The Sean Combs trial is a pivotal moment for the music industry

It's hard not to turn away from the deluge of accusations, but you shouldn't

View this email online October 6, 2024 by Sidney Madden This week, Sidney Madden, a reporter who has been covering the months-long series of allegations, civil suits and criminal charges against Sean Combs, takes a step back from the details to catch you up on the story of the case moving toward trial.  Getty Images If you’ve been watching the news at all, you may know that last month, Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested in New York by federal agents and charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. These criminal charges accuse the rap and media mogul of inflicting decades-long abuse upon many people. They follow a slew of civil lawsuits that have been filed against Combs alleging the same patterns of abuse. I’ve been covering this criminal case for NPR, and as each new accusation has surfaced, the details can make staying up-to-date feel overwhelming. But Combs has long been instrumental as a figure within pop culture, and his arrest marks a pivotal moment in hip-hop history not only worthy of attention, but also deep examination. So, to bring you up to speed before the next scheduled court appearance next week, here is the basic outline of the story of this case to date: What happened:  On Sept. 17, 2024, the unsealed indictment against Combs, filed in the Southern District of New York, revealed that the 54-year-old was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. The filing accused the rapper, producer and record exec of running his business empire, Bad Boy Enterprises, as a criminal organization.  During a press conference, the U.S. Attorney’s office said they built their case for Combs’ arrest based on testimony from victims and evidence they collected from the March government raids on Diddy’s mansions, including videotaped “freak offs” — hours- or days-long performances of group sex — where victims are identifiable. Officials also say they have evidence of Combs forcing men and women into participating in the group sex against their will while members of his team procured drugs and solicited sex workers for the “freak offs” and often transported them across state lines to participate. Combs has denied the allegations against him and plead not guilty to the charges. Why it matters: This indictment of Combs’ actions — both as an individual and as a head of an operation — matters for two key reasons.  First, remember that growing list of civil lawsuits against him? Based on the undeniable similarities in detail of this criminal case and the civil ones, it's clear the filings from the last year created a roadmap for law enforcement to investigate Combs. These civil suits started coming to light last November when he was first accused of years of human trafficking and rape by his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura. This case by the R&B singer was the first filing to describe the coercive “freak offs” in detail. Though Ventura’s bombshell of a case was settled out of court within a day, her suit inspired many other women and men to come forward with allegations against the mogul. In a flood of civil suits over the past year, Combs has been accused of drugging and raping women in recording studios, attacking women in their apartments, forcing women to perform oral sex in public places and more. Some plaintiffs claim to have been sex trafficked during Combs’ infamous all-white parties of the late 1990s into the early 2000s. Like Ventura’s claims, many of the plaintiffs say Combs would record these assaults and use the footage as a way to humiliate or blackmail them. (The list of civil suits continues to grow with every passing week: Recently, a Texas-based lawyer claimed to represent more than 100 sexual assault victims of Combs in separate suits that will be made public over the next 30 days.) It’s safe to say that without these civil suits, there may never have been a criminal investigation. But this also matters because the indictment targets not just Diddy but calls out the entire network of employees he ordered to carry out the abuse as well as famous friends who allegedly committed these acts with him or ignored his violence for years. This is an indictment of an entire industry’s insidious way of operating and it's the reason questions like, “Will Diddy’s arrest signal a #MeToo movement in hip-hop?” are becoming part of the zeitgeist. What’s next: News of individual cases against Combs continue to roll in as the disgraced impresario sits in a Brooklyn detention center on denied bail. On Oct. 9, 2024 he will make his third attempt to have bail set, via a court appearance by his attorney. No other co-defendants have been named with Combs yet on the count of conspiracy, but co-defendants listed in his civil lawsuits from the past year include former Bad Boy executives, Combs’ former bodyguard, celebrity jewelers and more. This story is far from over. For more details on this case as it develops, you can find more in-depth coverage by NPR Music here, including a long (and still-growing) timeline of all of the allegations made against Combs.  Newsletter continues after sponsor message How Women Made Music is out now! This week was an incredibly exciting one for the NPR Music team. Our first book, How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History came out on Tuesday — you can find it at bookstores everywhere right now. It’s a surreal experience for those of us who have been putting our work and words on airwaves and podcast feeds and digital bits for years. (Speaking of podcast feeds, Ann Powers and Marissa Lorusso — both of whom should be familiar to readers of this newsletter — talked to All Songs Considered’s Robin Hilton about the book on the show this week.) We celebrated the publication with an event at The Strand bookstore in New York last week, and over the next few weeks contributors to the book will be appearing at events and readings across the country, with stops this week in Chicago and Washington, D.C. You can find more details, plus a playlist of artists from the book, right here. More stories from NPR Music Last weekend, the great songwriter, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson died at the age of 88. Kristofferson was one of those rare people who managed to become well-known for many things, including writing songs that others made famous, without ever losing what made him distinct. Melissa Block’s incredibly sensitive obituary goes deep into his skills as a writer and performer, and will make you feel the pang of his absence, even if you didn’t know his work beyond “Me and Bobby McGee.” The opportunity to celebrate a beloved artist before they die is a rare and precious one, and Tom Vitale shared a story this week of how the friends of Adam Abeshouse, one of the world’s leading producers of classical music, came together to play an in-home concert for Abeshouse, who has been fighting a devastating cancer diagnosis.  Starting about a decade ago, the rapper Future put out a run of four legendary and career-redefining mixtapes, over the span of just over two years. This year, he’s making a second shot at a similar feat, on different terms: In under six months, he’s released three mixtapes that have all debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart. It’s something only two other acts have accomplished before. Our chart guru, Stephen Thompson, explains. 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