Hip-hop DJ Mister Cee is leaving his job at New York radio station Hot 97 after a recording of him allegedly offering a drag queen money for sex was released online.
Internet personality Bimbo Winehouse posted audio on YouTube Wednesday of what he claims is the DJ, whose real name is Calvin Lebrun, propositioning him for unspecified sexual services.
Lebrun, who has previously dealt with similar scandals, said on-air Wednesday that he would be leaving the radio station as a result.
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“I went through a lot in the past two years and I’ve tried to rise above those situations, I have tried to move forward from these situations and unfortunately every time I try to move forward, it’s like I take one step forward and then two steps back, and I’m hurting the people who are closest to me, which is my Hot 97 fam,” he said.
He added that the decision to leave was his own, not that of Hot 97 management.
“Anybody that knows me, knows that I love doing this radio thing,” he said. “I have decided that it’s time for me to move on. And it’s time for me to take time out for myself to take care of myself.”
Lebrun later tweeted: “I let everyone down I have issues please don’t give up on me. I need help, just can’t deal right now. Maybe better off dead.”
Throughout Wednesday, he retweeted messages of encouragement from fans.
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Hot 97 general manager Alexandra Cameron said the station was “saddened” by Lebrun’s departure.
“We feel that this is in the best interest of both Hot 97 and Cee’s personal well-being,” she said in a statement. “While we do not endorse the alleged activities, he is clearly facing a personal dilemma that is for him and only him to comment on.”
Lebrun has had prostitution-related run-ins with the law in recent years. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution after police officers caught him receiving oral sex from a man, the New York Daily News reported at the time. He was ordered to three months of counseling.
In May, the DJ was busted for soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer. At the time, Lebrun said he was not gay, and insisted he had been approached by a female undercover cop, not a male police officer.
“Yes, I do like prostitutes. I have engaged a lot with prostitutes in my life many times,” he said on Hot 97 back in May. “Same with strippers. I’ve tricked on them many times. … I don’t have an addiction to prostitutes. I have an addiction to instant gratification. I need help. I been dealing with it and trying to deal with it for the last 10, 12 years.”
Lebrun was a producer on the Notorious B.I.G.‘s 1994 breakthrough album, Ready to Die. Before that he made waves in the hip-hop world as Big Daddy Kane‘s DJ. He had been with Hot 97 since 1993.
