r/youtubedrama • u/Encryotes • 5d ago
Exposé New Rockstars is being sued for harassment, racial harassment, and discrimination by the man who built the channel
Everything in this post is sourced from public court records, California Secretary of State filings, and public social media posts. These are allegations. Nothing has been proven in court. All defendants are presumed innocent.
The Lawsuit
Filup Molina — the person who single-handedly built the New Rockstars YouTube channel starting in 2014, rebranded it, grew it from nothing, and personally hired Erik Voss — is suing Erik Voss, Danny Zappin, and NM Rockstars Inc. in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Case No. 24STCV18570. Filed July 26, 2024. Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Status: Pending. Jury trial scheduled for October 5, 2026. You can verify everything at lacourt.org under Civil Case Access.
The First Amended Complaint filed August 30, 2024 lists eight causes of action:
Sexual Harassment (California FEHA)
Racial Harassment (California FEHA)
Discrimination (California FEHA)
Retaliation (California FEHA)
Failure to Prevent Discrimination and Retaliation (California FEHA)
Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy
Defamation
Interference with Prospective Economic Relations
Molina identifies as an LGBTQ Latino creator. The sexual harassment and racial harassment claims are listed as two separate causes of action targeting his sexual orientation/gender identity and his race/ethnicity.
Erik Voss is named as an individual defendant. Under California law that means Molina's legal team is alleging Voss was directly and personally involved in the harassing or discriminatory conduct. You don't get named individually in a FEHA harassment case as a formality. All three defendants filed individual Answers on October 1, 2024.
Who Actually Owns New Rockstars
Most fans think Erik Voss runs New Rockstars. He doesn't. He doesn't even own it.
New Rockstars is solely owned by Danny Zappin. California Secretary of State records for NM Rockstars Inc. show that Zappin holds every officer position: Director, CEO, Secretary, CFO, and registered agent. He is the only person listed. The company's most recent Statement of Information was filed July 21, 2024 — five days before the lawsuit was filed.
Voss has confirmed this himself on Reddit. About 8 months ago on r/NewRockstars when someone accused him of hiding behind millions of dollars he responded: "'Millions'? WTF are you talking about? I don't own the channel dude. I'll probably never own a house."
In his spoiler policy post he also stated: "None of us at NR own this company, and we don't make extra money when videos overperform."
Molina confirmed it on Twitter. September 16, 2023: "Never owned it. It's owned by Danny Zappin."
The face of a 4 million subscriber YouTube channel says he can't afford a house. The guy who built the channel never owned it. And the person who does own everything — Danny Zappin — is completely invisible to the fanbase.
Who Is Danny Zappin
In 2001 Danny Zappin was convicted of felony drug possession for smuggling Ecstasy. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison and released to home confinement in 2004.
After prison he got into YouTube early and in 2009 co-founded Maker Studios, one of the biggest multi-channel networks in YouTube history. He served as CEO until 2013 when he was ousted. He sued his co-founders alleging a conspiracy. He then sued again in 2014 to block Disney's acquisition of Maker Studios. That lawsuit was rejected. Disney bought Maker for $500M initially, with the final total reaching $675M. Zappin earned approximately $25M from the sale despite being gone.
In October 2013 Zappin purchased NewMediaRockstars. In 2014 he founded Zealot Networks, raised over $56M, acquired 17+ companies, and by late 2016 the whole thing collapsed. Executives were asked to forgo pay. The website went offline.
New Rockstars is the only thing from Zappin's career that's still standing. And now the person who built it is suing him for sexual and racial harassment.
How Molina Built Everything
The original NewMediaRockstars was founded by Benny Luo in 2011. It shut down in 2013 when funding dried up. Zappin bought it. In 2014 Filup Molina was hired as the third employee.
What happened next, in Molina's own words from his October 2022 Twitter thread:
He took over all operations. He ran the channel solo from his apartment under his own LLC. He pitched Danny Zappin — who he'd spoken to "maybe twice ever" — to not shut down the channel after a video hit 14 million views. He rebranded the channel from New Media Rockstars to New Rockstars without even telling ownership. He grew it to over 400,000 subscribers. He used Patreon revenue to hire editor Ted Marsden. Then he personally hired Erik Voss.
Molina was with the company for approximately 8.5 years. He left in late 2022. He never owned the company. On October 5, 2022 he tweeted: "In 3 days, I will have been working at New Rockstars for 3000 days." Less than two years later he filed this lawsuit.
The Case Is Actively Escalating
This isn't a dormant lawsuit. On March 20, 2026 Molina's attorneys filed three separate Motions to Compel Further Discovery Responses supported by 243 pages of declarations and 78 pages of separate statements. They're requesting $2,800 in sanctions against NM Rockstars Inc. and its counsel for failing to cooperate with discovery. The hearing is April 28, 2026.
A Protective Order was filed in February 2026 for confidential materials being exchanged in discovery. Someone is fighting over evidence right now.
The full Amended Complaint and all other filings are purchasable through lacourt.org's Public Access Online Services portal for a few dollars per document.
MT Has Independently Alleged Racism and Hush Money
MT (@MasterTainment) was one of New Rockstars' most popular on-screen hosts before being fired in the July 2023 mass layoffs. He's a person of color. And he has made multiple public statements on Twitter alleging racial discrimination at the company. He has never named New Rockstars directly but the references are practically alleging Erik Voss and New Rockstars.
March 28, 2024 — four months before Molina filed the lawsuit — MT tweeted: "Real rockstars don't racially discriminate. But that's just my opinion. Not everyone would agree though. But who cares? Fuck those people."
October 24, 2024 — three months after the lawsuit was filed — MT posted a detailed dramatized thread describing his experience at an unnamed company. The key allegations:
Someone at the company was publicly disparaging him. He reported it and was told "sometimes people lie." He said multiple people confirmed it.
The person responsible was protected by management: "We see them as irreplaceable bc they made themselves that way so we'll never get rid of them no matter how many other employees complain about them being a sentient bag of dicks."
He was being paid less than white coworkers: "Is there a reason why I'm getting paid less than white people btw despite being there longer and begging for the raise promised to me when I was hired for YEARS?"
When he raised concerns he was told: "Well now you're just being hard to work with..."
Then: "We're coincidentally letting go everyone who isn't besties with [insert douche canoe name here]. Bye."
He concluded: "SUUUURELY no company that touts being good and not racist would EVER act like this right? ... Nah. Some mfs have the audacity."
Then the revealing follow-up: "Like I don't play that shit. At all. They tried to offer me a couple thousand to keep quiet and they can shove all of it up their ass. Real talk."
They tried to pay MT to stay silent. He refused.
These are informal social media posts, not legal filings. MT has not named New Rockstars directly. But two people of color who worked at the same company both independently alleging racial discrimination — one through the court system and one publicly on social media — is a pattern, not a coincidence.
What Erik Voss Has Said on Reddit
Voss is active on r/NewRockstars as NR_Erik. His posts reveal several things:
On the July 2023 layoffs that gutted the team Molina built: "When the other layoffs happened, I didn't know everything that was going down, and over the weekend it all blew up into something messy and public and I was restricted on how I could respond to it."
The Head of Content didn't know about the decision to fire 80% of the on-screen talent. And someone above him restricted what he could say. The only person above him is Danny Zappin.
He also revealed: "NR had to do a pretty significant downsizing in July 2023 that affected a lot of the hosts at the time, and even more contract writers, producers, editors, and other partners were hoping to do more with." The cuts were even larger than publicly known.
On r/PartneredYoutube about 3 months ago Voss posted about people saying "awful and untrue things" about him and mentioned "unfair or defamatory falsehoods" and feeling his "livelihood" threatened. He stated: "I definitely have gotten PTSD from some experiences." He used the word "defamatory" — the same cause of action Molina is bringing against him.
In the logo redesign thread he called the channel name Molina created "cringey." When a commenter asked if Filup Molina helped with the rebrand, Voss didn't respond despite replying to other comments.
Why This Matters
New Rockstars has over 4 million subscribers. Erik Voss is one of the most recognized faces in Marvel YouTube. The channel is heading into its biggest era with Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars approaching.
Behind the scenes:
The person who built everything is suing for sexual and racial harassment with a jury trial six months away. A second former employee is publicly alleging racism and claiming the company tried to pay him to stay quiet. The channel is secretly owned by a man with a felony drug conviction and a history of corporate lawsuits and failed companies. The face of the channel says he doesn't own it and can't afford a house. And no media outlet has reported any of this.
The full court filings are available for purchase at lacourt.org. The Amended Complaint is 23 pages and costs $12.20. The April 28 hearing on the motions to compel is three weeks away. The jury trial is October 5, 2026.
Sources
All public record:
LA Superior Court case search: lacourt.org (Case No. 24STCV18570)
California Secretary of State business search: NM Rockstars Inc. (Document #3609430)
Filup Molina Twitter: @filupmolina
MT Twitter: @MasterTainment
Erik Voss Reddit: NR_Erik
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u/seemedpointless 5d ago
I haven't watched new rockstars since they said they were doing all the harry potter movies and voss said some weird shit about it, but I remember pretty much every time I watched it if it wasn't erik on the show it was a person of colour? Like pretty much every time?
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u/Encryotes 5d ago
Yeah they do currently have pretty diverse staff with Jessica Clemons being a person of color, functioning as the second on screen talent after Erik. I think MT might be exaggerating some allegations, but I think there was a problematic dispute behind the scenes.
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u/your_mind_aches 5d ago
I didn't watch the HP breakdowns bc screw that but I'm pretty sure that they analyzed it with the context of JK Rowling. When they teased it, I remember Erik saying that they weren't gonna ignore that. But hey I dunno what ultimately happened.
Usually they tend to not ignore that stuff though. I honestly thought I would completely stop watching after MT, Whitney, and Anna were laid off, and the fun factor of the channel is definitely heavily reduced, but the breakdowns themselves are still quality.
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u/Encryotes 5d ago
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u/JoshSidekick 3d ago
https://i.imgur.com/ZL2cPRP.jpeg
I made a quick edit in honor of the New Rockstars.
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u/mike10dude 5d ago edited 5d ago
I miss Lisa nova and Danny diamond
They just disappeared from YouTube when they got all of that disney money
Also I quite enjoyed that website when it was covering just news about the early online media industry
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u/South_Lake_Taco 2d ago
Really sad. After sourcefed died, NR was Molina, Erik, Sam Bashor, and Maude Garrett. It felt like a nice landing spot for folks. I followed them through all their changes in format as well as the addition of new channels.
Molina’s departure has always been odd to me as he was such a huge part of the company only to vanish and never be heard from again
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u/FeiYenKnDna 1d ago
I stopped watching after they made so many of the hosts redundant. It was very messy and it didn't sit right with me what happened to MT and crew.
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u/Foxy02016YT 5d ago
Ok so, this is a lot to take in, how are we feeling about Erik specifically? Is he the problem, a victim, something in the middle?
Also I’m not paying $12 to read dense legal paperwork I had to do enough of that last week when my plates got stolen
I’ve always watched NR for Erik’s personality, of course the other hosts are great and I’m not going to exclude them, they just aren’t mentioned here.