She wanted to play hardball. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have leaked the tracks, but maybesheshouldn’t have stolen my work and gaslit me about it. And got me fired from the film job I’d been working so, so hard to get.
After that, I had nothing. I was working a busboy job in some sticky bar and grill while she was making millions offDiatribe. I was clearing a table one night while they had the AMAs going on the TV in the corner, and I remember I spilled gravy or some shit all down my pants. It looked like I had thrown up on myself. And I’m sopping up that shit with napkins and getting wet, shredded napkin bits all overmy clothes, and in the background Ryan is making this impassioned speech aboutbeing a woman in this industry.
Something in me just snapped. All those leaks did was make her album better. And my punishment was to go back to the trenches while she got to live her dream and rake in the cash? No. I knew that wasn’t right.
And you know what? I stand by what I said. I’m not convinced shedidn’twant me to leak those songs. Why would she leave them right there when she knew I was upset?
Why did she leave me alone with them for so long?
Was that even her dad on the phone?
Skip
Everyone went about everything all wrong. If that Justin bastard would have come to Madcap when he got his boxers in a twist about “Mine All Mine,” we would’ve given him a songwriting credit, whatever he wanted. IfRyanhad come to me before the leak, we could have fixed it together. I mean, these things happen, it was a genuine accident. Jas could tell you as well as anyone that it’s hard to know where exactly you’re pulling these lyrics from, and you can’t ever be 100 percent certain it’s not something you’ve heard before. There are systems in place to mitigate that—we vet thoroughly before publishing. Obviously a poem written by a horny thirteen-year-old on the back of—what was it, a bank statement?—is not going to be in the ASCAP database. So we need that communication wherever we can get it.
But Ryan was embarrassed, hoping it would all blow over. And I’m not free of blame, either, not at all. I should’ve gone through the proper legal channels right when the leak happened rather than going along with Ryan’s goddamn tit-for-tat revenge plan. Momentary lapse in sanity on my part. That’s all I can say.
Once that article was out, though ... the damage was already done. And Justin was veering firmly into libel.
We had no choice but to sue.
Online post samples compiled by Mari and the Madcap marketing team
rydeORdie_1990
justin is lying thru his teeth. u think u can trust anything he says???? ur probs a liar too!!!!
blazerunner_38
no star gets this big w/o stepping on the necks of other ppl. Sry not sry but Ryan has probably stolen from a lot of ppl over the course of her career. Time she finally gets hold accountable
junie_bug
Leave!!! Ryan!!! Alone!!! what has she ever done to u
WhenInTexasss
truly can’t believe Ryan did that to Justin. super cruel, tbh. Like sure ur album got leaked but is that really so bad 4u?? Oh no, you still got a ton of money while the person who inspired your song is doomed to poverty. honestly srsly disappointed in ryan, idek if I can listen to her music anymore
sam_123984
it’s all a distraction. Look at the clues. when the idols fall its a sign of the new world order, Ryan’s been trying to tell us all along. justin knows what hes doing too
Mari
I mean, it was the best trial by fire that I could’ve asked for in my career. We were doing damage control left and right, coordinating with the PR team. They had her do that special Oprah interview, but I think it was a misstep; she came off looking more defensive than injured. So they dialed down any live appearances after that. And once the court case started, we couldn’t comment on it publicly at all.
Ryan was just ... extremely angry. You could feel it radiating off of her like heat. In the rare moments when she and I would have free time together, she would spend all of it scrolling her phone, reading the awful posts.
“Stop,” I would tell her. “You have to put it down.”
And she would for five minutes or so before picking it up again and scrolling.
“They talk like they know me,” Ryan would say. “There are people defending or criticizing my character like we’re close personal friends when I’ve never even spoken to them in real life.”
I never knew what to say. She would spiral. I’d usually respond with some form of “Parasocial relationships are a bitch.”
“You know what they’d say if I talked about how hard this is?” Ryan said once. And she laughed. “They’d tell me to go cry into my money.”
