EXCLUSIVE: Tyone Blackburn Blames Pills For Deposition Meltdown In Battle With Fat Joe

The lawyer representing Fat Joe’s ex-hypeman, Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, blamed prescription painkillers for his chaotic deposition conduct as the legal wrangling drags on.

Brooklyn-based attorney Tyrone Blackburn told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that narcotics prescribed after medical procedures on January 23 and February 3 affected his memory and behavior during questioning.

Blackburn warned opposing counsel at the start of his March 6 deposition that he was medicated and might struggle to testify, but he proceeded to answer questions for over an hour anyway.

“I have taken narcotics today and I do think that it’s kind of interfering a little bit with my ability to remember,” he said on the record.

The filing comes as Blackburn pushes back against a sanctions motion filed by Fat Joe’s legal team, arguing instead that sanctions should be considered against Dixon and his counsel.

The deposition chaos didn’t start in March. Blackburn acknowledged that he made remarks during a February 24 deposition that crossed the line.

Blackburn mocked Seigel’s appearance and made offensive comments by asking, “What date is your transition surgery?”

View this post on Instagram

Blackburn later issued an on-the-record apology and tied those comments to the medication.

“I apologize to Mr. Seigel for saying that because it was not my intention to offend him in any way, it was the effects of the medication at that time,” he said.

Fat Joe’s legal team claims Blackburn obstructed the deposition by coaching Dixon and repeatedly interrupting, describing the sessions as going violently off the rails.

The bigger story here is that Dixon dropped the most serious allegations against Fat Joe in an amended complaint filed March 26. He’s no longer accusing the rapper of RICO violations, statutory rape, or trafficking minors.

Instead, Dixon is pursuing claims of forced labor, wage theft, copyright infringement, and fraud, alleging he’s owed at least $600,000 in unpaid wages from 2005 to 2020.

The original $20 million lawsuit filed in June 2025 included those explosive allegations, but Dixon quietly walked back the most damaging claims.

Fat Joe sued Dixon for extortion and defamation after he allegedly accused the rapper of being a pedophile on social media, and the legal team has been fighting hard to shut this down.

Blackburn also accused opposing counsel of escalating tensions during a March 27 deposition, claiming he was insulted and accused of criminal conduct in open session.

Beyond the depositions themselves, Blackburn pointed to the public release of confidential materials, saying that transcripts and videos labeled confidential were posted on AllHipHop the same day the sanctions motion was filed.

Fat Joe’s legal battle with his former hypeman has become a courtroom circus, with both sides accusing each other of misconduct and the case shifting dramatically as allegations get dropped.