Before his arrest, Sean Combs was a cultural icon, a leading influence in the world of hip hop. Photo: Getty Images.
In public, Diddy was a shrewd music producer, creating hip hop hits under the label Bad Boy Records – founded in 1993 and helping Diddy become a literary mogul. The Two Faces of a Mogul
For decades, Sean Combs (Diddy) portrayed the image of a rich and famous black music mogul. The 1969-born star was described as someone who broke business barriers, was behind lavish parties and created countless iconic television moments. Throughout his career, Diddy dominated music, television and fashion, building a powerful empire in the prosperous Hollywood.
Combs was at the center of one of rap’s most infamous (and deadliest) feuds between the east and west coasts, which involved the deaths of two of the most influential rappers of all time, Tupac (1971-1996) and Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997).
In public, Diddy was a shrewd music producer, churning out hip hop hits under the Bad Boy Records label – which was founded in 1993 and helped establish Diddy as a cultural mogul.
Combs was at the center of one of rap’s most notorious (and deadly) feuds between the East and West Coasts, which involved the deaths of two of the most influential rappers of all time, Tupac (1971-1996) and Notorious B.I.G. (1972-1997).
The Mysterious Death of “Sex Predator” Diddy’s Ex-Girlfriend: Haunting Last Message Revealed
NBC News reviews Diddy as someone who knows how to take advantage of the change of hip hop into the mainstream, thereby creating a career that many rappers aspire to.
Over a decade in the profession, Combs has won 3 Grammy Awards, 2 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), 1 MTV VMA Global Icon Award in 2023 and the Guinness World Record for Most Successful Rap Producer. In 2008, Diddy received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Combs also trained a generation of top artists for hip hop, including Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige and Usher – Justin Bieber’s mentor.
In addition to music, Diddy has also made his mark in other areas such as producing the reality TV show Making the Band , launching a clothing retail brand or being a brand ambassador and other business activities.
Thanks to that, Diddy has accumulated assets that at one point reached billions of USD (in 2022), making him one of the richest music artists in the world. Currently, due to some financial difficulties and legal issues, this number has dropped to 400 million USD (Forbes statistics).
Sean Combs describes himself as a fun-loving producer and a tough business tycoon.
However, that dream profile suddenly disappeared when Diddy was arrested and prosecuted in mid-September on a series of sexual charges.
In an indictment released on September 17, prosecutors accused Combs and his associates of using their power and prestige to commit acts of sexual, emotional and physical abuse against those around them.
Experts say Diddy’s power and influence have shielded him from accountability for years for his recently exposed illegal activities. In fact, the black mogul’s fiery temper and “rich” sex life have long been an open secret in American showbiz.
“We’ve seen this behavior before — someone with power and influence choosing to exploit others for their own gain, using fear, manipulation and violence to maintain control over their victims,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center.
Sean Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York and is on suicide watch, a common practice for high-profile suspects. On September 17, a judge denied bail to Diddy, believing he was a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Organized Crime
The charges stem from Sean Combs’s hours-long and daily sex shows, known as “freak offs.” The New York producer allegedly staged and filmed the forced sex acts himself.
The indictment alleges Diddy sought to satisfy his sexual desires while protecting his reputation and concealing his actions.
“Combs relied on the employees, resources, and influence of the multi-faceted business empire he led and controlled to create a criminal enterprise. “Members and associates engaged in crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice,” the indictment reads.
Diddy’s “associates” included security guards, household staff, personal assistants, “high-level supervisors,” and other associates. Prosecutors collectively referred to them as the “Combs Enterprise.”
Goss Graves, co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund – an organization that provides legal support for people who have been sexually harassed in the workplace, commented: “These allegations not only show a blatant abuse of personal power, but also highlight the systematic use of his network and employees to perpetuate sexual violence.”
Since late 2023, several women and men have filed lawsuits against Combs on a variety of charges, from abuse to sex trafficking. This wave began when Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a lawsuit against the rapper in federal court in November 2023. Cassie accused her ex-boyfriend of physical abuse and manipulation throughout their 11-year relationship (2007-2018).
The lawsuit was settled out of court a day later, but it’s unclear what Cassie and Diddy agreed to.
Diddy’s lawsuit also includes singer Dawn Richard, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, several unnamed women, and a Michigan man. Like Cassie, Diddy has denied the allegations.
Crimes hidden for decades
Before his ex-girlfriend’s accusations in 2023, Diddy’s reputation remained intact despite all the accusations, legal troubles, and rumors that have dogged the hip-hop star for the past three decades.
Diddy’s behavior has long been a source of social media chatter among fans and artists, including his rivals and those who have worked with him.
It wasn’t until Diddy’s arrest that allegations that Justin Bieber was one of the teens abused in the “freak offs” emerged. It has been a big buzz in the online community for a long time, when Justin faltered when asked why he kept his distance from Diddy when the “Prince of Pop” was 16 years old, completely different from the excitement of spending 48 hours with his senior a year earlier.
In 2020, Justin released the MV Yummy. Despite the cheerful image and atmosphere, many viewers felt uncomfortable. They wondered if something happened at the party?
However, those concerns were not enough to stir the water. People quickly forgot. Only now, the old questions seem to have been answered.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Diddy and his artists swept the top music charts. Diddy’s lineup of rappers and singers offered a sound that was distinct from the gangsta rap, pop, and grunge rock that was popular at the time. The music represented a brand of hip hop that blended different sounds that appealed to different demographics but never felt inauthentic.
“They were trendsetters. It was Puff’s ear and his unique vocal choices,” Richard, one of the singers who later sued Sean Combs, said in 2015.
Over time, Diddy expanded his empire to include clothing, perfume, hit MTV shows, liquor brands and more. Even as he lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to more and more people accusing him, Diddy’s fortune is still the dream of many other stars.
Diddy is associated with wealth and power along with music and culture. His growing empire has given him the reputation of a wealthy, business-minded man and the image of a “black man of distinction”. With his rags-to-riches story, Diddy has become a special inspiration for young black men.
Over the years, the public has gotten a glimpse of Diddy’s behind-closed-doors demeanor through interviews, short clips, and his MTV reality show Making the Band.
From 2002 to 2009, Diddy developed a tough, serious attitude in his musical performances. From making contestants walk miles to get him a piece of cheesecake to verbally sparring with choreographer Laurieann Gibson, Diddy cemented his image as a powerful and intimidating figure in the industry.
In a promotional video for his 2017 documentary Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story, Diddy is seen gleefully throwing a phone into an office and shouting, “I’m a badass! Whatever I want, I get!” after landing a lucrative business deal.
A.D. Carson, a professor of hip hop at the University of Virginia, explains that three decades of building an image of a successful but hot-tempered rapper has made audiences accustomed to it and tend to ignore bad signs.
“We see it and we think, ‘Diddy must be really harsh.’ There are a lot of cases where Diddy tells us some version of the dark stuff he did publicly, but people just ignore it because rappers are supposed to exaggerate things to a certain extent. So when rappers talk about their violent or rapey tendencies in the name of power, we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s just how it looks. Maybe he didn’t really do it,’” Carson analyzes.
However, the needle is eventually revealed. Maybe having outsmarted the world for so long has given Diddy a sense of self-worth. complacent, self-righteous, leading to increasingly excessive behavior and eventually detonating years of accumulated resentment from the victims.
Currently, what the victims and the public are most looking forward to is the appropriate punishment for Sean Combs.