Sean Combs who was once at the forefront of hip-hop music and fashion is now on trial for sex trafficking. The hip-hop mogul launched the careers of numerous stars and grew his business empire to a reported $1 billion dollars in 2022. A fortune that has since shrunk considerably as he faces multiple civil lawsuits, a crumbling media empire and the prospect of years behind bars. With his trial set to begin tomorrow, today on The Sunday Story NPR Music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmineto shares how Sean Combs went from music intern to media mogul and how it all came crashing down.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Sean Combs and what is his significance in hip-hop culture?
I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is The Sunday Story, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. This is Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy. You might also know him as Puff Daddy, Love, or Puffy. And back in 2023, when he was performing this medley at the VMAs, he was at the height of his fame and power.
He received a Global Icon Award at the ceremony, and around the same time, Mayor Eric Adams awarded Combs a gold key to New York City. I want to thank y'all for this honor.
and just recognizing me, being from New York, giving me the key to the city. Diddy finally has the key to the city!
Twelve months later, Combs was in jail and facing criminal charges for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
The hip-hop artist Sean Combs, better known as Puff Daddy or P. Diddy, was arrested late last night.
Sean Diddy Combs was arrested late Monday night in New York and indicted on federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
This is just the latest. Tomorrow, Combs' trial will begin in New York City. Today on the show, NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento joins us to talk about the rise and fall of one of hip-hop's biggest stars. A warning, this episode contains discussion of sexual assault, violence, and drug use. Stay with us.
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Chapter 2: What are the criminal charges Sean Combs is facing?
So criminal law professor Aya Gruber said this is kind of key to the racketeering charge because it might make it easier for employees who facilitated and concealed crimes to be willing to testify against Combs.
It's always been designed as an aid in the government to prosecute people that they think other people wouldn't testify against. But another sort of clever part of the prosecution plan here is to paint the underlings as victims, right? Because somebody could think, well, this is a person who likes to be close to power and
who gets a lot of money for doing bad things for Diddy, and this is sort of a bad actor here.
So Gruber says that, like, the defense could argue some of Combs' employees are untrustworthy, they're snitches, they went off and committed these crimes on their own, but that by alleging that some of them were coerced into doing these things, it becomes a lot easier for the prosecution to paint a picture of Combs as the head of this very large criminal organization working in his favor.
So he's facing these charges alone and Combs has been held in jail since his arrest in September, right?
Yeah, that's right. He's been denied bail multiple times. The judges presiding over the case felt that he was at risk of leaving the country or of harming or intimidating potential witnesses. And that surveillance video of him assaulting Cassie Ventura has come back up a lot leading up to the trial.
The prosecution pointed to it as evidence that Combs can be violent and should await trial in custody. There's a very vivid description of the video and the indictment, though Ventura is not named. And the prosecution alleges that Combs and his people paid off hotel staff for the footage.
So the defense has tried very hard to get that video thrown out as evidence for the trial, but did not succeed. And I should mention that more counts have been added since Combs was first indicted. NPR reached out to Combs' attorneys for comment multiple times leading up to this trial, and they did not get back to us. But they've repeatedly denied the allegations against him in the past.
And again, he's pleaded not guilty. They've said all of these sexual encounters were consensual.
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