NPR Music’s Sidney Madden will get us updated on the a number of lawsuits and allegations of sexual assault in opposition to rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Final month, hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused of years of abuse by his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura, higher often called the singer Cassie. In a civil go well with submitting, Ventura alleged that Combs spent years emotionally and bodily abusing her, subjecting her to human trafficking, coercion, even raping her. Diddy publicly denied all allegations, and he shortly settled out of court docket. However since then, extra ladies have come ahead with comparable allegations in opposition to Combs. NPR music correspondent Sidney Madden has been following all of this. Hello there.
SIDNEY MADDEN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So initially, let’s simply rewind and return to when these allegations first broke. I imply, they actually shocked folks, proper?
MADDEN: Yeah. This was massive breaking information for a number of key causes inside and out of doors the hip-hop world. Initially, it has to do with the severity of the costs. The go well with that Cassie filed in opposition to him was over 30 pages lengthy, alleging many years of abuse – very detailed. Then it has to do with the extent of Diddy’s stature in hip-hop and simply the music world normally. He is all the time been seen as an emblem of relentless hustle, somebody who has a serious enterprise acumen within the trade – an trade chief, you’ll say. After which Cassie is certainly one of his longest-running public relationships and certainly one of his artists on Unhealthy Boy Leisure. So to listen to about this darkish underbelly of their relationship actually shocked a number of informal followers who’ve seen them on the crimson carpet for years.
SUMMERS: Proper. And as we talked about, this can be a story that didn’t finish with Cassie. Extra ladies have filed civil fits in opposition to Diddy, and I will notice right here that the main points there are disturbing and graphic.
MADDEN: Yeah, completely. Thus far, there have been 4 fits filed in opposition to Diddy, relationship again to the very starting of his profession within the document trade within the early ’90s. A number of the victims who filed are alleging that they have been drugged and coerced into having intercourse, that they have been videotaped – a number of actually terrible, graphic allegations. And all of those filings up to now have occurred in New York, most of them beneath the Grownup Survivors Act, which is a invoice that was handed to permit victims to have a one-year lookback window to have the ability to file a civil case in opposition to their abuser, whatever the statute of limitations.
SUMMERS: And, Sidney, there have been different high-profile circumstances in opposition to music megastars in recent times. R. Kelly notably involves thoughts right here. However this example – what makes it totally different?
MADDEN: Initially, up to now, all of those circumstances are civil, not legal, so Diddy just isn’t dealing with any jail time. However extra implicitly, a number of the younger ladies who accused R. Kelly through the years have been a number of underage Black ladies who weren’t well-known, versus Cassie, who – she’s not solely well-known. She’s famously been his companion for years. And I believe it additionally has to do with the character of Sean “Diddy” Combs normally. Diddy has additionally had a observe document of being abusive and violent in the direction of males. He is fought along with his sons’ coaches earlier than. He is fought rappers like Drake earlier than and different music executives. There have even been viral movies of him busting up his personal workplace. So it is not very far-fetched for folks to imagine that he could possibly be abusive to ladies in his life.
SUMMERS: I need to simply step again right here and take a look at this massive image. What do you assume this second means for the hip-hop trade?
MADDEN: I believe it is nonetheless early to inform if that is going to be a general cultural reckoning in hip-hop, however we undoubtedly reside via a historic second. As for repercussions, Diddy up to now has briefly stepped down because the chairman of Revolt, which is his media firm. Numerous ladies and survivor advocates teams have launched statements and petitions calling on the Grammys to rescind his 2024 nomination and his invite to the ceremony. And Rolling Stone reported that 18 of the businesses that have been beforehand working with him on his e-commerce website, referred to as Empower International, that they’ve severed enterprise fully. So this undoubtedly is a vital second for these in his internal and outer circles deciding on their stage of proximity and attachment to him going ahead.
SUMMERS: NPR music correspondent Sidney Madden. Thanks.
MADDEN: Thanks.
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative document of NPR’s programming is the audio document.
