20/20 - Bad Rap: Before and After

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Today, we're bringing you episode three of the latest podcast from 20/20 and ABC Audio, "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy." Soon after Cassie and Diddy end their relationship, Diddy rebrands himself again, as Sean “Love” Combs. He's on his way to becoming hip hop’s third billionaire, wins lifetime achievement awards and gets the key to New York City. But in 2023, Cassie files a 35-page lawsuit against him, alleging he physically and sexually abused her. Her suit is settled quickly and quietly, but it's just the beginning of Diddy's legal issues. In the weeks and months following Cassie's suit, he's hit with dozens more lawsuits from people alleging he abused them too. Combs denies abusing anyone. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline: [phone]-HOPE or go to rainn.org. Remember, you can catch new episodes of "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" early by following the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Deborah Roberts here to bring you another weekly episode of Bad Rap, the case against Diddy. Remember, you can catch new episodes a day early if you follow Bad Rap, the case against Diddy on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And now, here's our next episode. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. Please take care when listening. In 2022, Diddy was on BET jumping up and down on a stage, stomping his feet and pumping

his arms. He wore a matching black top and pants, maybe silk, not a wrinkle in sight, with dark sunglasses and a handful of diamond necklaces. He looked classy, chic. What up? What up, dog? The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Chance the Rapper, Janelle Monae, and tons of other celebs were cheering for Diddy. And then, instead of launching into a song, Diddy started a 10-minute speech. First of all, I want to thank God. God, thank you, thank you so much. Never leaving my side. Sean Diddy Combs was in his 50s. His greatest hits as a musical artist were behind him.

But he was being honored with BET's lifetime achievement award. Like an elder statesman of the music industry, he was being recognized for his years of service. Before the show, he joked that the honor was five years overdue. But standing on the stage that night, he had a long list of people he wanted to thank. But today is not about me. Today is about my mother. Ma, I love you. He thanked Andre Harrell, who famously hired and then fired Diddy from Uptown Records, and his ex, Kim Porter, who had died from pneumonia several years earlier. He thanked artists he worked with early in his career, like Heavy D and the Notorious B.I.G. Also Howard University, his lawyer, the fans.

And then he said, Hey y'all, I'm gonna keep it a hundred with y'all. I was in a dark place for a few years, you know what I'm saying? And I have to give a special thank you to the people that was really like there for me. Bishop T.D. Jakes, my Chief of Staff, Christina Corum, K.K. And one other person. A bit of a surprise call out, to be honest. Yeah, and also Cassie for holding me down in the dark times. Love.

Why was this shout out to Cassie such a surprise? Well, it had been four years since Diddy and Cassie had broken up, she was married to someone else, and they had two children. She hadn't yet gone public with her allegations of abuse against Diddy. But that was about to change. Because according to Rolling Stone, Cassie didn't see that public thanks from Diddy as a sweet gesture it may have seemed to fans and viewers. To her, it was distressing, part of a pattern of behavior by a person who allegedly tormented her for years.

And it was reportedly this BET moment that compelled her to file her bombshell lawsuit. Cassie even referenced this BET speech in her complaint, using some of the language Diddy had used to thank her, saying that she was the one who was held down by combs, and that the dark times were the years she allegedly spent trapped in his cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking, made to participate in freak-offs against her will. In the years since their relationship ended, the trophies and accolades kept coming for Diddy. He built massive wealth, too. And according to other lawsuits, Diddy's abusive behavior

didn't stop. It continued with other alleged victims. It would take Cassie coming forward with her lawsuit in November of 2023 for things to start to change. For more people to break their silence. In this episode, we'll look back on Diddy's life right before and after the allegations against him went public. He was flying pretty close to the sun with a daring rebrand, a new album, and some big time awards. But those last few years can be seen in a very different light now. I'm Brian Buckmeyer from ABC Audio.

This is Bad Rap, the case against Diddy. Episode 4, before and after. ["Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy"] Sean Combs may have been born with that name, but he's rarely used it professionally. First, he was Buffy, Puff, and Puff Daddy in the 90s. When a Puff Daddy bad boy record come on, you go and get up out your seat and rock. Then P. Diddy in the early 2000s.

Then in 2005, he became just Diddy. He explained why to MTV. We removed the P. The P was getting between us. This is that we entering the age of Diddy is five letters, one word. We making it clear and concise. There was also a Sean John period, and believe it or not, a swag era. That only lasted a week though. And in 2017, Diddy announced a new name for himself on social media.

I'm just not who I am before. I'm something different. So my new name is Love, AKA Brother Love. I will not be answering to Puffy, Diddy, Puff Daddy, or any of my other monikers, but Love or Brother Love, okay? He declared he'd entered his love era, even legally changing his middle name to Love. He told the New York Times he was remaking himself

with the help of therapy and psychedelics. And this name change, this rebrand, it was something he'd been trying to make happen for years. He talked about it in interviews like Vogue's 73 Questions. Is it really all about the Benjamins? I think it's all about love. And on talk shows like the BBC's Graham Norton show, even using the marriage equality slogan, love wins.

This is the ultimate goal. I have become love and love wins. Love wins! Let's go, y'all. There we go. Culture reporter Justin Tinsley says, just like all of his other name changes, this new one was a way to get attention and stay relevant.

What these name changes have always done for Diddy is just allow him to live in the news cycle. It allows him to dictate the course of the conversation. It's like, all right, so you have X, Y, and Z going on in your life, but why did you change your name again? What do you want us to call you? In 2018, Did Z going on in your life, but why did you change your name again? What do you want us to call you? In 2018, Diddy went on The Breakfast Club,

a popular radio show out of New York that for a while was simulcast on his television network, Revolt. The host said they noticed he was in fact different from the Diddy they used to know. Yeah, I wanna know, did you go to anger management or something like- Something happened in Diddy's life.

Like what happened? Diddy just turned and became love. Yeah. Man, I think I was also like going through like a stressful time too. And you know, that's a part of growing up. You evolve and you see things differently. And then just being honest with yourself on like, how do I want to be seen? How do I want to make people feel?

He said that he was no longer the antagonistic, hot tempered ditty that people might have seen in the past. The ditty that came from a certain environment that he says made him act out. People getting punched in they face every day. So I figured, why don't I be the first one to punch people in they face, since the punching in the face is going to start at some time.

The Breakfast Club hosts brought up the 2015 UCLA incident, the one where Diddy had allegedly assaulted his son's college football coach with a kettlebell. Diddy said, quote, I put all of that in my past. He continued to push the idea of spreading love, being love, bringing people together, getting closer to God. And culture critic Jamila Lemieux says he really embraced the family man persona too. He's claiming to be a full-time dad and he's got custody of his daughters and he's taking them to football games and activities and being a very active, engaged dad. After the unexpected death of Kim Porter, Diddy's ex-girlfriend, football games and activities and being a very active, engaged dad.

After the unexpected death of Kim Porter, Diddy's ex-girlfriend, he really began promoting his image as a single dad. He took custody of their 12-year-old twin girls, posting on social media, New day, new life, new responsibilities. Kim I got this, just like you taught me. People Magazine referred to Diddy as a proud papa and highlighted quality time he spent with his kids. I honestly say I'm the luckiest man in the world. I got three girls, three boys in there.

They're really kind, great people. If the late 2010s were Diddy's soft launch of the Love rebrand, then the early 2020s were the hard launch. He started a new R&B record label called Love Records. He named his seventh child Love Sean Combs. And he was projecting love in the media, too. A 2021 Vanity Fair cover shows a 50-year-old Diddy, shirtless and fit. He's got the word love tattooed down his side vertically.

He's in profile against a pink and orange backdrop with his fist in a black power salute and his mouth wide in what looks like a scream. He told Vanity Fair reporters in that cover story, quote, the MeToo movement, the truth, is that it inspired me. It showed me that you can get maximum change. But despite his best efforts, Diddy's love persona didn't stick. Here's Jamila Lemieux again. He wanted to exemplify that sort of progress

and change in this love era. And I don't think people took it very seriously. People were willing to call him P. Diddy, they were willing to call him Did seriously. People were willing to call him P. Diddy. They were willing to call him Diddy. Nobody was willing to call him Love. Maybe it's because he was in his 50s by the early 2020s, a seasoned artist that the public had gotten used to rather than a fresh, new voice.

And his music wasn't hitting the way it had back in the 90s and early 2000s, either. Jamila says his biggest artists were behind him, too. There were other bad boy artists who were successful, but nobody ever matched Biggie's success. And you could argue that nobody matched Diddy's success, that none of the artists that were signed to him ever eclipsed him in terms of fame, with the exception of perhaps Notorious B.I.G. So maybe that was the reason Love didn't catch on. People just weren't interested enough in his music.

He couldn't pull fans along for yet another name change. Or maybe it's because Love is so grandiose and kind of egocentric, right? Like when I heard about the name change, I thought, Diddy's about to show up on some podcast and announce a new religion, or try to sell us on a new spiritual practice or something. Could anyone get away with naming themselves Love? Or maybe it was because Love felt tone deaf to people who had been following Diddy's career for decades. Maybe it didn't match the reputation he'd made for himself all these years. The self-proclaimed bad boy with an allegedly bad temper, a guy who generated rumors about

the way he treated women in his life. You never saw them on TMZ or any so-called legitimate outlets talking about it, but every once in a while there would be an interview with a former bodyguard or someone who said that he, you know, had a history of violence with Cassie and also with Kim Porter, the late mother of four of his children. Kim Porter had once been asked about the rumors of abuse

by OK Magazine, and she denied that Diddy had been abusive towards her. She said, quote, He has a little temper. Sometimes he talks to people in ways they don't like, but he's never been physically abusive to me. There had been rumors about Cassie, too. Rumors on gossip sites that he beat her. In fact, people honed in on an incident that Cassie later alleged in her lawsuit.

How in 2009, Diddy allegedly pulled her out of a club in LA. They got into a fight in the car, and when they got to his house, she tried to run away. Diddy followed her and allegedly kicked her in the face. She bled badly from the injuries. Looking at the gossip site side by side with the lawsuit now, the echoes are uncanny. But the rumors, the rebrand flop, they didn't seem to slow Diddy down. At least not for a while. Coming up, a series of career highs for Diddy than a crushing blow. Whose lifelong dream of making it to the league Each man must make a personal commitment to excellence and to victory Will be fulfilled on this iconic stage at Lambeau

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I know it. To find her. Tell me where she is. The Stolen Girl, tonight at 10 on Freeform and Stream on Hulu. By 2022, Diddy was doing very well for himself financially. He'd picked up waterfront property in Miami Beach for reportedly almost $50 million and an LA mansion worth $39 million. He was seen cruising the seas on super yachts chartered for upwards of almost $1 million

a week. Sirak's partnership with alcohol manufacturer Diageo was a huge source of wealth for Diddy, reportedly making him around $60 million a year. Daily On Tequila and his TV network Revolt were also big earners for him, as well as his music catalog. He was on the road to becoming a billionaire, hip hop's third billionaire after Jay-Z and Kanye West. And by most accounts in the early 2020s the entertainment world still loved Diddy. This was when he won that BET Lifetime Achievement Award. He also won MTV's Global Icon Award at the VMAs. This is what's up. Love wins, y'all.

Love wins. Diddy also seemed to be turning over a new leaf in terms of philanthropy and better treatment of his artists. He showed up to Howard University's 2023 homecoming with one of those goofy oversized checks for a million dollars. He spoke to ABC News 7 in D.C. after the event. This school has given me so much. I feel it's one of the, not just one of it,

I feel like it's the most important black educational institution ever. And so we as alumni have to keep pouring our seed back into it, you know, keep on investing back in the home. And so, you know, I'm blessed to be able to do it. He donated another million to the football program at another historically black college, Jackson State University. And at a time when artists like Taylor Swift

were speaking out against music executives for profiting big on their music and controlling the rights to their creative work, Diddy announced that he was giving some bad boy artists and songwriters their publishing rights back. Revolt reported that Combs wanted to quote, see more creators flourish and profit as much as possible from their work. He hoped the move would inspire the rest of the music industry to change the status quo,

and spark a new way to compensate artists. Diddy's critics say that in the past, he'd been known for taking a hard line with bad boy artists, pressuring them into taking less than fair deals and reportedly feuding with them over ownership and fair compensation. So this move in 2023, it seemed like a reversal for him. He gave Biggie's estate, Faith Evans, Mace, and 112 their rights back, among others. The terms of the deals weren't disclosed, but the assets were reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even though not all of his artists got their rights back, it still seemed like maybe Diddy was trying to make up for past mistakes. Like he was trying to be a stand-up guy. All I am is a man with ambition to be a stand-up guy. Diddy also launched his first studio album in nearly 20 years. Surprise surprise. He called it the Love Album, Off the Grid. The R&B album featured a bunch of other popular artists, past and present.

The Weeknd, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, John Legend, and Justin Bieber, to name a few. The album got nominated for a Grammy, but it didn't perform as well as his earlier music. Where his previous studio album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, this one debuted at 19. And its first week of sales were much lower. But the very same day the Love album dropped, Diddy got the key to New York City. Hey, what up, y'all? What's up? Welcome to New York. But just barely two months after the release of the Love album and the key to the city ceremony, Cassie filed her lawsuit.

Singer Cassandra Ventura, whose stage name is Cassie, has sued music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Ventura accuses Combs of raping her in her own home after she tried to leave him, of punching, beating, kicking, and stomping on her, and of blowing up a man's car after Combs learned he was romantically interested in Ventura. Cassie describing the music mogul as a vicious, cruel, and controlling man, saying she was trapped and held down

by Combs during what she's calling a cycle of abuse, spelling out incident after incident. Cassie filed her lawsuit just eight days before an important deadline for the New York State's Adult Survivors Act. If you were a survivor of sexual assault and the statute of limitations had expired, this law opened a one-year window to file a civil suit. Diddy's attorney responded to Cassie's complaint on his client's behalf, saying, Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations, describing them as

riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs' reputation. But then, as we said in the last episode, Cassie and Diddy settled, just a day after she filed, for an undisclosed amount with no admission of guilt. Both parties said it had been resolved amicably. Culture reporter Justin Tinsley looks back on all the accolades Diddy collected and goodwill he garnered right before news of Cassie's lawsuit broke, and wonders if there were signs maybe Diddy knew the suit was coming. Justin suspects there was a PR move at play.

There was the Global Icon Award at the VMAs that really made me take a step back because he didn't perform with any artist. The only artist that was on stage with him was his son, Christian Combs. You would think at a moment like that, when you're getting one of the most prestigious awards in award shows and nobody's on stage to perform with you, I'm like, this is kind of weird.

But again, I didn't know what was coming of it. He donates money to Howard University and Jackson State University's football team. I'm like, this is, like, what is going on here? I like, this just, something felt off. And then, by November of 2023, the Cassie lawsuit comes out and I'm like, okay. Lawsuits like this don't just pop up out of thin air.

Like, somebody on your, like you knew, your team knew that these lawsuits were coming, and this was a way to try to jump in front of it. As an attorney, I can tell you that often, the person getting sued knows ahead of time that the suit is coming. The plaintiff might reach out to the other party before even filing to see if they can agree to something without having to go to court. And there are some suggestions Diddy might have known something was coming. For one, a producer who worked with Diddy during this period, Rodney Jones, claims in a lawsuit to have irrefutable evidence that Diddy was taking steps to soften his

image ahead of Cassie's lawsuit. Second, Diddy's lawyer alleges that prior to the suit, Cassie was demanding $30 million under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which if true, would suggest Diddy might have known Cassie was considering coming forward with her allegations in some way, though again, we don't know for sure he was aware ahead of time about her lawsuit. So looking back, all that good press for Diddy preceding Cassie's filing, was that coincidence or preparation?

After the break, Cassie's lawsuit inspires others to come forward with their own allegations against Diddy. I wanna find and kill the people who murdered my wife. Critics rave. The Amateur is a tense, unpredictable ride. You're just not a killer, Charlie. Train me. that constantly finds new and inventive ways to up the stakes. The first one you kill, you let the other ones know you're coming. You don't want them all?

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Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best. Oscar Wilde is credited with saying, quote, everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power. I've thought about this quote a lot as I've read the allegations against Diddy, the idea that power may have been at the heart of it all.

Once news of Cassie's lawsuit broke, the floodgates opened, and more alleged survivors of Sean Diddy Combs came forward. There was a woman who claimed she was raped by Combs in the early 90s when she was a college student. She claims Combs drugged her before the attack and distributed a recording of it as what she calls revenge porn. There was a second woman who alleges when she was 16, she and a friend were raped by

Combs and a singer-songwriter, also in the early 90s. She alleges that Combs came back the next day and choked her until she passed out, concerned the girls would tell others about the alleged rape. There was a third woman who alleges that in 2003, when she was 17 years old, she was given drugs and alcohol, gang raped and sex trafficked by Combs and two other men. Combs said in a statement following these suits that he did not do any of the awful things being alleged. He called them sickening allegations by people looking for a quick payday. And Combs' legal team says he's quote, never sexually assaulted anyone, adult or minor, man or woman.

But then came a lawsuit from Rodney Jones, just three months after Cassie had filed and settled hers. Ex-music producer Rodney Jones sued for $30 million, saying Combs groped, harassed, and threatened him, and was engaged in a widespread and dangerous criminal sex trafficking organization. Jones also accuses Combs of forcing him to participate in sex acts with sex workers in front of him.

Rodney Jones, or Little Rod, as he's known professionally, had been a producer on Diddy's Love album. And he alleges that between 2022 and 2023, while working on the album and living with Combs, the mogul grabbed Jones' genitals and anus without consent. According to the lawsuit, Combs tried to groom the producer, attempting to make him comfortable with having sex with men, promising Jones he'd win Producer of the Year at the Grammys if he'd engage in homosexual acts. The lawsuit claims Combs attempted to pass Jones off to male friends.

In his lawsuit, Jones talks about freak-offs, just like Cassie did. He alleges that Combs forced Jones to hire sex workers and to participate in sex acts with them, and that there were underage girls at Combs' parties, too. The lawsuit described a web of people, beyond Combs, who were involved in supplying these parties with sex and drugs, sometimes drugging guests without their knowledge or consent. The court has already weighed in on parts of Jones' lawsuit, dismissing some of his claims and narrowing the list of defendants. Diddy is still on the list, but one of the biggest wins for the mogul was getting the

criminal enterprise claim dismissed. The judge said Jones hadn't made a good enough argument that Diddy had conspired with others to harm the producer. But another big claim was allowed to move forward. Sex trafficking. Combs' legal team says Jones' lawsuit is, quote, pure fiction. They say there is no criminal conspiracy, and that Jones was not threatened, groomed,

assaulted, or trafficked. They say they look forward to proving Jones' claims are made up and must be dismissed. Jones' lawsuit is still pending, and Combs hasn't settled with any of the alleged victims except for Cassie. Jones's complaint is over 70 pages long, and the thing that most stood out to me is that he says he's got receipts. His lawsuit contains images he claims are taken from videos he has. They allegedly show people named in the suit around the time of the alleged crimes. Images of Jones with Diddy. People who Jones says are sex workers at parties.

Diddy kissing a person Jones says is an underage girl. Jones with a male celebrity. His hand on the inside of Jones' thigh. Many of the stills are bathed in pink or red light, reportedly something that was characteristic of Diddy's freak-offs. Jones' lawsuit also alleges Diddy had hidden cameras in every room of his homes, suggesting the possibility there could be more video footage out there. Again, I'm not involved in Jones' suit or the criminal case against Diddy, so I don't know the prosecutor's strategy.

But here's what I can tell you based on my professional experience. When I saw Rodney Jones' complaint and the level of detail it went into on what the supporting evidence allegedly is and where it could be found, I immediately thought, which detective and which prosecutor is reading this and thinking, let's go investigate? Sometimes lawsuits can be written in a way that tips off law enforcement and gives them a road map. I see it in my own civil litigation practice all the time. This suit by Little Rod felt like an invitation to build a criminal case against Diddy, served up on a silver platter.

to build a criminal case against Diddy, served up on a silver platter. The initial burst of lawsuits, Cassie to Rodney Jones, were only the first of many lawsuits against Diddy. There'd be dozens more to come in the following months. But eventually, the attention surrounding the allegations began to fade. For about six months, much of the public seemed to move on from Diddy's legal troubles.

The news cycle moved on, too. Until something surfaced that made everyone pay attention again. Something that appeared to confirm at least some of Cassie's allegations. Disturbing video that shows Sean Diddy Combs kicking, shoving, and dragging his ex-girlfriend. And then law enforcement made its move. Tonight, heavily armed federal authorities raiding two homes belonging to legendary rapper and entertainment mogul Sean Diddy Combs. That's next time on Bad Rap, the case against Diddy. the case against Diddy.

If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline [phone]-HOPE or go to rainn.org. If you liked this podcast, please share it and give it a five star rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Thanks for listening. Bad Rap, the Case Against Diddy is a production of ABC Audio. I'm Brian Buckmeyer. This podcast was written and produced by Vika Aronson, Camille Peterson, and Nancy Rosenbaum. Tracy Samuelson is our story editor.

Associate producer, Amira Williams. We had production help from Shane McKeon and Kiara Powell. Fact checker, Audrey Mostek. Story consultant, Sweeney St. Phil. Supervising producer, Sasha Aslanian. Original music by Evan Viola. Mixing by Rick Kwan. Ariel Chester is our social media producer.

This podcast was powered by the journalists at Impact by Nightline, 2020, GMA, and the ABC News Investigative Unit. Thanks to those teams. And special thanks to Stephanie Maurice, Liz Alessi, and Katie Dendas. Josh Cohen is ABC Audio's Director of Podcast Programming. Laura Mayer is our Executive Producer.