Toronto-based musician Lido Pimienta shared her thoughts Monday about a public mea culpa last week from Ian Campeau, the former A Tribe Called Red member she dismissed as a fame-hungry, untalented narcissist.
Campeau, who performed as Deejay NDN, took to Twitter on July 29 to describe himself as “a monster but working not to be” and to apologize “for my past behaviours towards women.”
Although he did not explain what prompted his statement, Campeau admitted making “unwanted advances on women” and to cheating on his wife Justine while she was pregnant with his child and battling cancer.
He apologized “for my destructive behaviours and toxicity.”
Pimienta on Monday slammed Campeau as “the architect of his own demise” and called him “condescending” and “a narcissist.”
She alleged that Campeau twice kissed her on the lips without her consent, triggering memories of sexual abuse she suffered as a child.
The most recent unwanted contact by Campeau, according to Pimienta, was on the night of Sept. 18, 2017, after her album La Papessa was awarded the Polaris Music Prize. (A Tribe Called Red’s We Are the Halluci Nation was also on the shortlist.)
“He approached me, got really close, grabbed me by my shoulders, shook me in a *congratulatory manner* … and proceeded to plant a kiss on my mouth, again,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “When Ian gave me an unsolicited kiss for the second time, I understood, this man is sick, and he doesn't even realize the feelings of hopelessness I am feeling right now.
“He took me back to my 9-year-old self, in the presence of this giant who took my innocence away from me – I wanted to throw up, I wanted to cry and I wanted to pee on myself, I ran to the bathroom so that I wouldn’t have an accident, that is how triggered I was.”
Campeau left A Tribe Called Red in October 2017. In a statement shared on Twitter at the time, he cited tension between in the group that “created a toxic environment to a point that I didn’t feel comfortable in that working environment anymore.”
Pimienta said Campeau was “the weak link” in A Tribe Called Red who “enjoyed taking credit for the work done by others.” She claimed he quit the collective before he could be fired “and controlled the narrative in order to portray himself as a victim.”
The singer-songwriter ended her lengthy missive with a message for Campeau.
“I hope he surrounds himself with a community that will keep him and hold him accountable and that he actually understands that he in actuality doesn't know ANYTHING and that he needs to UNLEARN all the machismo/patriarchal baggage that got him in this predicament in the first-place,” she wrote, “and that only Ian, as the sole architect of his own demise, can be the architect of a secure and prosperous future for their children.”
Campeau has not publicly responded to Pimienta’s statement. His final tweet indicated he would no longer be active on social media.