NEW YORK – A singer who achieved success in bands put together by Sean “Diddy” Combs has sued the music producer, describing years of psychological and physical abuse, including groping, that she says she suffered as he helped launch her career.

With her lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Dawn Richard added her voice to those now saying the music mogul subjected the people around him to an explosive temper, violent threats, and sexually charged and drug-fueled environments as they tried to follow his orders.

Richard, who became more widely known after appearing on the MTV reality show “Making the Band,” is suing for unspecified damages as well as millions of dollars in income that she says she was denied. She argues that damages, including punitive, are warranted because she suffered economic harm, physical injury, pain and suffering, and serious psychological and emotional distress.

Combs’ representatives said in a statement that Combs was “shocked and disappointed” by the lawsuit. They said Richard was making “an attempt to rewrite history” by manufacturing “a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.”

They added that if her experience was so negative, Richard would not have continued working directly with Combs for so long, including returning in 2020 for a “Making the Band” reboot and agreeing to be featured on “The Love Album” last year.

In court papers, she accuses Combs of asking: “You want to die today?” And she alleges that he bragged that “I end people” as he withheld her earnings, stole her copyrighted works and subjected her to groping, assault and false imprisonment by locking her in a car for hours at one point.

Richard says in the lawsuit that between 2009 and 2011 while she did recordings, rehearsals and performances, Combs repeatedly demanded that she strip down to her underwear and made demeaning remarks about her body, sometimes calling her “lazy, fat, ugly and skinny,” even in front of his friends, producers and bodyguards.

On numerous occasions, the lawsuit says, Combs would enter Richard’s changing room while she was undressed and grope her bare buttocks and chest area near her breasts. During an October 2010 trip to perform in Glasgow, Scotland, Combs made overt sexual advances towards Richard, it contends.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Richard and Cassie have done.