2022 Boyinaband Grooming and Abuse Allegations (2024)

Overview

2022 Boyinaband Grooming and Abuse Allegations refers to unconfirmed accusations that English YouTuber Boyinaband (real name Dave Brown) allegedly groomed his young fans and abused several girlfriends physically, emotionally, financially and sexually, including a fan named Rachel, who he purportedly started dating when she was 17. The allegations were brought to light in September 2022 when a letter written by a group of his ex-girlfriends that was originally sent to Brown's family was posted to the /r/boyinaband subreddit. The allegations spread online over the course of the month, inspiring discussion and memes about Boyinaband using his song "Don't Stay in School." The post and poster alleging abuse was deleted between October 12th and 20th, resulting in some people concluding that the allegations were fake.

History

Who Is Boyinaband?

Boyinaband is a YouTuber and musician with over 3 million subscribers as of late September 2022. In the past, he has worked with big creators including Pewdiepie for his T-Series diss track "Congratulations" (shown below, left) and iDubbbz for his song "Asian Jake Paul." He is best known for his song and music video "Don't Stay in School," a song about how school doesn't teach you important life skills and knowledge (shown below, right).

September 2022 Letter Posted To /r/Boyinaband

On September 7th, 2022, Redditor astekas_ posted a now-deleted letter to /r/Boyinaband^[1][11] written by "a group of girls who knew and dated" YouTuber and musician Boyinaband, real name David Brown, for between one to six years. The letter is preceded:

First of all, thank you for your time and understanding. We want you to know that we intended and tried to handle this as privately and as quietly as possible. Some time ago, a group of his ex-partners wrote a letter to his family in hopes of stopping the outgoing pattern of abuse. Below, you can read that letter. We know there were more victims of his in the past and if you’re one of them, and we didn’t find you before – message us. All we want to do is to tell you that you’re not alone and that none of it was your fault. Thank you.

The letter accuses Brown's family of enabling his behavior, which has led to "dangerous situations that included years of lies, manipulations, and emotional, financial, physical, and even sexual abuse of many young girls." It then describes how Brown had a relationship with a fan known as Rachel, or "Rachie," when she was allegedly only 17 years old and he was 23. She purportedly became a fan of his at 15.

The letter then describes a May 13th, 2011, upload to Brown's YouTube^[2] channel where he showcases a song featuring Rachel's vocals where she sings, "Take me without my consent" (shown below) and describes how Brown allegedly has "a pattern of preying on his young fans," writing that he "discards them for new ones as soon as they disagree or refuse to do whatever he wants. It is written, "he acts similarly with his friends," discarding them when they stop doing what he wants.

The letter alleges that Brown has a p*rn addiction and is attracted to preteen girls and women who dress like children. It also claims that most of his recent girlfriends are 10 years younger than him. It is then alleged that Brown coerced multiple girls into being polyamorous (as he is) and that he coerced girlfriends into losing weight and getting unhealthily skinny. General abuse is also alleged, such as berating and mistreating girlfriends emotionally and physically. The letter calls Brown out for using his depression as an excuse to get away with this behavior. The P.S. at the end of the letter reads:

P.S. Let this be a lesson about romanticizing those who are mentally ill, especially with a young audience. We think and talk about depression when someone is sad all the time or suicidal. We never talk about the ugly parts of it. Of how people like that can be manipulative, abusive, and can hurt people. And the voices of those they hurt along the way also need to be heard, and this pattern of behavior needs to stop. If we can stop just one girl from ending up hurt, I'll sleep better at night. Please do the same. Thank you.

At the bottom of the post is a link to an Imgur^[3] gallery with images including screenshotted DMs allegedly between the group of ex-girlfriends, a series of DMs from a girl who Brown tried to convince to go polyamorous and evidence of Rachel being 17 at the time the two dated. The post gained over 7,900 upvotes in a month (shown below, click to expand). On September 14th, Redditor armahillo, who used to work for Brown under the monicker "Homeslice Aaron," commented on the post sharing a story about how Brown cut ties suddenly after he refused to write a script for him.^[4]

Post Deletion

According to the Wayback Machine,^[12] sometime between October 12th and 20th the post and poster were deleted. It is unclear why they were deleted.

Online Reactions

The allegations inspired memes calling Boyinaband a pedophile and referring to the allegations in general in late September 2022. For example, on September 25th, 2022, Twitter^[5] user @polqmai shared the letter, garnering over 2,800 likes in a week. On the same day, Twitter^[6] user @c0nmanabq posted a Dramatic Crossroads meme about YouTubers either becoming sex offenders or starting mediocre music careers, writing, "boyinaband did both💀," garnering over 5,600 likes in the same span of time (shown below). On September 27th, Twitter^[7] user @viperjpeg posted, "NO WAY BOYINABAND HAS BEEN OFF THE INTERNET FOR SO LONG BECAUSE HES A PEDOPHILE??????," garnering over 65,000 likes in six days.

That day, September 27th, Twitter^[8] user @BradenIsBased posted, "Very nice of Dave from Boyinaband to tell his dating pool how to avoid him," including a screenshot of the thumbnail for his song 2015 song "Don't Stay in School," his most viral video, garnering over 67,000 likes in six days. On the same day, Twitter^[9] user @wybiestwin posed a clip of Brown singing, "I was never taught what laws there are" from the same video, captioned, "boyinaband in court," garnering over 2,100 likes in the same span of time (shown below).

boyinaband in court pic.twitter.com/f7xMi4lM4M

— toe 2 da bee 🐐🐐 (@wybiestwin) September 28, 2022

On September 29th, 2022, Twitter^[10] user @VINYL404 posted a meme joking that fans of Boyinaband, Shane Dawson and other canceled YouTubers deserve financial compensation, garnering over 130,000 likes and 13,000 retweets in four days (shown below).

The original sound for "Don't Stay in School," and memes using the song in general, saw an increase in virality on TikTok around the same time (examples shown below).

On October 2nd, YouTuber kracc bacc posted a meme using the "Don't Stay in School" clip in reference to the allegations, garnering over 473,000 views in a week (shown below).

After the Post Deletion

Following the deletion of the post alleging abuse between October 12th and 20th, 2022, some people assumed that the allegations made were false. Beyond the deletion, some people also pointed toward the fact that nobody else has come forward with allegations and no first-hand abusive or grooming behavior from Boyinaband has been captured or shared. For example, on October 26th, Twitter^[13] user @drs_5000 posted, "Anyone else find it weird how the open letter we had about the Boyinaband/ Dave Brown got deleted?"

Search Interest

External References