Introducing a new podcast from 20/20 and ABC Audio, "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy." In this six-part series, ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire takes listeners inside the rise and fall of Diddy, tracing how whispers of abuse came to light and led to his downfall.This is episode one, "Party's Over." Diddy was a legendary party host. His star-studded "white parties" were glittering displays of wealth and social capital that started in the world of hip-hop, and ultimately expanded far beyond it. But after a criminal indictment alleging sex trafficking, Diddy is now locked up, fighting to prove his innocence, stuck in a place that couldn’t be more different from the luxury he’s used to.To hear the rest of the series, follow "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What is 'Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy' about?
Hey, Scamanda listeners, we're bringing you something special this week. Maybe, like me, you've been following the news about the criminal charges and lawsuits against hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. Well, there's a new podcast that charts Diddy's rise to the top of music, fashion, and culture, and how it all came crashing down. The show is called Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy.
It's a six-part series from 2020 and ABC Audio. For decades, Diddy was one of the most influential entertainers and entrepreneurs in the world. Then, a video came out that showed a very different, violent side of Diddy. It wasn't the first time there were whispers about Diddy's aggression, but for the first time, the evidence was undeniable, and everyone could see it.
Soon, a wave of lawsuits followed with shocking allegations of sexual abuse and manipulation. And now, Diddy is facing federal charges that include sex trafficking. He is scheduled for trial in May, and he denies all wrongdoing. In this episode, you'll hear about the reputation Diddy established at the height of his fame, and how far he's fallen today.
If you like it, search Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, wherever you get your podcasts.
Chapter 2: How did Diddy's white parties exemplify his influence?
In the summer of 2009, everyone was paying attention to Sean Diddy Combs. He wasn't on the top of the Billboard charts anymore, but he had become a fixture of American pop culture. The flashiest example was his annual star-studded white party. It was an exclusive event, and everything had to be white, from the decor to the dress code. This was the early days of smartphones.
Imagine every celebrity worth an Us Weekly headline with a bedazzled smartphone in their hand. It was before TikTok and Instagram, when tabloid coverage claimed to break juicy celebrity stories. Compared to the prominence of video and social media today, private celebrity parties were much more private. But one bit of Diddy's 2009 white party was captured on video.
Rapper and record producer Jay Blaze caught it on camera and posted it to YouTube for the world to see. Actor Ashton Kutcher grabs onto a swing strung over the pool and tarzans across it. Diddy is emceeing in a sea of white suits, dresses, linen, and sunglasses. By the summer of 2009, Diddy had won three Grammys.
He had five songs hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and three of his albums had gone platinum. He was successful and rich. Four months from turning 40, Forbes magazine put Diddy's net worth at $30 million. He'd presented himself for a long time as a champion and model of black excellence. and he was feeling patriotic after the U.S. elected its first black president.
So he decided this year's white party would be held on Independence Day. He gave Marie Claire magazine a sneak peek before the party started. The pool draped in gauzy white curtains and chandeliers. Platters of shrimp, crab cakes, and barbecue were served.
Spreading love, Fourth of July. I'm out here making movies and meeting new people, and that's what the white party's about, about people meeting new people.
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Chapter 3: What allegations led to Diddy's downfall?
A sommelier explained that all the wine served would be, of course, white.
We are going to be pouring some wines from the south of the Burgundy region, a Macon Village and a Pouilly-Fuissé.
Two of the biggest songs of 2009 were Lady Gaga's Poker Face and I Got a Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas. None of Diddy's music was at the top of the charts, but this was the year he rapped Making the Band, the show that made him a reality star. And reality shows were hot.
Diddy's hit show was the perfect blend of American Idol, the number one TV show in America that year, and another popular show at the time, The Celebrity Apprentice. On making the ban, Diddy presented himself as a kind of Trump-like figure of the music industry, who would crown the next big pop group. Diddy had been throwing these Gatsby-esque white parties for almost a decade.
The first was on Labor Day in 1998, when he had just bought a home in the Hamptons. He hosted a bunch of them there and then in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera. One year, he took a helicopter to the party and landed holding an original copy of the Declaration of Independence. The famous writer Norman Lear loaned it to him. All of the big celebrities appeared at Diddy's white parties.
Beyonce, Jay-Z, Jonah Hill, Martha Stewart, Paris Hilton, Aretha Franklin, Al Sharpton, and Donald Trump. They all orbited the Diddy white party sphere. As a record exec, Diddy helped launch the careers of artists who would become legends. The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Usher, and many others. So it's no surprise people wanted the invite to Diddy's parties.
If they had got one, then they belonged in the list of celebrities, politicians, and cultural icons who had proximity to a mogul, who knew everyone and could make things happen. You could hang out in the backyard with hundreds of guests who made it through the gates to the main party. But it still had a VIP section, an inner circle.
There's, like, the party in the backyard, and then there's, like, the few people in the house. Beyoncé was never in the backyard. She's in the house with Jay-Z. She's in the house with the kids, you know? We didn't get to smell the same air as Beyoncé.
Reality TV personality and podcaster Jason Lee was at the 2009 Independence Day white party. He remembers it as a good time and says it helped his career. Lee claims he never saw any darkness or any hints of the crimes Diddy would be accused of years later.
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Chapter 4: How did legal actions against Diddy unfold?
This is a legendary white party. It's the real white party. Make some noise if you've been here before. Okay. And to all the kids, the kids have like an hour left. So get extra comfortable, kids, because after that, y'all got to go. It's a wrap for y'all because this thing turns into something that when y'all get older, y'all don't want to come to, okay?
The curfew announcement, when kids had to disappear and lots of adults left too. It hints at a turn. Diddy foreshadows an adult world, a late-night world of secrets. And some of those secrets, they've come pouring out. Diddy's Rise and Fall. It's the story we'll tell you in the first six episodes of this podcast.
How a man who was on top of the music industry and on top of the world is now confined to a cell that couldn't be less luxurious, awaiting trial. And once the trial begins, we'll take you there with twice weekly updates as the case unfolds. Two very different versions of Diddy have emerged over the years.
The charmer that he showed the world and the predator that onlookers and alleged victims are now claiming he was all along. Which version of Diddy will win out in court? I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an attorney and an ABC News legal contributor. From ABC Audio, this is Bad Rap, the case against Diddy. Episode one, party's over. Diddy's white parties were glittering displays of wealth and social capital.
But to some, they were clues, even early on, that Diddy's world had shadows. Justin Tinsley is a culture reporter for ESPN's Anscape, which focuses on Black culture. He says there'd always been rumors about what Diddy was like behind the scenes, at parties, and in his personal and professional life.
It was just a matter of what's true, what's not. And is somebody ever going to come to the forefront and really say like, these are my experiences with this guy.
In November of 2023, someone did come forward. Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, filed a civil lawsuit against him, alleging that for over a decade he trapped her in a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking. The lawsuit was a bombshell. It alleged Cassie was forced to participate in orchestrated, elaborate sex parties Diddy called freak-offs that he would film and keep recordings of.
A day after the lawsuit was filed, Diddy settled with Cassie for an undisclosed amount and no admission of guilt. But Cassie opened the floodgates. Over the next 12 months, others who had spent time with Diddy, from a music producer to a former model to a yacht stewardess, filed lawsuits too. These lawsuits alleged rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking.
Many also alleged Diddy would spike drinks and lace marijuana with narcotics to knock people out or make it harder for them to resist assault. Some mentioned Diddy videotaping assaults to further control and humiliate his victims. Those lawsuits went from a steady drip to a rapid current. There are now dozens of them.
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Chapter 5: What are the charges Diddy is currently facing?
In a dramatic turn of events, federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.
A Homeland Security spokesperson says the raid of the rapper's properties was carried out as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of sex trafficking.
Music mogul Sean Diddy Combs arrested in a New York City hotel by federal agents with Homeland Security investigations after being indicted by a grand jury.
Mansions where he'd once hosted lavish parties were raided by federal agents. In L.A., more than a dozen officers pulled up in armored vehicles, wearing fatigues, guns drawn, pointing them at Diddy's sons, who happened to be at home. In Miami, it was police officers in t-shirts driving up to Diddy's compound in vans.
Combs is now facing federal criminal charges that read a lot like those earlier civil lawsuits. Sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy. The charges accuse Diddy of decades of criminal behavior. And unlike the civil lawsuits that he faced from Cassie and now from others, these criminal charges could land him in prison for the rest of his life.
Combs has pled not guilty to all charges. His attorney, Mark Ignifilo, called it an unjust prosecution. He said Combs was a, quote, music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the black community. He called Combs an imperfect person, but not a criminal.
Once these lawsuits and charges were filed, reporters and fans started looking at Diddy's past with more scrutiny. And up close, knowing the allegations against him, even his famed summer parties started to look very different. Like this clip from an appearance on Conan O'Brien's show in 2002.
Conan compliments Diddy on being a legendary party host and asks him for tips on throwing a, quote, "'killer party.'"
A lot of ladies drink water at parties. So if you don't have what they need, they're going to leave. Got to keep them there. You need locks on the doors. This is sounding kind of dangerous now. It's a little kinky.
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Chapter 6: How does Diddy’s imprisonment contrast with his past lifestyle?
One of his most popular songs I remember playing on the radio in elementary school was his All About the Benjamins. And Can't Nobody Hold Me Down.
Can't nobody take my pride. Can't nobody hold me down. Oh no, I got to keep on moving.
he marketed himself as a kingmaker in the world of hip-hop, and everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. He turned hip-hop from being a thing my mom probably didn't want me to listen to, to something that could make you into a billionaire businessman, something my mom wouldn't approve of.
Back then, before the lawsuits, before the allegations and scrutiny, Diddy was someone you could look up to. But I'm not a culture reporter or a music journalist. I'm an attorney. I spent almost 10 years as a public defender in New York City, the last few of those in the homicide unit. Now, I litigate federal civil and criminal cases.
And to be clear, I am not an attorney on Diddy's case, but I have represented people who have been accused of the kind of crimes he's being accused of, and people who were victims of those types of crimes. And even with all of my experience, when I read through some of the lawsuits from the people who had sued Diddy, I had to stop myself sometimes. The photos and details were jaw-dropping.
They were a shock to my system. And the federal indictment is sweeping and disturbing. Diddy is accused of running a vast criminal enterprise that abused, threatened, and coerced his alleged victims and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and cover up his conduct for decades. Diddy maintains his innocence. His trial is set to start in May.
Until then, he's locked up, stuck in a place that couldn't be more different from the luxury he's used to. A place he doesn't want to be. A place that no amount of money can get him out of. A place I know well. More after the break. In Diddy's old life, he could choose which of his many homes he wanted to spend time in.
A three-story mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean and downtown LA, a compound in Miami including a nine-bedroom mansion, a New York City apartment with views of Central Park, homes in New Jersey and Atlanta, and a waterfront mansion in the Hamptons. Now, Diddy's in the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC, in Brooklyn. This bland behemoth is where he'll stay as he awaits trial.
So we're pulling up to MDC now. It's got like this... uncapped, unwashed, grunginess of it. There's a tall metal fence around the MDC complex, so the parking lot's as far as most reporters get. But as a defense attorney, I'm here almost every week, and I can get further than most. Inmates. I walk through the gate, up the steps, and through the doors to security.
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