RedHanded - Diddy Part 1: Deal With the Devil | #397

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

As the trial we’ve all been waiting for finally approaches, we bring you the full rundown on the self-proclaimed “bad boy for life” – and the hundreds of accusations, from victims as young as nine years old, that threaten to jail the music mogul for the rest of his days.Before we find out which “well-known figures” are likely to be accused alongside Sean Combs (aka P Diddy aka “Love”) here is everything you need to know: from his explosive beginnings on the hip hop scene with Bad Boy Records; through his despicable history of violence and sexual exploitation going back decades; all the way to Cassie’s hotel video, the infamous “Diddy parties”, the police raids… and 1,000 bottles of baby oil.All accompanied by the deafening silence of famous friends, from Usher to Jay-Z and Beyoncé.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. When a young woman named Desiree vanishes without a trace, the trail leads to Kat Torres, a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. But behind the glamorous posts and inspirational quotes, a sinister truth unravels. Binge all episodes of Don't Cross Kat early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. When Luigi Mangione was arrested for allegedly shooting the CEO of United Healthcare,

he didn't just spark outrage, he ignited a cultural firestorm. Is the system working, or is it time for a reckoning. I'm Jesse Weber. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. I'm Hannah. I'm Sarutin. And welcome to Red Handed. This particular series has taken two months of my life. Oh my god. A price that I was willing to pay in the beginning. Now I'm not so sure. You never know. It's one of those ones that like, the second we stop recording this, it will be out of date.

Yeah. So be kind. There are loads of series out there that are doing daily updates on this. Oh my god. And that was quite stressful for me. And then I had to like have a word with myself and be like, Hannah, you do not have a team of people who have got Google alerts. But also they're quite repetitive.

So you can go and listen to those ones if you want. Some are good, some are bad, some are the BBC. That's not this. No. It's what I have decided is worth talking about. Let's do it. In two episodes. I'm here for it.

I'm pumped. I'm already dreading the update I'm going to have to do when the trail is over. But that's OK. It's a future Hannah problem. Exactly. This is a now Hannah problem and a now you problem. Let's do it.

OK. Got my tea. Ready to go. On the 26th of June 2022, Kanye West took to the stage at the BET Awards, which I only just found out stands for Black Entertainment Television. That makes sense. It sure does. I just didn't know it. Big Easy was not there to have a go at Taylor Swift or to flog swastika t-shirts. He was there to bestow a lifetime achievement award upon Sean Diddy Combs, who is more commonly known as just Diddy. Lots of names over the years. I really don't like calling him Diddy.

And I was going to do the whole series calling him Sean Combs, but for reasons that will become clear, this is already quite repetitive. So it was quite helpful for me as writing it to have other things I could call him. But I just want you to know that I know it's gross. I'm just doing it. And you know, anyway. We also then couldn't call it pre-diddy. Well, we can, we know, everyone knows. I think we could still call it pre-diddy. Okay. Well, you wrote the script script so I'll do what you want. Thanks.

Anyway, an elated Combs took to the stage, cheered on by hip-hop's brightest stars, notably including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Lil Kim, Mary J. Blige, Young Miami, Busta Rose, Faith Evans, the list goes on and on and on. They were all there and they were all really happy about it. And after thanking God, Sean Combs said this, anything I do is through love. That's what I evolved to be. And that's what I'm doing right now. He actually changed his middle name to love in 2020. As acceptance speeches go, Sean Combs' was nothing special. Although one thank you really stood out, the one that he gave to his ex-girlfriend.

Staring pointedly into the camera, Sean Combs said, and also Cassie, for holding me down in the dark times. Love. It's not great. No, and it's about to get even worse. Even if you know basically nothing about this, you should know why that isn't good. So two years after this career highlight, Diddy, the self-proclaimed bad boy for life, would lose it all. And it was in fact Cassie who tipped the scales. The trial we have all been waiting for is finally upon us. We cannot wait to find out how many members of the Glitterati are served their comeuppance.

Nom nom nom. Cannot wait. As a result of this, but that will all just be a very delicious little bonus. And at the end of next week's episode, I'm going to tell you who has already been revealed. You gotta wait for that though. Or you could look it up yourself, you lazy fuck. Because the main event, which will begin on the 5th of May 2025. We'll see Mr. Sean Combs stand accused at a federal criminal trial once the jury has been selected, of course, which could take a very, very long time. He will stand accused of sex trafficking by force, racketeering conspiracy, fraud,

coercion and transportation of both men and women for prostitution. Quick note on the jury. So jury selection starts on the 5th of May. Sure. Opening addresses are scheduled for the 16th of May. However, OJ's jury took a month. Yeah. They have to do, they do it via questionnaire, obviously she's so famous. And they're going to have to be sequestered.

So I wouldn't hold your breath. No, no, no, no. I think it's always such a challenge with cases this big. I mean, essentially what you're trying to do is the defense and the prosecution are trying to pick a jury that's going to kind of work in their favor or at least be neutral, but like who could possibly not know that much about this case? So yeah, it's going to be probably not the 16th of May. And also we're in a world where you can just look up people's social media and like if someone's once tweeted, loved it, his new track, what a banger, like they're not going to make it, are they?

So those criminal charges sound like a lot and they are, but they are in fact just the tip of the iceberg. Well over a hundred civil cases are being brought against the disgraced hip-hop producer as we speak. The vast majority of these ongoing civil suits are hauntingly similar, containing accusations of drugging, rape, revenge porn, coercion, psychological torture, manipulation, stalking, human trafficking, unthinkable violence and sexual harassment. And I guess if you have been anywhere near the internet, anywhere near this case at all, you might have seen all the accusations. But really we have to ask, can so many people claiming to have suffered such similar assaults all really just be money-grubbing blackmail monkeys?

Maybe, maybe, but probably not. But that is what Sean Combs' lawyer would like you to believe. When the federal criminal trial concludes, I promise we will give you a red-handed rundown of the whole thing. But before the reckoning begins over the next two episodes, we're going to tell you everything I have decided you need to know? Pre-did he? As I said, don't love calling him that because it's his chosen name. And there are loads of names to choose from, but I actually have found out the reason that Sean Combs was first awarded the name Puff. Apparently, legend has it, that when he was a kid, he was so angry all the time and he would huff and puff. So that's why he got that name. Well, there you go. How embarrassing.

Oh, humiliating. And the further you delve into Sean Combs' past, the more apparent it becomes that he has always been, as my grandmother would say, a real piece of shit. Whatever the outcome of his numerous trials and suits may be, it's certain that many lies will be and have already been spun. And I think a truth that we can hold on to is that people knew, very important influential affluent people, they knew what Diddy was and is and they let him get away with it for decades. So let's start at the beginning with a baby, Sean Combs, who had a temper on him since the day he was born. And two years after he was borned with his big angry personality, his father,

who was a Harlem based drug dealer, was murdered at just 33 years old. Diddy's dad's untimely death didn't stop Combs from idolizing his father. He told the Atlanta Black Star in 2013, even if we don't know our parents, we still have their DNA in us. We have their genes. I have his hustler's mentality, his hustler's spirit, his drive, his determination, his swag. Although Diddy had to leave his inherited swag in the city when his mum moved into the suburbs and sent him to a private Catholic school. In 1987, Combs enrolled in the private, historically black and very prestigious Howard University in Washington DC. Howard has moulded the young minds of the likes of Nick Cannon, Kamala

Harris and Rachel Dollers-Aub, who actually sued the school for racial discrimination against her. Fun little fact for you. You won't find that on their website. She is not on the Notable Alumn page. No, you wouldn't think so. So Sean Combs never actually graduated from Howard though, but while he was there, he did throw a lot of parties and definitely walked around the campus like he was the realest big dick around, albeit with a very, very short fuse. Reports have also emerged of him raging at a woman who cut in front of him in the lunch line and also of him touching people inappropriately and, most infamously, of battering his then-girlfriend

outside her accommodation with a belt. This beating has been described by numerous eyewitnesses who claim they were all shouting at him to stop. Did he did not? You can get a pro at Tread Experts. Until May 30th, purchase four new Michelin passenger or light truck tires and receive up to $70 by prepaid MasterCard. Conditions apply. Details at michelin.ca. Find a Michelin Tread Experts dealer near you at treadexperts.ca slash locations. From tires to auto repair, we're always there at treadexperts.ca.

You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr.ollin's Medical Mysteries, and each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors.

So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries on the your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts. As a student, a young Sean Combs did very little studying. He commuted to New York City to work as an intern at Uptown Records instead. Which is quite a long way, he used to hide in the toilets on the train. And Sean Combs did well at Uptown and soon dropped out of

uni to work at the label full-time. As a matter of fact, Mary J. Blige and the quartet Judici went multi-platinum under his watchful gaze. And he absolutely takes full credit for Mary J. Blige. Back then, record producers just weren't household names. And Sean Combs couldn't stand no one knowing who he was. So while he was working his way up at Uptown, he continued to throw big parties in Manhattan and everyone who was anyone was desperate to be seen at them and they were called Daddy's House. He calls many things Daddy's House throughout his career, but that is as far as I know is the first entry. And those parties and Daddy's House made Diddy hot shit. He knew how to bring people in, people who wanted to spend money on the exploding rap slash

hip hop genre the old white record company executives didn't understand. Yeah, it was absolutely sort of like packaging up this cool street, freewheeling lifestyle. And a protest genre as well. And Diddy kind of fits that mold where he's able to bridge that gap between the streets and what these record labels find acceptable and palatable and what can go mainstream. And I think we'll obviously come on to talk about how utterly shit Diddy is at like actually rapping, but he definitely has the chat. He definitely has the swag and he definitely has that charisma to be able to do what he was doing as a producer

very well. Totally. I think it's kind of being a music producer, right? Someone like Max Martin, who is a absolute 100% hit maker, like everything Katy Perry's ever done. There's a whole musical that's just Max Martin's song that's called Ann Juliet. He is a reclusive man who lives in Sweden. If you can handle that, if you can handle the Cassandra of it all, you've made the music industry, but nobody knows who you are. If you can handle that, your life will be fucking great. Sean Holmes cannot handle that.

And I think even from him calling these parties, like calling these venues, like daddy's house, I'm like, he's still like basically just out of uni. I know. In uni when he's doing it. And I'm like, daddy? Who made you daddy? You're like 20 years old. But I think it is that kind of inflated sense of self that Diddy shows from quite an early age

and that kind of grandiosity that he's already skipped several stages and he's the daddy already. I would love to interview his mother. There's got to be something going on there. Yeah. Also, he's quite small. I looked up how tall he is because I wondered whether obviously he starts out as Puff Daddy because he's angry and Daddy's house, right? And then he becomes P Diddy. And I'm like, did Diddy happen because he's small? He's actually about my height.

He's not small. But like when I mean, next to Jay-Z, he looks small because Jay-Z is 6'2". But like he's in his interviews at like this time when he's like 19, 20. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just quite like, yeah, he's very, he's in his interviews at like this time when he's like 1920. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just quite like, you know? Yeah, he's very, he's very slim as well. And I think I always thought Puff came from, because he always wore like big puffer jackets. But I think it was just again, that sort of peacocking that trying to look larger.

Again, if you're talking about what hip hop was at the start, other than of course, it is this, you know, protest genre, everything like that. But it is this, you know, protest genre, everything like that, but it is this hyper masculine genre. And Diddy being quite a slight guy, especially at the start, he's doing everything he can obviously to make himself look larger than life. And I genuinely thought it was because he wore puffer jackets. Well, we'll never know. What is quite nice is that because Diddy is, that because Diddy is, if you take away his marketing, nows, completely untalented. It is nice that we don't have to have a separation of man from art conversation when it comes to him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, he was so successful at what he did, not because he was a talented musician, but because he copied what white producers had been doing since the dawn of time, which is squeezing music out of artists at any and all costs. And then you keep the rights to everything. I must have spoken about this before. Maybe you remember there's a really famous interview with TLC when they're like the height of their famous red carpet interview and they've like arms full of awards and they're like, we're getting the bus home, we have no money, like all of this, these clothes are rented, like these are loans, we don't have anything. And with like the rise of streaming and obviously everyone's heard about

Taylor Swift's like endless Spotify battles, that sort of thing still happens now, but it was so rife in the 90s and 2000s. And there are very, very few industries that own their workers more than music does, and no corner of music is more brutal distribution-wise than hip-hop, especially in the 90s. That's why so many rappers start their own labels. Anyway, no one could argue with Diddy's KPIs, but, far too big for his boots, openly duplicitous and willing to throw literally anyone under the bus, Sean Diddy Combs was not well-liked around the uptown office. Even colleagues who went to his daddy's house parties on the weekends would flip him off in the office

when he wasn't looking. So far, so Billy and our boys club, bolshy self-important men who think they are better than everyone else are in every office building in the world. But as the 90s dawned, things were about to shift for Sean Combs. Yes. Now, if you listen to our Biggie and Two-Pack series that we did many moons ago, you may remember the celebrity basketball game slash concert produced and promoted by Diddy himself that went very, very horribly wrong. And if you don't remember, well here's your reminder. In 1991, along with Heavy D, Sean Combs put on an event at City College of New York. The scores gym could only safely accommodate about 2,730 people.

But due to Combs' overzealous promotion, 5,000 souls would show up. On top of this dangerously large throng of people, Combs also neglected to hire any sort of proper security. He just got a few of his mates with no actual training to stand around looking menacing, probably in puffer jackets. Which is fine at Daddy's house. Not here. No.

So, as the venue closed its doors, already bursting at the seams with people, those who were turned away stampeded into the gym. Nine people died and 29 people were injured in the chaos. And nine people dying is already horrific enough, but add on to that that all of the victims were aged between 15 and 28. And yeah, it really just a PR nightmare. As we will discuss at length, he's very good at getting out of those. Even when he's this young and doesn't have hundreds of people on his side yet.

It really, really didn't seem to bother him. At first, Combs shrugged all of this off, claiming that he had tried to get the NYPD involved when things first started to go pear-shaped and that they hadn't helped. So as far as he was concerned, his hands were clean. Did he also profess to have personally administered CPR at the scene? So even as a young man, couldn't resist painting himself as a hero. An incident report filed by the then mayor of the city entitled A Failure of Responsibility told quite a different and more believable story. One where Combs and his affiliates

had grossly disregarded the safety of their patrons in pursuit of hype and it had cost nine of their fans their life. Mayor David Dinkins's administration personally held Combs responsible for the inadequate security, poor planning and reckless over-promotion and they made it clear that this was of criminal concern. Families of the dead and injured filed multiple civil suits against Sean Combs over the years, the last of which wasn't settled until the year 2000. As the aftermath of the concert unfurled, Sean Combs hid away for months in a hotel room with his mum and waited for it all to go away. Which annoyingly it did.

It did die down in the end, and Combs wormed his way back into the Uptown offices. The success of Mary J. Blige's What's the 411 album scrubbed his reputation, and he founded Bad Boy Entertainment, his own label, under the Uptown umbrella in 1992. Everyone still hated him though. And the next year, Uptown Records sacked him. So, Sean Combs had to find a new home for his new baby lady that had just signed Biggie Smalls. So after he stopped crying, Sean Combs did just that. And Bad Boy Entertainment found a new home with Arista Records.

Biggie's interesting because Biggie, genius. Genius can't argue with it like once in a generation talent. Not very charismatic when he's not on the mic. Sean Combs, exact opposite. So together, they're the industry stream. Absolutely. And Biggie as well, I think, you know, from documentaries I've watched, like, when we did the two-parter on Biggie and Tupac, like, he was also just kind of like, not really representing in the way that somebody like Sean Combs wanted what the hip hop genre was in the way. Cause he had a wife very young, he just wanted to stay at home, watch TV with his wife, hang out with her and not really. Obviously he was

out in the streets doing his music, but he wasn't living the gangster lifestyle, which is what hip hop was predominantly at that time. And yeah, you're right, Sean Combs, it was just rife for Sean Combs to go in there and fill that space up. And that's like, yeah, Mary J. Blige, fine. He did completely reinvent her look. But Biggie makes him. Like Biggie casts him in solid gold. Absolutely. So feeling like hot shit once again, Sean Combs was straight back to his old tricks. Those who were with Bad Boy in the early years have absolutely loads and loads and loads of stories of Cone's attacking employees, both male and female, right from the start.

Studio manager Felicia Newsome told Rolling Stone, she once had to physically restrain Diddy as he attempted to beat a woman on company property. strain Diddy as he attempted to beat a woman on company property. And we'll be hearing from another Arista intern by the name of April Lampros later on. So the point is, it's not like he devolved. Out the gate he is like this. And it's not like it was ever behind closed doors. Never. No. So for now, we need to jump forward to an unfathomable time. 1995, when Sean Combs and Suge Knight were friends.

Mm-hmm. Now, Suge Knight is a big guy. He is six foot seven. Wow. But he's also called Marion, so it's kind of fine. You can only be called Marion if you're six years old. Now look, if you want more context on the whole East versus West coast rap battle rivalry that would go on to claim multiple lives, then you have to go and listen to our Biggie and Tupac series, which includes the run up to one night in 1995 when Shug's friend and bodyguard, Jake Robles, was killed outside a club in Atlanta. Things went wrong as an argument broke out between Bad Boy and Death Row's respective

entourages. A county sheriff's deputy escorted Sean Combs and the Bad Boy crew outside the club so that Knight and his Death Row guys could leave in peace peace or at least that was the plan. That didn't happen. Just as Marion Knight was about to get into his waiting limo a few of Sean Combs's affiliates barreled around the corner with a gun and that gun was used by one of those men to shoot Jake Robles who died a few weeks later of his injuries. As for who actually pulled the trigger, we probably won't ever know. But it seems very likely that whoever fired the fatal shot was backed by Sean Combs. And even though the shooter fled the scene in a bad-boy car, Combs has always denied all involvement. Shug Knight, like the rest of

us, has always called bullshit on that and still holds Combs personally responsible for drawing first blood in the coastal war, all while birthing commercially viable hip-hop. Yeah. So, J. Groblus' death was not a one-off either. A few years later, NAS's manager, Steve Stout, was attacked in his office by Combs and two others. Apparently, this attack was because Combs was upset that a scene of him being crucified hadn't been removed from a music video that Stout had released. To solve this problem, did he attack Steve Stout with a champagne bottle and was actually

charged with second degree assault and criminal mischief. Combs insisted that no bones had been broken and therefore the charges were unfair. But uncharacteristically, he did admit wrongdoing and said that he was disappointed in himself. Yeah, don't get used to that. He doesn't say that very often. A judge sentenced Combs to anger management classes. And when I say classes, that's the wrong word. It was class singular because it lasted just one day. And the case was settled for $500,000. A process that Sean Combs will come very accustomed to later on in life. So those are his first criminal convictions, right? And he gets off quite easily.

Yeah. Having said that, he did manage to stay out of public trouble until 1999. But when he was back in the troublemaking game, he was really back, as was his then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. Yeah, I feel like JLo kind of has for a long time flown under the radar with her level of like closeness and attachment and involvement with Sean Combs. She has very successfully rebranded. Yeah, yeah, very much so. And yeah. I'm not going to let her forget. Yeah. Very much so. And yeah.

I'm not going to let her forget. I know. I know. I know. And look, I don't even know if it's worth saying. I feel like people are just going to get angry at me. But like when Trump won again, she made this like rousing speech about how he's like, you know, this danger to women or something. Okay. Yeah. Sean Holmes was your fucking boyfriend. And don't tell me you didn't know what he was doing. And don't tell me you didn't carry that gun in that club that night because I know you did.

Thank you. People are allowed to change. People are allowed to- Yes, of course, of course. To repent. Absolutely. Not J Lo though. Anyway, I completely agree. It's amazing how short our memories can be. Oh yes. So let's remind you all what happened that December. Bad Boy were having at large in

New York City when Combs knocked a drink out of a certified actual gangster's hands. Uh oh. Which led to an argument and that argument led to some money being thrown in Sean Combs' face. And he did not like that. So guns were drawn and shots were fired inside the club. Bad Boy signee Jamal Shine Barrow, who is celebrating a record release, was shot three times. Witnesses have claimed that shots were fired by both Sean Combs and by Jamarshine. We don't actually know. I know what I think. Anyway, after the shooting, Combs was driven off in a car with two guns and Jennifer Lopez in it and that car

ran 11 red lights. Sean Combs was arrested with those two firearms in his car and he was also charged for bribing his driver to take ownership of the guns. And to this day, many believe that Jennifer Lopez carried at least one gun into the club that night. But we can believe what we want because it's the internet. But we're going to leave unsubstantiated claims until next week because there are way more where that came from. And if I start, I will not stop. So miraculously, despite the red lights and gun running, Sean Diddy Combs came out of this debacle once again relatively unscathed, as he was acquitted on all charges. Shine, however, was not quite so lucky.

He did 10 years inside, which was not really the album party he was after. I know I literally just said that I would leave unsubstantiated claims until next week, but I am going to put one in. literally just said that I would leave unsubstantiated claims until next week. There has been commentary of like, does anyone else think it's strange that Shine just took that case and went down for 10 years? And did he just walked out the court? Anyone else think that's odd? Anyone else? Yeah. I mean, I've watched a documentary about it and it was something like, I think at first they led Shine to believe that they were going to also get him legal representation and things like this. And then they were just like, actually no, I'm going to hire myself a great lawyer and Shine, yeah, good luck. Good luck with

that. And then he goes down, he goes down, they have to pin it on somebody and they pin it on Shine. And then after he gets out of prison, I believe he went back to Belize and he became leader of the opposition. Good for him. He got voted into like, he essentially became like a Belizean MP. I didn't know that. That's great. And then he rose the ranks and became leader of the opposition. And I believe he's still a politician out there.

Good. Don't let Diddy get you down forever, my friend. So yes, Diddy gets away with it. Shine goes to prison. Inside Bad Boy HQ, however, staff worked hard to keep Combs' troubles out of the press as much as possible. That's another reason it's easier to call him Diddy, because Combs is such a weird name. It is. I keep wanting to call him Combs.

I know it's Combs. Yeah, like hair comb. Yeah, yeah. And sadly, the people who worked at Bad Boy were pretty good at it. And the mega-powered PR machine did what it needed to do, and it pretty much always worked. In no time, Sean Diddy Combs was an untouchable hitmaker again, always making sure he featured on his Chinese tracks and most famously their videos. This is so important in the Sean Combs' story because again, he really sets himself apart

from other music producers of the time because yeah, in Nas' videos, in all of these videos, he is featuring like literally in the car with Nas in like a very, I can't remember what song for but in a very famous music video. I'm like, why are you there? Just doing a little bit of a like backing track. I'm enough. I'm in the video. I'm on the side. Like he's just so, he's such a like by the coat tails. Oh yeah. And it's how he made his name. Yeah. And it worked. It worked. Exactly. So yeah. Although there were plenty of people who never

had time for Sean Combs, especially as the East Coast West Coast rivalry intensified, he managed to still squeeze himself in there at every given opportunity. Tupac famously, however, had absolutely no respect for Diddy. He called him a jealous, corny executive who couldn't stand to be on the sidelines when no one knew his name, and I think that pretty much sums it up. 100%. But that isn't where Shakur's disdain for Sean Combs ended either. Tupac vocally blamed Combs for his first brush with death at Quad Studios on Times Square. When Tupac was murdered in Vegas, Shug Knight blamed Combs straight away.

But yet again, Combs denied everything. But now we know, decades later, that gunman Keefe D, who went down for it eventually, claims that he got paid a million dollars by Sean Combs to take Puck out. And I said this in the Tupac series, I am no Suge Knight fan, but at least he says it to your fucking face. Yeah. Anyway, we all know what happened next. Biggie was gunned down at the Soul Train Music Awards in LA. At the time of his death, the notorious B.I.G. was in the midst of a rights row with Bad Boy and as rumour had it, was getting ready to jump to another label. During this dispute Sean Combs reportedly told his lawyers, quote, I will never give it up until I'm

dead and my bones are crushed into powder. Okay, Jack and the beanstalk. What a weird thing to say. It's like he's just started talking and he doesn't know where it's going to end. And it ends up with bones crushed to powder. Honestly, you can see so many, there's so much boardroom footage of him saying shit like this. Oh my God. He's so fucking weird and intense in those bordering meetings. And you can see people's faces just like, what actual fuck. But he was Sean Combs. Yeah. That's, it's literally always comes back. Well, just Sean's going to be Sean, which if he was a genius, I would understand a bit more. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But I guess he's making fuck loads of money, I suppose. I don't know. Anyway, Diddy's career was on the ropes. He's nothing if Biggie leaves and he fucking knows it. And his demise was on the horizon almost exclusively because he was horrible to work with and for. By the late 90s, everyone wanted to leave Combs and Bad Boy behind them. It was common knowledge in the industry that the contracts at Bad Boy were unfair at best and extortionate at worst. The only things that Sean Combs cared about were money and his own fame, both of which he achieved by recycling classic hit melodies into cheap hooks shamelessly. And if you need proof of his shamelessness, I've come equipped with some conjecture for

you. After Biggie died, Combs released everything he'd ever recorded. And he did that to capitalize on the drama and the tragedy of his friend being shot and killed. He knew that there was absolutely no point in history where those recordings were going to make more money, so he released them straight away, converting grief into dollar bills. And he even, this is the most disgusting one, he used his deceased friend's voice, he used Biggie's voice on his own album to boost sales. Yeah. Because as the saying goes, he doesn't write rhymes,

he writes checks. Yeah. And if you're completely without scruples, you can make a lot of money that way. Absolutely. And also, lest we forget, I'll Be Missing You is what launched Sean Combs like as his own musical entity. And it's actively a bad song. It is a bad song. It is a bad song. But he's using, again, he's using Biggie's death. He's using the emotional reaction and he's capitalizing and using that intensity at the loss of Biggie to essentially emotionally black male people. It's just like a sappy

song. It's not even very good, but it's like he brings it out at the exact right time and knows how to capitalize on it. And he also called Biggie's first album ready to die. Come on. Yeah, I think it was very much a, if I can't have you, no one will. And then when I don't have you, I will use you to make myself a superstar. 100%. Shug night, who's the opposite player in this, he's in prison now.

And he has a podcast that he makes in prison now, which I haven't listened to but I'm kind of really here for it What's it cool? I don't know, but you must have listened to ear hustle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's like that I think it's just not being shut night. It's called collect call with Shug night. Nice Anyway, as I said, not a fan, but he's much more straightforward than Sean Kovas. And he said on his podcast, when Pac left, notice how he doesn't say dies. He says left. Very good. Excellent marketing. Anyway, when Pac left, I didn't pick up a microphone. I picked up the pieces. And when Suge Knight is challenging your ethics, you really do need to take a long, hard look at yourself.

He's in there for murder. Yeah. So as the 2000s dawned, having narrowly escaped a 15-year sentence from the New York club shooting, Sean Combs was right back to his old self throwing an absolutely massive ragers and asking bosses if he could buy sex with their female employees. Yeah, did that all the time. There are many, many, many, many, many examples, many interviews of people who were interning at a label or they end up at this party or they're a friend of a model or something. And that is what happens. He goes to who he thinks is their owner and

he asks. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Like, can I pet your dog? Literally. Oh my God. So yes, we all know what Sean Combs was up to, but if you have been paying any attention at all to the unraveling of this ginormous story over the past few years, you will be under no doubt as to Jay-Z's involvement in this particular story. What nobody's really talking about in massive amounts of detail, however, is Usher. Do-do, do-do. So before he was famous and before all of his confessions, Usher lived with none other

than Sean Combs. According to Usher, it was in fact Sean Combs who introduced him to sex for the first time. And I have seen an interview where Usher is talking about that. And it's just so gross. It's like Howard Stern or something like that. And he said just so, it's just, it's so gross. It's like Howard Stern or something like that. Yeah. And he said it multiple times in interviews, but yeah, it's really very uncomfortable. Absolutely. So the king of R&B, being Usher, told Rolling Stone in 2004, and this is a

quote, there was always girls around. You'd open the door and see someone doing it, or several people in a room having an orgy. You never knew what was going to happen. And, you know, if he's like a man in his 30s, still a bit grubby, but like, you know, all right, whatever. Usher was living with Sean Combs from when he was 13 years old. Yeah. It's like this weird, like, you know, with the, with the Greeks and the Spartans, and I will take on as a man, as a fully grown man, I will take on this young boy and I will teach him to be a man.

And you know, we'll get naked together and wrestle and go to the spas and, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And it's perfectly fine. Even if we have sex, it's perfectly fine even if we have sex it's perfectly fine it's male bonding it kind of feels like that and it's weird. Yes 100% and also has the added layer of being within the hip-hop arena which is famously quite homophobic so that's another element to it, which makes it even more like, I don't know, it just makes my chest feel tight. I can't even think of a word. And whatever was going on between Sean Combs and Usher, and I think we can all agree it probably wasn't something that was very good, it doesn't end there. Because then Usher goes on to be a mentor himself.

And who is his mentee? It is little baby mentor, Justin Bieber. Yeah. Now, we promise we will address all of the Justin jossip next week. And I did see recently just like on Instagram, like that popped up that video that like Kim Kardashian, that photo shoot Kim Kardashian did with Justin Bieber when he's like a child. Yeah, it's

And it's very sexually explicit. It's just like, why was everyone just okay with like sexually exploiting this boy? Well, we'll discuss that at length next week. Yeah. But it is kind of like the pedagogy thing of what you're saying. It was, and we all do it to a certain extent, this acceptance of if you want opportunity that no one else can have, if you want a life beyond your wildest dreams, this is the price.

Yeah. Pay the- Troll toll. Exactly. It's disgusting. wildest dreams, this is the price. Pay the troll toll. Exactly. It's disgusting. It is truly disgusting and everyone knew about it. We knew about it. Everyone knows.

Absolutely. There's so many videos on the internet, not only of like whatever was going on with Justin Bieber and Usher, there are so many videos on the internet of grown women very obviously sexually objectifying Justin Bieber from when he is literally a child. Yep. If I have learned anything in the almost decade we've been doing this, the only thing I am sure of. I know nothing. Anyway, gossip, even though it's delicious, is not enough to make a damning judgment of a person. But when there is enough of it, and it's all very similar, it's difficult to ignore. And when it comes to Sean Diddy Combs,

a rumor speaks a thousand words in my opinion, which is my opinion, you don't have to believe me. Although Diddy has always denied sexual assault of any kind, he has consistently been proud of his philandering and openly discusses it in loads of interviews, loads of times. Here is one of them. Accompanied by his son Christian, who he calls King by the way, in 2015 Sean Combs told a radio host this, if I'm in a relationship with you 25% of your time you're going to feel like oh man I hate being here this guy cheated on me he lied me. But then there's 75% of the time when I'm going to make you the happiest woman in the whole wide world. You know who I am.

This is what it is." Look, man, under promise over deliver? I don't know. I think those percentages are. It's very specific, isn't it? Yeah, I know. Okay. And his son is just sin, right? Yeah. And a teenage Christian Combs would follow in his father's footsteps soon enough,

allegedly. It's very unsurprising, allegedly. So yeah, when women did leave Sean Combs, he did not take it well at all. Because they do. Like it does happen. Women do leave him quite publicly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On multiple occasions, he would actually send bad boy staff members to stalk and threaten women who no longer wanted to see him. Most famously, Sean Combs sent henchmen to camp outside of MTV's TRL studios, holding up signs, begging JLo to take him back. According to Cassie, when she stopped taking Combs' calls, Bad Boy executives withheld

the release of her music. Which again is just an allegation, but when you consider that Cassie was locked into a 10 album deal with Bad Boy, it doesn't seem that far-fetched a claim. 10 albums. And how many Cassie songs can you name? One. Exactly. I think she only released two albums, maybe even just one, because this is how he controls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All music executives do it. Yeah. Because it's like, oh my god, a record deal,

this is what I've always wanted. Yeah, of course. And you're young and you're naive and you don't know and you've got bad advice. Absolutely. And you also, because of the way we are, you don't want to appear arrogant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to challenge. You don't want to do any of that. And that's how you end up in a 10 album deal.

And if they don't want you to release said album, they just won't. You're stuck. Absolutely. I think, you know, exploitation in the music industry, like you said at the start, is nothing new. It's also nothing that's particularly surprising to people. But Sean Combs really is the kind of like, how far can you take it? Turns out really fucking far if your name is Sean Combs. Or Sean Carter. We'll come back to it. If it's Sean. Sean Sean.

Unless it's Sean Paul. Sean Sean and the Funky Bunch. Do you know what Sean means? The name. I was going to try and make a joke about sheep, but I couldn't think of one. It's too early. Do you remember in New Zealand? And Sam was like, Oh my God, has he called Sean the sheep because he's been Sean? And we were like, yes, Sam. So something like that. Some joke along those lines. Can I have that? Is that acceptable? It means God is gracious. God is gracious. But they ain't. Well, there you go. And you know, Sean, Sean Paul, I hope he never does anything wrong.

Has he done something wrong? Should I not like Sean Paul now? I'm too scared to look. Let's not look. Not Sean DePaul. Not Sean de Gosalem. But you know, people are like, oh, why is it Sean DePaul? But it's because there was a West Indian cricket player whose surname is Chandapur.

And he was like, I just, I used to watch cricket and be like Chandapur. And then he was like, it just caught on. And then one time he saw Chandapur the bowler and he was like, nice man. That's good. That's good. No, we'll never Google him ever again. Anyway, let's get back to the long list of Combs' partners. We've got next up, long-term partner and baby mama Kim Porter. Yes.

When Kim found out that Combs was having babies elsewhere, she left him in 2007. And she told Essence Magazine that even after she left, did he continue to call her 50 to 60 times a day, even when he was going out with Jennifer Lopez. He never let Kim move on with her life. He made a habit of tracking down anyone who he suspected of dating Kim or even trying to, and he would beat them up, sometimes with chairs. He did that quite a lot. And Kim Porter died of pneumonia in 2018. And you know, I love a conspiracy. I love it. And pneumonia does seem like quite a strange thing to die of in California. Especially when you're 47 years old.

Yes. And not a Victorian. And yes, Kim Porter did have the same coroner as Brittany Murphy, who also died. Pneumonia. Murphy who also died pneumonia. And I would love there to be something to that. Coroners work by district. They just lived in the same neighborhood. I'm sorry. That's it. Like I wish. And like there are very weird things about Brittany Murphy's death. Yeah. I think there's weird things about Kim Porter's death. I was unable to substantiate. Yes. Conf confirm or deny. So the only thing I've really seen about this is they both die of pneumonia, which again,

is like, unless you are an old person or like living in very, very bad conditions. And I think we can safely say neither of these people would have probably been doing that. And they're very young. How did they die of pneumonia? And I heard this stuff about how there are certain drugs that can kill you and the side effects of your death can make it look like you died of pneumonia. Yeah. Rat poison is famously one of those. Just saying. I just think like when you look this up and you're like, Kim Porter, Britney, it's loads of people talking about the coroner and I actually think that's the least interesting bit.

I didn't even know that. Didn't even know that they had the same coroner. That's like the big like gotcha that people, they had the same coroner. Like that's how coroners work. No, for me it's like they were both quite young and they both died of pneumonia, which seems weird. Brittany Murphy's death, I am more interested in. Also, Brittany Spears bought the house that... I think she died in the house. Anyway, Brittany Spears bought the house and she was like, something's wrong with this house. I don't want

to live here. And they're like, Brittany, you've just spent millions on this. She's like, no, I'm not living here. Sell it, Brittany Murphy, and then she dies within the year. Or something. So yes, look, we're not going to delve too much deeper into that particular thread of things because I think once you start going too tinfoil hat with this, it discredits all the very real conspiracies. I'm not saying that there wasn't something fishy with Britney Murphy's death and with Kim Porter's death

But we don't have enough and we've got plenty of other stuff to talk about. So let's get on with that So business-wise by this point things were starting to actually slip for Diddy, too Everyone had left bad boy including Faith Evans, Craig Mack, Foxy Brown and Those who couldn't slip out of their contracts made it very clear that they had had enough. In the early hours of December 4th 2024 CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him. We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world.

And the suspect has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history was targeted premeditated in Minnesota terror. I'm Jesse Weber host of Luigi produced by law and crime and twist this is more than a true crime investigation we explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever. The people to a true issue.

Finally maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our health care system. Listen to law and crimes Luigi exclusively on one 3 plus join one 3 plus in the one 3 app Spotify or Apple podcasts. In the early hours of December 4th 2024 CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This a silent starts firing at him and the suspect he's been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione,

became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history. I was meant to sow terror. He's awoking the people to a true issue. Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery+. You can join Wondery+, the Wondery app, Spotify or Apple podcasts. Being a bad boss and a worst person is not illegal, but Combs was doing plenty of actual lawbreaking too. And we've collected just a few examples for you.

Let's just smack a massive multipurpose allegedly on all of them. So you don't have to hear me say that word again and again. I feel like I should have just tattooed allegedly on my forehead for this episode. In 2014, Sean Combs punched Drake over a beat that he apparently stole. Witnesses claim hands were thrown and Combs told Drake, you will not disrespect me. Both men deny that any of this happened. I mean of all his crimes, slapping Drake, I'm like, I'm fine with it. But then in 2015 we can move away from the alleged Lees, I guess, kind of because we have one where the victim was like, yeah he definitely did it, he definitely did hit me. And this time it's probably because Sean Combs' victim was not a famous person.

They were just a normal American football coach by the name of Sal Alosi. And basically what happened is that Sean Combs' son was attending hand-egg practice at UCLA as his father watched on from the stands. Now there doesn't seem to have been any sort of major incident that provoked Sean Combs into like attacking this coach. Basically what happened is that Sal Alosi told his son, Justin Combs, I don't care if your dad's here, this is UCLA, I'm going to treat you just like I treat everyone else. And Diddy didn't like that one bit. Mm-hmm. Combs and little Combs went to Coach Alosi's office after the training session and they didn't stay there very long. Combs Sr. was forcibly removed from the building very shortly after he went inside it.

According to the faculty, that was because Diddy violently grabbed Coach Alosi and then swung a kettlebell at an intern. Well. Hmm. Hmm. Combs later called these reports wholly inaccurate and his people stated any actions taken by Mr. Combs were solely defensive in nature to protect himself and his son. In the end, no assault charges were filed.

But Doesn't end there. That's an important, like there's endless examples of people being like, Oh, well, I saw Combs get in a fight with Nars, whatever, in such famous person. And they're like, no, never happened. And both of them deny it. But because Coach Alosi is just a normal person, he's like, no, you did, you did do that. Like, that's outrageous. I'm not going to file, but file but you can't do that exactly

because the reason like someone like Drake's gonna say oh no he didn't actually punch me is because you're gonna look like a dick as well because you got punched by Sean Combs yeah and don't worry Kendrick's gonna getcha okay we're gonna have to get down to the sex stuff We're gonna have to get down to the sex stuff. In 2017, Sean Combs was sued by his former personal chef, Cindy Rueda. And this would be the first in a long line of sexual assault suits coming his way. Rueda claimed that during her tenure, Sean Combs would regularly order her to serve him dishes while he was involved in sexual activity. He would also walk around naked all the time and ask her if she liked it. God.

The complaint was settled out of court for an unknown amount. And then it all went quiet. Thorough bit. Until 2019, when model slash influencer Gina Hyon went public with claims that Combs would beat her regularly, stomp on her, and drag her around by her hair. They were together for a few years, I think. And she alleges that Combs had offered her $50,000 to terminate a pregnancy. Now nothing happened after Gina made these claims, no case was filed and there was absolutely no criminal investigation. But then, in 2023,

we reached the moment you've all been waiting for. When it finally all came to pass. Cassandra, Cassie Ventura, filed a federal lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend and record overlord, Sean Diddy Combs. And just a reminder, Cassie was 19 years old when she signed with Bad Boy Entertainment. Combs was 37. It's all just so rife. Yeah. Right. I'm going to leave the age gap between Jay-Z and Beyoncé for later on. Right. It's not illegal, but we are in our mid-30s.

If your friend, male or female, were like, I've got a new boyfriend girlfriend, they're 19. That would be a problem, wouldn't it? It would be a problem. It would be definitely a problem. And I think like, it speaks to your intentionality and it speaks to your mindset and it speaks to your mentality because this weekend, Sam's cousins were here from Wales for the weekend and we were like, I'll take them out. And he's 37, I'm 35, they are both 24. Oh God. Him and his partner and we were like, I need to go to bed.

It's 2.30 in the morning. Oh wow. Why am I sad? Who are you? I was fucking, I just stopped speaking. I was just comatose and they were all having a great and I was like, I need to go to bed. And then somebody was like, oh, we're starting to get a bit tired. I was like, Oh, I've ordered an Uber. Who wants getting dropped off? Who wants dropped off first?

I was so ready to go to bed. And they were 24, 19, 19. I mean, what is wrong with you? No, no, no, no. It's not acceptable. And it wasn't acceptable in the 90s or the 2000s either. We can't just be like, oh, well, you know, different time. Everyone died at 24 back then, you know, like it's, it's just, you can't, you can't. Anyway, Cassie filed 35 pages of accusations, which included sexual assault, physical assault, rape, drugging, battery, sex trafficking, baby oil, forced copulation with male sex workers, ascombs and other men. Always famous, by the way, watched and filmed. The Me and You songstress also alleged that in 2011 she had a brief fling with Kid Cuddy, and when Diddy found out about this, he threatened publicly to blow up Cuddy's car. And lo and behold, Cuddy's car did explode very shortly afterwards.

Yeah, it's not just the unhinged accusations. The things he's saying happen. Mm-hmm. I mean, can we just, like, pause on how bonkers that is? Like, Cassie and him are no longer together. She has a brief relationship with Kid Cudi and Sean Combs blows up his fucking car. He is another famous person. I mean, it's just that unhinged control and misogyny that Sean Combs has, which you see

it with Kim Porter. Like he's in a relationship with JLo after he and Kim Porter are no longer together, but he's still not okay with her being with anybody else. He is hers. Even if he doesn't want you anymore, you are his. And it's the same thing you see with Cassie. It's that control. It's that psychopathic rage. And it is genuinely terrifying. And women as property, it's a big part of hip hop and we'll come onto that next week. But for once, because Cuddy also, as you said, very famous guy, for once he actually says, yeah, that's true. That did happen. He doesn't deny it. He actually tells the New York Times,

yeah, that's all true. And everyone knew about it. And Cassie wrote in her filing that over years of sustained abuse, she learned to blindly submit and disassociate from the horrors inflicted on her by her boyfriend and boss. In news that will surprise absolutely no one, Combs flat out denied all allegations raised in Cassie's lawsuit. He claimed that the complaint was a follow-up extortion attempt

after Cassie failed to blackmail 30 million out of him. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount on 17 November 2023, just four days after it was submitted. The case was dismissed with prejudice, which means that the claims within it can never be filed again. In a civil case. Anyway, Sean Combs had done what he always did. He threw some money at a problem, waited for it to go away and then jumped on a PR push. Which, you know, please see, the time he rebranded himself as Brother Love and after he kept getting called out for smashing people's faces in with chairs, allegedly.

Yeah. So after he settled with Cassie, the Diddy rebrand machine was firing on all cylinders. He donated a million dollars to Howard University and also to Jackson State's Hand Egg program, telling anyone who would listen that he was in his love era. Combs also dropped a mediocre album and started an all-black e-commerce platform and promised that publishing rights would be returned to all artists and songwriters at Bad Boy Entertainment. But unsurprisingly, that did not happen. But by the end of the year, Bad Boy wouldn't have any artists left anyway. It's a very easy thing to say you're going to do if you've got no fucking artists.

Yeah. So if Sean Combs was feeling at all relieved, he shouldn't have been because Diddy's problems were only just beginning. Before we open the filing floodgates and try not to drown in depression, despair and disappointment, which is where I have been at least for the past three weeks, we're going to explain the difference between a criminal case and a civil one because they are very important. Both can go to trial, both can be juried, but there are differences. The massive list of lawsuits that we're about to embark on are all civil cases. And that means that only money is at stake, not prison time, not criminal records. Civil cases are still heard in court most of the time and they can have juries

as well. But the crucial differences are the statute of limitations on a civil case is longer and crucially in a civil case, the burden of proof is a lot lower. So now we've said that. Let's get on with it. Five days after the Cassie suit was settled, it all began. First off, there was Joy Dickerson-Neal who filed a case against Sean Combs for assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking, and revenge porn. Joy claims that whilst she was studying at Syracuse University in 1991, Combs drugged her, then raped her, and filmed the defilement in his Harlem recording studio. They'd met because Joy had acted opposite Combs in a music video, and she was warned by Sister Soldier, who's a bad boy artist at the time,

to keep her distance. But he doesn't leave her alone, so Joy reluctantly agrees to go to dinner with Sean Combs after loads of pestering, but because she was so worried about what Sister Soulja had said and what he's like, she agrees to go to dinner, but she was like, I want to eat where I work, which he agrees to. But that doesn't stop him. She claims that Combs spiked her drink and then pressured her into smoking weed until she couldn't put up a fight. Joy only found out about the video of her when her friend showed it to her quite a long time afterwards. Wow. And Joy Dickerson-Neal was horrified to learn that her mate was not the only man who had seen the footage. It had been passed around a large group of men that she knew.

Then, a third sexual assault suit was filed in the same week. And the timing is significant because the legal wheels of semi-justice were creaking in the state of New York, and the wind was about to change. In May 2022, the Adult Survivors Act was passed, which basically allowed adult victims of sexual assault to file civil suits against their alleged aggressors, even if the statute of limitations has elapsed. So that's a big turning point. It means that more of these historical sexual abuse claims can be brought forward at least in a civil capacity. Absolutely.

But only until the 24th of November, 2023. So it's a tight window. You've got to make your mind up if you're going to do something about it basically. Cassie settled on the 17th of November, butch days before that window was to close. So yeah, those who wanted to move also had to move hard to beat that deadline. The clock was ticking and everyone could hear it. The 6th of December saw another Jane Doe filing. The story was a depressingly familiar one. The suit claimed that in 2003 a 17 year old girl was gang raped by Sean Combs and bad boy president, Half Pierre and another nameless man at Daddy's house studio. According to the filing, Half Pierre

forced oral copulation on the teenager so violently that she struggled to breathe. That happens a lot. Sometimes people actually lose consciousness. Anyway, after that was over, the teenager was flown back to Detroit where she had been picked up and that only happened once she could stand up. Again, she's in the fetal position on a bathroom floor for quite a long time, allegedly. For some reason it was this filing that prompted a response from Camp Combs. They haven't said anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Camp Combs, fuck. Did he release this statement? Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try and assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear, I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will

fight for my name, my family and for the truth. Former bad boy President Halfpierre also released a statement vehemently denying the accusations against him and he said this, I have never participated in witnessed nor heard of anything like this ever. These disgusting allegations are false and a desperate attempt for financial gain. I will vigorously protect my reputation and defend my name. Those who know me recognise that these claims are not true." Following the twin denials from the Music Men, Grammy winner singer-songwriter Tiffany Redd posted an open letter online, voicing fierce support of her friend Cassie Ventura.

Tiffany wrote that she had personally witnessed Sean Combs perpetrating the sex trafficking of her friend and she'd also received verbal abuse from Combs herself. To define sex trafficking is tricky but in the state of New York it is the movement of a person to engage in commercial sexual activity. Outside Cassie's lawsuit, Tiffany's post was the first public mention of the now infamous freak-offs that we've all been talking about for months while we're doing definitions. Let's define what we mean when we say freak-off. Freak-offs were parties thrown by Sean Combs

that Amber Rose and others claim they were never invited to. Obviously not many people have commented at all on this. Amber Rose has given an interview, she was like, I've been to loads of Diddy parties, if that was going on, I wasn't invited. Shut up. What have you got to shut up Amber Rose? Like, what a weird thing to do. Just attention. I've got something to say. Everyone's talking about this. Let me say that I went. I guess so. And it wasn't funny. You're in FI. Anyway, during these parties, allegedly Sean Diddy Combs would drug men, women,

partners, and children and force them to engage in sexual acts while him and his cronies watched and wanked. Tiffany read closed her letter of support by begging Combs to leave Cassie alone. And Tiffany read in her open letter with a least of Combs' problems. The legal deluge was only just beginning. Next up, Liza Gardner sneaking in the day before the Survivors Act curfew filed against Combs and Airbat Boy employee Aaron Hall. Liza's suit alleges that in the early 90s a 16 year old Liza found herself at Tredici's album party. After all the guests had had dinner Liza and her

friends were invited by Sean Combs back to Aaron Hall's apartment. Once they got there Combs coerced Liza into sex and as she was getting dressed afterwards Hall barged into the room pinned her down and raped her. The next day allegedly Combs came to Liza's house and choked her until she passed out. He's threatening her to not tell people, basically. And according to Liza, these events have left her swimming in depression and PTSD ever since. So yeah, Combs follows the same playbook over the course of all of these allegations coming out. He just releases sort of general blanket statements about these civil filings, referring

to them all time and time again as just bogus money grabs. But he exhibited a very different response when next a man sued him. I can understand why. I mean, I was going to say if you don't know about the deadline for filing, but even still, I can understand why it makes sense to say, well, of course, they're all saying the same thing. They're all filing one after the other. They're just lying. They've heard Cassie's suit. They know it was settled and they're just going to say the same things because they're going to try and squeeze money out of me. And they're doing it before the deadline. I get why that is the argument that is being made. But the flip side of it is like them all being so similar is because you've got a pattern of abuse, you horrible,

horrible little shit man. Absolutely. So yes, like we said, things changed when a man comes out and makes an allegation against Diddy and that man was Rodney Lil Rod Jones, producer of Combs' Love album, which was a central tenant of Diddy's Cuddly Bunny rebrand. So Rodney Jones sued his former boss for a very unfluffy 30 million dollars for sexual assault. Jones claimed that while he and Combs had worked together, Combs had repeatedly groped Jones's anus and crotch without consent and attempted attempted to quote, groom him into accepting

a homosexual relationship, insisting that it was normal practice within the music industry. Whenever Rodney Jones reached out for help, he was repeatedly told, Sean will be Sean. Yeah, walking around naked is something he does a lot. Makes sense. Again, it's that kind of like disrupting people's boundaries, making people feel uncomfortable. It's like why flashers do what they do and why we've talked about on the show before, like when people are flashing, it's just a bit of like a weird old,

I know it's like it's somebody purposely crossing your boundaries to make you feel uncomfortable and they're getting off on that. And that's absolutely what I think Sean Combs was doing. So according to the federal filing, Rodney Jones was drugged at a party and woke up naked and confused, laying between two sex workers and his boss, Sean Combs. Jones also claimed that Combs' sons were involved in the trafficking of people and substances for all of these freak-off parties. Jones alleges to have irrefutable evidence of a. the acquisition, use and distribution of ecstasy, cocaine and GHB, ketamine, marijuana and mushrooms. And B, the displaying and distribution of unregistered illegal firearms.

As well as C, the solicitation of minors and sex workers. After this one was filed, Combs and one of his lawyers, Sean Holly, had a bit more to say. They responded calling Jones a shameless liar, weaving a star-studded fiction in pursuit of an undeserved payday. And lawyer Sean Holly added that he has, quote, indisputable, incontrovertible proof that his, Jones's, claims are complete fabrications. Which if you do, Sean Holly, I'll be very impressed. As 2024 ambled on, the mounting legal filings started to have big consequences for Sean Combs and his empire. Hulu scrapped the reality show they were

going to make featuring Combs' extended family, Al of the Kardashians, and Combs stepped aside from his chairman role at Boo's company Revolt and 23 brands severed ties with his online marketplace Empower Global. Sirocq Vodka and Deleon Tequila were done with Diddy too and those two cost him a lot of money because he refused to go down quietly. I always forget that Siroc was his brand. Oh yeah. I mean, obviously now everybody and their fucking mums got a drinks brand, but it was like a big game changer in that space because Diddy was having all these parties. He was the hit maker, but also the party man. He was daddy. And then to have a specific booze associated with that lifestyle

and with that party culture, he made millions and millions and millions and millions for Suroc. Is that nice? I don't drink vodka. I've never drunk Suroc. And now we never will. What I'm about to say may seem unbelievable, but in this sexual assault filing saga, post Cassie, nothing criminal has happened yet. Nothing criminal has happened. But it damn well did on the 25th of March when the Department of Homeland Security enacted simultaneous

raids on Combs' homes in LA and in Miami. Yes. And it was but a few weeks later that it would be revealed to all of us on the internet that 1,000 bottles of baby oil were found on the Florida premises of Mr. Sean Combs. A thousand bottles. As well as of course firearms and ammunition. Plenty of it. Which Sean Combs' lawyer was quick to point out, not illegal items. Baby oil, not illegal guns, not illegal bullets, not illegal. But let's face it, doesn't look great when you're being accused of what you're being accused of. So yes, really does beg the question, what un ominous reason would somebody have for having quite so much baby oil? His lawyer, I think, did come out and say that he

just got it because there was a Costco down the road. He had to buy it in bulk. As if Sean Combs has ever set foot in a Costco. It's just like, yeah, I couldn't pass up the deal. So there you go. That was the explanation. But anyway, they weren't going to go down easy on this and it was very hard to refute some of the claims that they were making as a result of what they found at Sean Combs' house. So they tried a different tack and Sean Combs' legal team argued that the Department of

Home Security had misused military force while conducting their raids and therefore everything they found at Sean Combs' South should just be forgotten about. But as world's biggest hater 50 Cent pointed out on Twitter, diddy-dun, they don't come like that unless they got a case. And they don't. If they had misused military force, that's mistrial all over it. They're not going to do that. Especially not to someone as famous as Sean Combs. They're not going to come in as hard and fast as they did if they don't already think we got him.

So the raids, particularly the image of two men sat outside the massive mansion in handcuffs, went global. Everyone was talking about him. Except Diddy's mates. The silence from Sean's star-studded circle was palpable. No one who had applauded Sean Combs at the BET Awards just two years before had absolutely shit to say and nobody came to his defense. 50 Cent couldn't resist commenting on this too. And he posted a picture of Jay-Z on a milk carton with the caption,

Missing. Adding, anyone seen Jay? LOL. He ain't answering his phone. Which is very funny. I know that 50 Cent is not without his problems. But it's very funny. But he so consistently is so fucking funny. It is very funny. I think the funniest thing he's ever done, did he aside, is what he did to Jar-Rul.

Yes. Which if you don't know. R.I.P Jar. R.I.P Jar-Rul. 50 Cent hates Jar-Rul and Jar-Rul's, I think,, what's this post-fire festival? Can't remember. Jarrel's making a comeback. Big comeback concert. Really excited. He has been out of the game for a while and it sells really quickly. And everyone's so excited. They're like, oh my God, what a lovely surprise. 50 Cent bought the whole of the floor. Chef's kiss. It's so good. It's very funny. And that's the thing, like 50 cents is really

fucking funny. So if he's going to get you, he's going to get you. Petty and funny. Yes, quite. We'll come back to him. Two months after the baby oil raids, a hotel surveillance video captured in 2016 clearly showing Sean Combs chasing, kicking and dragging Cassie down a hallway surfaced. Exactly who leaked it, we don't know. The video's existence is referenced in Cassie's lawsuit and her civil one, but she was never in possession of it. She actually says in her lawsuit, she was like, I'm sure

that Sean Combs paid the hotel 50 grand for that video. So she's never had it, but someone obviously released it. If you haven't seen it, well done, good for you. It's really not easy watching, but it is very clearly Cassie and it is very clearly him. According to Cassie, what happened was that she was trying to sneak out of that hotel after being forced to participate in a freak-off. And when Combs woke up, he gave her a black eye and he dragged her back into his den. Because it was so obviously him, Sean Combs had no choice but to accept responsibility this time. He claimed that he was in a dark place at the time and continued to deny all other allegations against him. But those allegations just kept on coming. Model Crystal McKinney alleged that Sean Combs plied her with alcohol, drugged her and

raped her. And she has kept the clothes that she was wearing that night in a plastic bag for years. Then we come back to the lady that we mentioned at the top of the show, April Lampros. She was a fashion student in the early 90s and she filed a suit against Sean Combs as well, claiming that he love-bombed her, stalked her and submitted her to terrifying sexual violence over a period of five years. According to her filing, once Sean Combs drugged April and his long-time partner Kim Porter and forced them to have sex while he watched. Diddy was in a relationship with Jennifer Lopez at the time.

And just like Joy, Mr. Combs filmed April as he raped her and showed that video to multiple other people. Allegedly. And Combs' response as these filings continued to swoop in was the same as before. None of it was true and all the people that were suing him were just trying to get paid. The next suit that I'm going to talk about is the only one where I think that is true. In June 2024, a bloke called Derek Lee Cardello-Smith filed a sexual assault and personal injury complaint against Sean Combs from inside a Michigan correctional facility. Before he was locked up, Cardello-Smith claimed that he and Combs had reached a settlement agreement of $2.3

million that never materialized. Cardello-Smith has filed three quite similar suits against other famous people whilst behind bars. This is not his first civil suit rodeo at all. So he claims, you know, he sexually assaulted me and personally injured me. And then I said, I'm going to see you. And he says, no, I'm going to settle for $2.3 million. And then he doesn't do it is what he says. I don't believe that. But fraud or not, Cardello Smith was awarded $100 million in the default judgment in September last year because Sean Combs' lawyers didn't respond in time to the filing. I have checked that so many times. You'd be so pissed. It seems like it is true. Wow. Maybe I don't understand fully what a default judgment is. There's something to do with the sale of one of Combs' houses. Maybe it's

like a collateral thing, but the number is absolutely $100 million. Wow. And I'm fine with it. I really am. Even if it's not true. It's quite fun. And also a nice reminder that bad things do happen to bad people. Less fun is the next case we've got, which was filed by Dawn Richard, who did so on the 10th of September 2024. Dawn was a member of two bad boy groups, one called Danity Kane and another one with the hauntingly ironic name Diddy Dirty Money. That was the name of the band?

Yeah. Diddy Dirty Money. Oh my god. I feel like again him just squeezing his name in there. I remember Danity Kane and I remember there was like that reality show to find the members of Danity Kane and yeah a lot of Sean Combs exposing his temperament on that reality show from what I remember. Absolutely. Dawn first met Sean Combs auditioning for that TV show which was called Making the Band, very lazy title. And as you said, that series did quite a few seasons and Diddy's vile personality is the main character. It's kind of like America's Next Top Model in

terms of like, he sends some of them like across the city to go and get like a cheesecake or something. Like it's really quite odd. Yeah. But you know, that was reality TV. Anyway, it was not fun at all. And a lot more than cheesecake exploitation, according to Dawn. She alleges that Combs groped her multiple times during filming. and he locked her in a car for several hours as a punishment for something she did wrong and threatened her life multiple times. Similarly to Rodney Jones, Dawn Richard claims that during her career with Bad Boys, she was told that Diddy's depraved demands were necessary for career advancement. necessary for career advancement. And as a result, Dawn and many others believed that rampant abuse of women would be a necessity to succeed in the music industry and nobody told her otherwise. Dawn's lawsuit also details violent assaults on Cassie, including the throwing a scalding hot pan at her, and also the drugings of other young women,

descriptions of these freak-off parties where Combs had public sex with unconscious women, all of them as witnessed by Dawn Richard herself. Apparently Combs would often say to his guests at these freak-offs, this is a buffet, enjoy yourselves. This is what we do, this is how we party. According to Dawn, she was invited to the Freecoff parties as some sort of a test. And the less she participated in the debauchery that was going on there, the more Sean Combs would turn her mic off during performances. So Dawn Richard is suing Sean Combs on counts of sex trafficking, sexual assault, sexual

battery and false imprisonment. Combs' team responded similarly to before, pointing out that Dawn's filing coincides with her album release and press tour. And also questioned why, if she hated Sean Combs so much, why did Dawn keep working with him for years? She's even featured on the love album in 2020. Those aren't questions I'm asking. Those are questions they're asking. The answer to that question is, well, either she's lying, which I don't think she is, or because she's fucking trapped. Like it's Sean Combs. Like what was she meant

to do? I don't know. I just feel like that's her get out for everything. Absolutely. It's one of those scenarios and we've seen it time and time again. People like Sean Combs like go really, really hard, go super extreme with the kind of things you're doing, like Jimmy Savile, hide in plain sight. And so then when accusations are made against you, when these people kept working with you, you can just be like, well, why do you keep working with me? It's like, because you had them trapped. And where else were they going to go? And as far as they're concerned, everyone in the music industry is doing it. So what difference

does it make? Yeah, it's really not hard to explain. Again, similarly to the point they make about, like, oh, well, they're all filing the same thing, blah, blah, blah. Either they're all lying or they're all telling the truth. Yes. And it's reflective of patterns. It's very easy to explain why people didn't leave Batboy. Batboy Entertainment were notorious for locking their artists in never-ending contracts, which were expensive

and tricky or impossible to get out of. And artists were told that that was just the way it was. And the sad truth is, it is. Exploitation within the music industry is rife and I've written Hidden in Plain Sight here, but I don't even think it is. It's just there, openly discussed. hidden in plain sight here, but I don't even think it is. It's just there, openly discussed. And as a society, we don't have any sympathy for the rich and famous. We have this opinion, and I say we generally have this opinion that in the vapid pursuit of fame, they've signed up for whatever horrors were flung at them. And we have to face up to that. So seven days after Dawn Richard filed, Sean Combs was arrested at a hotel in New York on the criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion

and transporting for prostitution. And I've got some bits of the indictment here for you. For decades, Sean Combs abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct. Combs relied on the employees, resources and the influence of his multifaceted business empire that he led and controlled. Combs used force, threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs referred to as, among other things, freak-offs. During these elaborate and produced sex performances, Combs arranged, directed and masturbated. And the indictment also claims that the authority seized various free-coff

supplies including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant from Combs' home in Miami and also from his home in Los Angeles. And these charges were brought by the Department of Justice. So for the first time in this epic saga, there's a lot more than money on the line now. Yeah. For the first time, Sean Combs, at the big old age of 55 years old, is finally looking at real prison time. As we speak, he's being held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, where he's very upset that Luigi Mangione is getting a lot more press than he is. And you might have read that Combs is being held without bail, but that isn't quite the whole truth.

Sean Combs' legal team proposed a $50 million bond to the court, including promises of house arrest and also Sean Combs just being a really, really, really good boy. But the judge said no. The Department of Justice have said no to $50 million. I would be amazed if that has ever happened before. Yeah. I think it's just such a high profile case. And I think after case after case after case like this from famous people, sexual exploitation, that kind of thing, I think the courts were just like, if he does make a run for it, if something happens, we're

just going to be so fucked. Oh, and they're right. And they're so right. That was the right decision. And so, no, no bond, no bail. He's staying in prison. And so, right now, it looks like Sean Holmes will be stuck in that Brooklyn jail until his criminal trial kicks off.

Even as he sits behind bars, though, the civil cases just keep on piling up. And we have all of that to look forward to. Next week, in the concluding part of our series on Mr. Sean Diddy Combs. Good luck. Yeah. Diddley do it? Yes. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests,

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