The story has actually already been told. It is the story of an influential producer in the entertainment industry, about whom the worst has been heard behind closed doors for years: reports of abuse of power, sexual assault, rape, hush money and intimidated victims. If the allegations are finally too numerous and too valid to be further covered up, the extent of the crime becomes enormous. This is what happened in the scandal involving film mogul Harvey Weinstein, which shook Hollywood in 2017 and set the global MeToo movement in motion.
Pop business before awakening moment
Seven years later, the pop business is now apparently facing its long overdue MeToo awakening moment. Hip hop star and music producer Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy aka P. Diddy aka Diddy has been in custody in a Brooklyn prison since mid-September. Since the 1990s, the versatile rapper has been one of the industry’s greats, also as a producer, fashion designer, liquor manufacturer and media mogul. According to Forbes, his business empire makes him a billionaire.
Faced with a firestorm of lawsuits: Sean “Diddy” Combs, here at the MTV Video Music Awards 2023 © IMAGO
Bail refused
A bail offer from his lawyers of at least $50 million was rejected by the court. The allegations against the father of seven are too serious: rape, sexual assault, forced pornography, domestic violence, human trafficking, drug offenses, organized crime. Just earlier this week it was announced: 120 alleged victims have filed a firestorm of lawsuits against the rapper, alleging rape, sexual assault and exploitation; Women, men, minors. Among them is a 15-year-old girl and a nine-year-old boy, both of whom were hoping for a record deal with Combs’ label “Bad Boy Records” and are said to have been blackmailed into sexual acts. Hard to believe: In total, there are now relevant allegations from more than 3,000 people.
How many of these cases will actually go to trial is still unclear. But it can be said quite clearly: The lifestyle that the rapper and music mogul (with “Bad Boy” he produced, among others, Usher, Notorious BIG, Janelle Monae, Machine Gun Kelly) lived publicly for almost three decades was probably not just for publicity purposes constructed.
Dollar billionaire Sean Combs: Money, power, fame protects the perpetrators © AP
Flamboyant stories of lawbreaking
A little digression: celebrating stories of breaking the law in a racist system has always been one of the central narratives of hip hop. The fact that rap stars display their rebelliousness larger than life is part of the show; Gangsta attitude, big guns, fast cars, bold bling contribute to the construction of this dubious glamour, as does the degradation of women. “Diddy” also spent three decades rapping about attacking, using and abusing “bitches” and “hoes.” Apparently it wasn’t just role-playing in his case, even though his lawyers reject all allegations and he is presumed innocent. But ever since an eight-year-old surveillance video became public in May of this year, showing Combs dragging his then-partner Cassie down a hotel corridor and trampling her (the singer has since compared herself to him in court), the protestations of innocence have become suspect, is the usual approach Defense tactic of victim-perpetrator reversal – the allegations are only about money or publicity – in ruins.
Money, power and fame protect the perpetrators
Especially since the eyewitness reports of Diddy’s “White Parties” and “freak offs” lasting several days now sound more than ominous: Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, for example, laughed in a radio interview years ago and revealed that he had experienced things there that he would be better off not talking about. Since alleged victims reported that they were drugged and raped several times there, Kutcher isn’t the only one who has to ask himself how such attacks could pass as sexual escapades for so long. A common explanation: money, power and fame protect the perpetrators. So, as here, victims only dare to go public when their sheer numbers support them. According to her lawyers, the allegations not only affect Combs, but also a number of his prominent party guests who were either involved in attacks or stood by and did nothing: “The names will cause a shock,” said a lawyer. So is rap shaking the hollow yet enduring hedonistic cliché of sex & drugs in rock’n’roll and its descendants? Then the music business will probably not face a MeToo wave, but rather a tsunami.
From the stage in custody: 50 million bail was not enough © IMAGO
