea and he agreed and sent him a message about it:



We didn't really want to pay $100, so we came up with $30 each and decided to see if that would be enough for the 7-8 lines we wanted him to do:



Apparently that would work but PayPal wasn't going to fly. This probably should have been the first clue that something was up but I thought nothing of it and tried out his alternate methods of payment. Moneygram didn't work so finally I tried Western Union and was able to send him the $60:



Dred says he'll have our lines done by the weekend and praises our honesty. Oh, the irony. A few days later Jake gets a message:


Evidently his management "found out" (aka he told them) and was now forcing him to charge the full $100. I was about to back out since I don't have that kind of scratch to be throwing around, but Jake was really set on seeing this happen so he put up the rest of the cash out of his own pocket. (I should clarify here, the money all originally came out of my bank account. Jake was going to pay me his half once the lines arrived.) Since I wasn't taking any big financial hit here I agreed to the deal. All the cash was sent by Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012. Dred promised us the lines by Friday and all was well!



Around this time Hurricane Sandy hit New York, so Dred understandably was not online for a while. However, he promised to get us the lines as soon as he could.


Er... that is, he apparently had the lines, but then... lost them. Not sure how that would have happened if he just sent them to us when he had them finished, but whatever.



Dred promises that he'll send back our "$$$" by the next week if he's still unable to record them. Sounds fair.

December 2nd I send him a message about how he can send the money… and he replies 17 days later claiming he can send it through PayPal. Wait... I thought his PayPal was "inactive for a minute"? Well, whatever. At least he plans on paying me ba-



...This clown owes us $100 and not only went out and bought an iPad, but is now asking for donations from members of the PaRappa fan group to replace it after he lost it at a Public Enemy concert? "Not taking advantage of his peeps" my ass! This isn't just PaRappa the Scammer anymore, this is full-on UmJammer Scammy!

I didn't feel like dealing with the situation over my winter break, so I stopped contacting him for a while. But on January 13th, he made like a genie and offered to grant us a wish!




As long as that wish isn't giving us our money back, apparently! I have no clue what he's talking about here. I already told him I wanted a refund, and he already said he'd send one. Why he's trying to weasel out of it now is beyond me, and I told him as much.

After a few months I get fed up with the excuses and send him a strongly worded message. It's really long and mostly consists of me summarizing the situation, but here's how it ends:



Yes, the old "my uncle is a lawyer" line. A bit weak, but I was just hoping to get some sort of reaction besides apathy from him. And I did...



He was going to send it this weekend? How convenient. And still the lies keep flowing, this man can't afford an iPad let alone a lawyer. However, he then backtracks a bit and appeals to sympathy by saying "things happen he has no control of". If that's the case then keep me updated instead of disappearing for weeks at a time!

I reply and he, unsurprisingly, doesn't respond. I've had it at this point. Jake then takes up the mantle of Chief Sucker and pesters Dred for our money over the summer, to no avail. Finally, he also decides to stop playing nice, and has me help him draft up something more intimidating. But Dred again puts on his tough guy face:



Aha, now the final score is revealed. "There is no agreement in writing" really just means "I don't have to pay you back because you never got me to sign anything, suckers!"

I send a few more requests for money that go ignored, and finally let Dred know that if he doesn't pay me back, I will write up an article about his thievery and lies... I think you know what comes next.


Wow! This guy seriously thinks his "fans" on Facebook are blind idiots who will follow him to the ends of the earth because he rapped about a dog taking a crap one time. (If you'll read part 2, you'll see that he is unfortunately correct.) And by the way, I would love to hear a song written about me, it might actually be worth the $100.

So there you have it folks. The long, sad story of John Simpson III, aka Dred Foxx. How does this tale end? Well, probably not with me getting my money back, but... I gotta believe!

33 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I used to play parappa but every time I hear "money money money is all you need I just cry inside.

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  2. That's actually quite horrible to hear...I've always thought this guy had a "werd" style of writing, but I never expected him to do something dishonest as this. I love his voice, but now that he is a thief, I don't know if I can look at him the same way ever again... His excuses were horrible, it's almost on the same level as a teen. I hope you DO get your money back. It's kinda sad to make your favorite game character's voice your enemy, but he deserves it when he can't even do as he promise.

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  3. Dude voiced a cartoon dog that spat such amazingly creative lines as "The toilet over there will bring you luck so give up! I got no time to spare!", and "You are a chicken, from the kitchen, and you ain't kidding, although nothing is written.". Should probably be a little more humble, all things considered.

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  4. congrats you are the only person on earth thats ever gotten owned by a rapping dog lmao

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    1. Great. Now I'm on the same level as Joe Chin and the cat from Titanic: The Animated Movie.

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  5. Now I feel like an idiot for posting my sympathy on that laptop scam. I'm gonna go delete that comment before I feel like more of an idiot.

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  6. I'm rooting for you brotha. Id be willing to kick in a few bucks if you start of campaign of some sort. This guy needs to pay for his arrogance.

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    1. Yeah. Actually, I would be too. Do it, Cam, do it!

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    2. It wouldn't be right taking money from random strangers. It's not your fault, after all. I appreciate the offer though!

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    3. Eh, it's all good. I can't say I'd have accepted either were I in your shoes, but you managed yourself so impressively throughout this whole thing that you've earned yourself the good will and then some.

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  7. Bummer of a story. Sorry you had to go through this but glad you exposed this piece of shit to the internet.

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  8. That's fucked, hope shit gets sorted for you guys. Dred should be ashamed.

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  9. This shit totally sucks. You probably won't get your money back, but I hope it goes viral as hell and drags him down. I always like UmJammerLammy more anyway.

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  10. fuck dred, what a bitch made punk.

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  11. Despite whatever Dred believes, he did enter a contract with you the moment he agreed to take cash for providing a service. You don't really need a lawyer to bring suit in a small claims case. Call your local magistrate's office and ask for advice on how to proceed. They're usually really good with helping people out with this sorta stuff. If you go ahead with the suit, you'll probably win your case. He'll have to deal with the headache of a court case, and when he loses, he'll have debt collectors or even the sheriff's office breathing down his neck.

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    1. Ya and the FBI will storm his home, and the CIA, and the army and...and...LMAO ! No ones gonna give a crap. This guys should do his self a favor and just let it go. Get on with his life. It will be cheaper, and better all around for his health. (mental health)

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  12. I really feel bad for you. Didn't know "Parappa" was such a POS scumbag. I would personally like to thank that asshole for tainting my fond childhood memories of said character.

    Sincerely, A former "Parappa" fan.

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  13. Aww PaRappa has a mean voice actor! That sucks alot 'cause he's a great character! Oh well... Atleast the Anime PaRappa's voice actor is nice...

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    1. Ikr, I love the parappa anime voice actor, when I found out about the scam I got so upset that I listened to a couple of his songs/acting roles to think of a good parappa ヾ(*´∀`*)ノ

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  14. Whoa, that's so terrible to hear. It just goes to show we don't really know the voice behind our favorite characters after all. I wish there was a way to sue his butt and get your money back. He also seems to be very offensive to little things. You all seemed very professional and despite his career to maintain his "image" he seems very unprofessional. I loved him as a child, was completely obsessed with him, but now I'm having second thoughts... :/

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    Replies
    1. I'll always enjoy his voice acting, but yeah, the man himself is clearly not worthy of admiration.

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    2. Yeah, so after reading everything I can tell that this guy is a huge jerk and will get what's coming to him soon enough. I'll be sure to tell others about your story and about this lunatic man and what he did. I feel like if it were me in this situation I would want people to help me out. Plus the only reason why people were "supporting" him was because he was "famous"... XD. Anyway, just letting you know that you're not alone and that there are people that fully support you. I'm definitely one of them. :)

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  15. what if its fake?

    parappa would never do something like that

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    Replies
    1. True, PaRappa would never do something like this. His voice actor, on the other hand...

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  17. Wow, did you ever get your money back?

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  18. What's your next act? Tara Strong? Can't wait!

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    1. Obviously you don't have evidence that this blog is fake or you would have presented it, so I'm just gonna assume you're one of those people who still hangs out on Dred's secret Facebook fan page for whatever reason and decides to believe his dubious word over pages upon pages of screenshot, eyewitness, and video evidence.

      Word of advice: don't fall for the cult of personality crap. You can appreciate someone's artistic work while acknowledging that they've done some bad things. Forget the scamming, the man literally sent me a death threat. That wouldn't be an okay thing to do even if I was pulling this entire tale out of my ass.

      Also Tara Strong is awesome.

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    2. After reading this it really sucks to see things like this. I love parappa but his voice actor is a terrible person. It's 2017 and he still hasn't given back your money? I hope you gave up on that fan animation.

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  19. Wow, what a scumbag. I can't believe that the guy still hasn't paid you guys back out of shame at this point, but he probably doesn't have any based on this post. "The extent of your problems is that your iPad was stolen? Your iPad that you foolishly took with you to a concert? Your iPad that you supposedly bought to replace your supposedly broken laptop even though you could have just bought a new laptop for less (or, you know, paid back the kids whose admiration for you you took advantage of)?" Give me a goddamn break.
    I hope Sony isn't paying this guy in any way for the remastered game.

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  20. Ur Childhood's
    COOL
    GOOD
    BAD
    [(RUINED)]

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