Back in Winter 2012, my friend Jacob and I sent Dred Foxx, the voice of PaRappa the Rapper, $100 to have him do some lines for a fan cartoon on Newgrounds. Upon recieving the cash he repeatedly blew us off until finally I hit my deadline and asked for a refund, which he agreed to but never did. It is now 2014 and the money is still nowhere to be seen.
I had assumed this whole thing would die down, but my friend Saki decided it would be funny to make a post calling Dred a con-artist on the PaRappa Facebook Fan Page the other day to see what would happen.
Basically, everyone treats it as a joke post as they should. I wasn't going to do anything about it. It's been a long time and it's all old news, why bother bringing it up.
Then Dred showed up.
Now, like I said, I wasn't going to get involved. But the fact that Dred came in to specifically call Saki a liar when:
A. The post so far had been a clear joke and not worth his time, and
B. He could have just ignored it
...these got on my nerve. After his post, others began backing Dred up.
Well, after all this I wasn't going to let Dred have Saki come out looking like a liar. I decided to finally post a link to this blog on the Facebook fan page.
Ah, I see you've already met our first character, Brian. As far as I can tell, his only goal in life is to butt heads with anyone who he disagrees with. Here, he proceeds to call me a troll for not having a picture of myself on Facebook. Not content with this, he continues on after Saki calls him out:
Brian quickly resorts to victim blaming, suggesting that Jacob and I basically deserved to get conned. His good buddy Andre backs him up, unable to comprehend that Dred Foxx is anything less than a true saint. Hoping to clear things up, I respond.
Still Brian refuses to listen to reason, so I decide to reinforce my statements, as well as provide further proof for my case.
The video posted in the link can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXEj39C_X8k
Jacob arrives to defend me. If you're wondering why he doesn't comment on the Dred Foxx business, it's because he's been staying on his good side hoping to get our money back while I play bad cop. Before Brian returns to spew more garbage though, a surprise guest arrives:
Dred Foxx's brother! Unlike most people in the group, he keeps a cool head. Now back to your regularly scheduled asshattery.
More victim blaming and excuse-making. Saki quickly tears him apart.
Unsurprisingly, Brian does not respond after this. However, our favorite rapping dog does!
No joke: I was flabbergasted at this statement. I knew Dred's opinion of himself was inflated before, but 500 million fans? Me, capitalizing on his market? Him, a LEGEND??? If the dude was as rich and famous as he claims then 100 bones to him would be small potatoes, so why won't he return it? I come back with another "loooong winded message"!
(By the way, that PaRappa Album he's referring to? He's been "working on that" since before this whole scam business began. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.)
After this, Dred didn't respond and I thought the matter was closed. Little did I know that he had actually moved to the PaRappa 3 Petition fangroup, and, well, take a look for yourself.
I'm sure you're all disgusted. No, not the chicken fryer rhyme. I'm talking about the part where the guy who stole $100 from me literally tells me to f*** off... and 18 PEOPLE LIKE IT
Now, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. I had posted my story on the PaRappa Fan Page, not in the petition group, so maybe they didn't know. Some people take the initiative and check things out for themselves.
Some don't take a stance, but acknowledge that Dred's behavior is unacceptable.
And some keep on kissing ass.
THE ODASITY.
I finally have had enough, and make one last statement hoping to perhaps change some minds.
And here we are now. I honestly don't know what to say. I knew Dred Foxx would never admit his mistake, but I didn't think other people in the fan group would actually back him up. Not only did I provide evidence of his douchebaggery towards me, but he outright confirms its legitimacy in the public forum and they STILL act like he's the greatest thing since sliced bread! Now I know that a scant few didn't act this way (and I thank them), and I'm not saying that he should get poo flung at him or anything, but the least people could do is let him know that stealing money from his fans and acting arrogant about it is not OK. If anyone reading this blog agrees, please send Dred a message on Facebook saying so. It might not mean much coming from just a few people, but the more who help, the more likely Jacob and I will get our money back. Thanks for reading.
UPDATE: Dred goes apeshit!
We are witnessing a true meltdown, folks.
Oroku Saki? Is Dred Foxx secretly Splinter?
ReplyDeleteTake him to small claims court. Seriously. No he didn't sign a formal contract, but what he did was put a verbal contract in writing. What he did was make an actual legal binding contract with you. You would win in a heart beat.
ReplyDeleteWe've considered that. From what we read, we'd have to go to New York to sue him, and unfortunately the price of getting there would cost enough to make the trip pretty much pointless.
DeleteDon't go by what you've "read." You could honestly have a real case here not just for breach of contract but for defamation of character, threats of physical violence, death threats and threats against your future financial well being. The lost potential use of the money could be creatively argued as well. A lot of lawyers will do a free consultation and it could result in not a "payout" for you but justice in General against Dred. It'd be great if you sue him win and then settle for $100 just to piss him off. It'd be worth the cash you may lose on travel and fees. Start a kick starter to cover those. Haha
DeleteThis is probably late, but if you're sure you'd win, I believe you can sue him for the travel fees to get to the court as well
DeleteGod I really want to see this piece of shit eat pavement. I've had shit stollen from me before but this is just ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I'm sending this in as a tip to Kotaku, IGN and the like, and I'll be urging everyone I know to do the same. This shit needs to be exposed, and besides, it's hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThe news tip page for IGN isn't available apparently?
DeleteFound this on Reddit, just wanted to let you know I'm rooting for you man!
ReplyDeleteIn Australia, "rooting" is slang for sex. So...I guess in a way Dred rooted the hell out of this dude. Rooted him right in his trusting arse.
DeleteI'm really hoping that Dred suffers for this.
Posting in epic blog.
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies go out to you. My friends and I started a small business in college. We ended up paying a web developer $2.5k to help build our webpage (half of the $5k quoted total). He never delivered. Like you, there were warning signs in the beginning. For instance, he had said that a real webpage of that type would cost way more but was willing to take a lot less money for it. That he was doing us a favor by taking a small fee and if only we could be a little more patient (and throw him a little more money). That his hard drive crashed, he/family were going through medical issues etc etc. Now, almost four years later, I'm a freelance consultant and I would never operate a business in which I told the customer over and over "sorry, got sick/sorry, broke my wi-fi." Most customers are sympathetic to the personal circumstances of their consultants, but it's not really the customer's responsibility to care. You should get what you pay for, not excuses.
ReplyDeleteSo I've been thinking of some options for you. Let me first say, I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Consult an attorney for professional legal advice. Second, we never got our money back. He still has it. I forgot I was still friends with him and he one time liked my Facebook status. That pissed me off so much.
(Also, it may be more comforting for you to know I was the only at first who wanted to sue. My friends kept defending him before they could acknowledge we'd been had. Nobody wanted to believe it. I was "Mr. Negativity.")
Ok so:
(1) SMALL CLAIMS/GETTING A JUDGEMENT AGAINST HIM
I don't know what would preclude you from filing a small claims court case in your own jurisdiction. But, before you do anything, call your local country clerk's office to ask about filing procedures and requirements for small claims. They are your go to source for this information.
If you choose to sue him in small claims, you need to consider that he probably has other people (creditors?) coming after him. (If he's hard on money, you're not the first person he's done this to most likely.) When you file against someone, the summons gets sent to them via certified mail. If they don't sign the certified mail, then the case can't move forward. We learned the hard way our scammer was not interested in responding to certified mail. In the end, we sent the letter to his wife's work address.
We went to court and he did not show up. We received a judgement against him by default. I *think* you need a judgement first before going forward with attempting to collect your money through other means I'll describe in the next section. Remember too, you can assign interest up to the statutory limit for however long the debt isn't paid (and I think you assign it retroactively). Talk to your lawyer friend here.
(2) COLLECTIONS AGENCIES/WAGE GARNISHMENT
ReplyDeleteCall up collections agencies in New York and see if they are interested in purchasing the debt liability he owes. In fact, you might try calling them first to see if the judgement is even necessary. Also, call the New York clerk of courts office to see if (1) you need to sue him in New York; and (2) what procedures are required to get wage garnishments if you get an outstanding judgement against him. Like a poster said above, your best bet is to ignore online advice and follow up with your own research. That includes what I'm writing here. Most clerks are super helpful; they're there to direct you to what you need.
We had the ability to begin garnishing wages from our scammer. But it was a LOT of paperwork and even more money in fillings. Whatever you pay for to get your money back gets tacked onto their bill. But you have to consider that they can evade your attempts to collect and make it very hard for you to get anything back. It's a lot of upfront investment on your part, slow courts, and shitty scammers. Ask yourself if it's really worth it for $100.
(3) SEE IF YOUR SCHOOL PROVIDES LEGAL ASSISTANCE AS PART OF YOUR TUITION
At my institution, we had a lawyer who could represent us against speeding tickets/DUIs/other shit college kids get into. My guess is that your university does have a paid lawyer on staff, and that he could provide you some legal advice as part of your tuition. If you have this option, do this before anything else. You've already paid for it. He can help you with the filings.
(4) COURT SHOWS: JUDGE JUDY/JUDGE ALEX/PEOPLES COURT ETC...
I'm very serious about this option. Submit your claim on a court show website to appear on a show. Judge Alex and People's Court love cases that involve minor celebrities. There's a good chance (imho) you'd get picked to be on the show. The show is not really court, but functions similarly to a small claims court (really, it's binding arbitration). In any event, you could get your money back plus a free trip. Chances are though, you won't be able to get defamation of character or any other ancillary charges since these shows generally dismiss such claims.
(5) CONTACT OTHER PEOPLE ASSOCIATED WITH DRED FOXX
You might consider calling people he's associated with to see if they can refund you. He said he has a manager... might be of interest to find out who he/she is. Just explain to him or her as calmly as possible what happened. They might pay you back with their own money.
(6) MY ADVICE: FORGET THE MONEY
$100 is nothing to spit at, but it's also not the end of the world. Believe it or not, it's easier to get people riled up over big corporations scamming people. Our $2.5k, and your $100, falls into the area of chump change. It's hard to get anyone to help you get it back. It's such a small amount (seriously, even $2.5k... what lawyer is going to represent us to get the money back that costs the same as their fees?). You could spend hours and hours trying to get your money back from him. Even if that does happen, you'll look back and realize it was a huge waste. And, he can make the process incredibly hard and burdensome for you. It can suck up your whole life... and for what? $100?
That doesn't mean you shouldn't keep updating this blog. Spread the word. Let other people know what's going on. Consider updating his Wikipedia with this controversy. If your $100 helps several other people from creating a contract with him and being scammed, consider it money well spent in the name of public service.
His idiotic lukewarm intimidation tactics are a sorrowful sight to behold. Whatever money you gave him has likely already been spent on whatever he's under the influence of while he writes this crap.
ReplyDeleteHis lack of self-awareness is amusing. He voiced a dog in an obsolete video game series.
Here's an idea: take him up on his offer of him recording more lines, and make him do them for a flash cartoon in which Parappa gets scammed out of cash from his favorite celebrity. I dunno, Jet Baby or something. I think making him preach about how wrong it is to steal money from your fans would be worth it.
ReplyDeleteWow I just lost respect to this guy. This just made parappa very unlikeable to me. I'm with you Cameron, all the way.
ReplyDeleteI'm speechless. I'm with you Cameron. I advice to take a somesort of legal action against him.
ReplyDeleteAs a lawyer, I dunno what these dudes are going on about "we never signed anything" and "never made a formal contract."
ReplyDeleteYes you did. And it's in writing. It being less than $500 also means it doesn't need to be in writing to be enforceable, but the facebook posts are considered writings. At best you have a written, enforceable contract. At worst you have an oral, enforceable contract.
Unless of course the state you guys are in requires differently, but as far as I am aware, these rules of contract formation are fairly uniform.
i now hate parappa the faggot because of this shit, what a fuckin asshole, really.
ReplyDeleteWhat a loser, I hope no one ever hires him for voice work again. I'd be surprised if he actually got work considering how he talks.
ReplyDeletePlease post proof of financial transactions so we no longer need to pursue undeniable evidence.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Western Union seems to only keep transaction records for about 6 months and at the time I hadn't thought to make a note of it, so technically there's no undeniable proof the money changed hands. Dred admits we paid him in more than one post though, so I think we're still good on the evidence front.
DeleteJustice will be served... maybe next week, dont worry. You gotta believe!
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why he's acting like such a child about this, Parappa was popular but no one really gives about the actual voice actor. The voice isn't even that hard to do, the fact that he's an enormous pile of garbage is probably why a Parappa 3 has low chances of actually coming out.
ReplyDeletea fuck*
Deletehope dred eats a big bag of shit over this
ReplyDeleteI really want more of this to unfold. Lol
ReplyDeleteTwo Best Friends Play is spreading the word
ReplyDeleteHey Cameron, I responded to your tweet. Mind having a look for me ASAP? ~Glenn Gordon, PSU/RDGH
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Sw1tcher channel on youtube(two best friends play), addressed this in their podcast. Hopefully you will get even more support towards the fact that Dred is a dickbag. I wouldn't look forward to that 100 dollars though, lol. Interesting enough story you get to carry around though. :P
ReplyDelete"ODASITY" I would appreciate if this was corrected to "AUDACITY" please and thank you.
ReplyDeleteI intentionally misspelled it to mock the guy in the screencap above who did it first while ironically calling others "fools". Thanks for having the odasity to speak up about my potentially egrejeeus grammer mistakes though.
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