Pleasure P Breaks His Silence to VIBE

Former Pretty Ricky singer Pleasure P has come out and blasted child-molestation allegations made late last week, claiming the charges are maliciously fake.

In an exclusive sitdown interview with VIBE, the 24-year-old R&B vocalist refutes Twitter posts that said he inappropriately touched younger family members, as well as various documents surfacing from an alleged settlement connected to the case. Ashley or Laura Goldstein, who claimed she was the daughter of a lawyer who once represented Pleasure P–born Marcus Cooper–made the scandalous claims.

“It’s all lies,” says an adamant Pleasure P about allegations, that also noted he was instructed to attend counseling and perform community service after the 2004 incident. “[The things] being said about me, I take it very seriously. Let me tell you something about this Goldstein person: Goldstein is not a person. They are a fraud; a fake person, who is being investigated now. People have to look at the facts. I’ve never been represented by a Goldstein. They don’t exist as a lawyer. Twitter is investigating it. We are all investigating it. It makes no sense. We will get to the bottom of it.”

As for the paperwork that allegedly shows the case against the performer was settled (info posted by someone claiming to be his attorney’s assistant and daughter), Pleasure P dismisses the legal documents as “fake.”

“People look at stuff like, “Oh!,” he explains of the shocking documents. “But they don’t actually read what’s going on. Everything is a lie. We will get to the bottom of it.”

Pleasure P also responded to comments made by his former Pretty Ricky mates Diamond Blue and Spectacular, who confirmed that the “sealed documents” containing the alleged molestation did indeed exist.

“Honestly, I don’t have no relationship with Pretty Ricky,” he says. “So I wouldn’t be able to tell you why they have been going about it [that way]. We sold 135,000 records the first week when I was in the group. Now they are selling 8,000 records [their] first week and 10,000 in two weeks. Listen to their album. You will see the difference from when I was in the group and when I’m not in a group. My first two albums are killing them. Their album now sounds like trash, garbage.”

One topic that induced an emotional response from Pleasure P was the effect the damaging allegations are having on his five-year-old son. “My son is in school now,” he says candidly. “So this is nothing to smile about. But we are actually getting through this whole situation. I haven’t really explained to my son [about] this kind of situation and what’s going on. Actually, I never even thought about how I’m going to deal with that. That’s one of my frustrations.”

The news comes on the heels of Pleasure P receiving several Grammy nominations for his solo album, The Introduction of Marcus Cooper. “Unfortunately this situation has come and overshadowed the fact that I have been nominated for three Grammys,” he says. “I wasn’t able to celebrate it like I’m supposed to. I have to go throughout my whole life remembering, ‘Damn, I got nominated for three Grammy’s and I had to deal with this situation.’ All I know is my lawyers and I are getting to the bottom of this whole situation. We are going to reveal the perpetrators. We kind of don’t know who it is. But the list is not long.”

The singer says he no longer wants to go by the name Pleasure P and now wants to be known by his government name, Marcus Cooper. –Keith Murphy