From Cassie to Jane Doe, the rape allegations against Diddy, explained

Particularly within the Nineties and 2000s, Diddy was a determine of monumental energy, not simply in hip-hop however within the enterprise and leisure worlds writ massive. Prior to now two months, nonetheless, four women have sued him, saying he used that affect and wealth to sexually victimize them and keep away from any penalties for many years.

Their lawsuits, a number of of which embody brutal and disturbing particulars, state that Diddy, whose delivery title is Sean Combs and who has additionally publicly passed by Puff Daddy, Puffy, and Love, raped them and, in some circumstances, trafficked them by coercing them to interact in intercourse with different males. Collectively, the circumstances have redirected public consideration towards longstanding allegations of violence towards Combs, main some manufacturers to chop ties with him and Hulu to scrap his upcoming reality show in latest days.

The first suit, filed in November by the singer Cassie, who dated Combs and was signed to his label, alleged that he urged her to have intercourse with male intercourse staff whereas he filmed, and later, that he raped her. In the most recent complaint, a girl recognized solely as Jane Doe says that in 2003, when she was 17, Combs had her flown on a personal jet to New York, the place he and two different males gave her medication and alcohol and gang-raped her. The ladies have come ahead as a result of two New York laws — one among which paved the best way for E. Jean Carroll’s successful lawsuit against Donald Trump for sexual abuse and defamation — opened restricted home windows of time by which individuals can file civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, even when the statute of limitations has handed. A kind of home windows closed in late November, explaining the flurry of latest complaints.

Combs has denied the allegations, saying in a statement, “I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged. I’ll battle for my title, my household and for the reality.” A spokesperson for Brafman & Associates, the regulation agency representing the rapper within the fits, declined Vox’s request for remark.

The circumstances have captured the general public’s consideration partly as a result of Combs was such an influential government and gatekeeper in music and vogue — but one who had lengthy been the topic of allegations of violence, together with arrests. They’re among the many first main allegations in years towards a serious determine within the music business, which many really feel has didn’t reckon with abuses of energy, even on the peak of the Me Too motion. Combs is only one of many highly effective males who’ve evaded scrutiny, however whose alleged previous conduct is being revisited now with contemporary and extra essential eyes, in some circumstances due to the landmark New York legal guidelines.

Certainly, Combs is now drawing comparisons to R. Kelly, with frequent critic 50 Cent saying that he will produce a sequence about Combs within the type of the bombshell docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, with the proceeds going to assault survivors.

Dream Hampton, producer of Surviving R. Kelly, told the Times that an accounting was arriving for the Unhealthy Boy founder. “Puff is completed,” she stated.

The fits towards Combs additionally present that regardless of recent backlash, the Me Too movement and the authorized and cultural modifications that got here with it have had a permanent influence. Even when allegations of sexual assault and harassment don’t make day by day headlines the best way they did in 2017, the reckoning is ongoing — and no business is more likely to stay immune endlessly.

Diddy constructed an empire throughout a number of companies

Combs is a producer and rapper who rose to grow to be an influential determine throughout music, media, and vogue. He began Unhealthy Boy Data in New York in 1993, when he was in his early 20s, and shortly signed Infamous B.I.G., whose two albums helped define New York hip-hop in that period. Unhealthy Boy would develop right into a multimillion-dollar business, and Combs would produce iconic ’90s acts from Jodeci to Mary J. Blige. When Biggie was killed in 1997, Combs launched a Grammy-winning tribute, “I’ll Be Lacking You,” that “helped inaugurate a business growth in hip-hop that lasted till the tip of the nineties,” based on Michael Specter of the New Yorker.

Combs was additionally one of many first to mix the worlds of hip-hop, enterprise, and luxurious. His vogue label, Sean John, based in 1998, turned known for high-end menswear. He promoted manufacturers of vodka and tequila and hosted unique white parties within the Hamptons with visitors like Martha Stewart. Although not as central a determine as he was within the ’90s, Combs stays a wealthy and well-connected superstar: In latest months, he’s held a joint album release and birthday party attended by stars resembling Naomi Campbell and Janet Jackson, performed for a sold-out crowd in London, and appeared on the homecoming celebration for his alma mater, Howard College, the place he made a surprise $1 million donation.

Samir Hussein/Getty Photographs for Sean “Diddy” Combs

As Combs constructed his empire, nonetheless, he was additionally accused of a number of acts of violence. In 1999, he was arrested for beating one other government with a chair, a cellphone, and a champagne bottle (he needed to pay a high quality and take an anger administration class, according to the New Yorker). The identical 12 months, he was involved in a shooting at a membership in Manhattan, the place he was attending a celebration along with his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez; witnesses stated they noticed him with a gun, however he was in the end acquitted after a public, much-watched trial.

He has additionally been accused of threats and violence towards ladies. In a 2019 interview, for instance, his ex-girlfriend Gina Huynh stated he had thrown a shoe at her and dragged her by the hair. However these reviews haven’t acquired mainstream public consideration — till now.

Singer Cassie filed go well with towards Diddy in November

In November, Cassie, whose actual title is Casandra Ventura, sued Combs, alleging sexual assault and intercourse trafficking. Within the go well with, first reported by the New York Times, Ventura stated she had skilled years of abuse from Combs, beginning quickly after she met him in 2005, when she was 19. She stated he beat her repeatedly, at one level kicking her within the face, and stated that later, in 2018, he raped her. She additionally stated he trafficked her by coercing her to have intercourse with intercourse staff in several cities whereas he filmed and masturbated. She would attempt to delete the photographs and movies afterward, however Combs retained entry, she stated within the go well with, and at one level made her watch a video she thought she had deleted.

Ventura’s go well with additionally stated that Combs and his associates used his energy and wealth to intimidate her into silence and compliance, along with his staff threatening to wreck her music profession if she spoke out towards him. In a single notably surprising element, Ventura stated Combs threatened to explode the rapper Child Cudi’s automotive as a result of Cudi and Ventura had been relationship; the automotive later exploded. “That is all true,” a spokesperson for Child Cudi told the Times of the automotive exploding.

Leon Bennett/Getty Photographs

By his lawyer, Ben Brafman, Combs had accused Ventura of blackmail. “For the previous six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, below the specter of writing a harmful e-book about their relationship,” Brafman stated in an announcement. “Regardless of withdrawing her preliminary menace, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to submitting a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s fame and looking for a payday.” Ventura’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, stated Combs had really provided Ventura cash for her silence, which she had declined.

Ventura’s go well with was settled for an undisclosed amount inside a single day, with the singer stating that she had “determined to resolve this matter amicably on phrases that I’ve some degree of management.”

However Ventura’s determination to come back ahead publicly opened the floodgates, and extra reviews of assault and abuse started pouring out.

Three different ladies say Diddy harmed them

Three different ladies have filed go well with towards Combs. In the second suit, Joi Dickerson-Neal says he drugged and raped her in 1991. Within the third, Liza Gardner says that in 1990, he coerced her into intercourse and choked her, inflicting her to lose consciousness. Jonathan Davis, a lawyer for Combs, stated in a statement to the Times that Combs denied these allegations as nicely: “Due to Mr. Combs’s fame and success, he’s a straightforward goal for accusers who try and smear him.”

In the most recent suit, the lady recognized as Jane Doe says she was a junior in highschool when she met then-Unhealthy Boy president Harve Pierre and one other Combs affiliate in Detroit. They satisfied her to fly on their jet to New York, the go well with says, the place they and the rapper gave her medication and alcohol after which violently raped her.

“Ms. Doe has lived along with her recollections of this fateful evening for 20 years, throughout which era she has suffered excessive emotional misery that has impacted almost each facet of her life and private relationships,” the go well with says. “Given the courageous ladies who’ve come ahead towards Ms. Combs and Mr. Pierre in latest weeks, Ms. Doe is doing the identical.”

In response to that go well with, Combs launched an announcement denying all reviews of violence, calling them “sickening allegations” made “by people searching for a fast payday.” Pierre has additionally denied the allegations, saying in a statement to TMZ that “I’ve by no means participated in, witnessed, nor heard of something like this, ever.”

Is that this the music business’s Me Too second?

The rising variety of reviews, and their chilling particulars, have led firms and influential individuals in media and enterprise to distance themselves from the rapper. Diageo, the beverage model with which Combs partnered on vodka and tequila, removed his image from its web site. Capital Preparatory Faculties, a New York constitution college community Combs helped develop, posted a statement on the varsity’s web site saying it was chopping ties with him (although the assertion was later eliminated). Combs additionally stepped aside as chair of Revolt, a TV community he helped begin in 2013.

The circumstances towards Combs are coming to mild towards a backdrop of different accusations towards main figures in music. In November, a girl sued Neil Portnow, former head of the Grammy Awards, saying he had drugged and raped her in 2018. The identical month, a former worker sued music executive L.A. “Babyface” Reid, saying he sexually assaulted and harassed her, resulting in irrevocable harm to her profession within the music business.

Additionally they happen at a time when Ye, a music and vogue mogul whose profession has parallels with Diddy’s, has misplaced a lot of his model partnerships after public antisemitic and racist statements in addition to what many say was a years-long pattern of verbal abuse and harassment, which can have been stored quiet partly as a result of his partnership was so profitable for manufacturers.

Whereas the Me Too motion compelled reckonings round sexual assault and harassment in industries from movie to media to eating places in 2017 and 2018, many within the music enterprise felt that its greatest gamers had been comparatively unscathed. R. Kelly, for instance, faced few consequences till Hampton’s broadly watched 2019 docuseries Surviving R. Kelly drew renewed consideration to the accusations, regardless of repeated allegations that he had intercourse with underage ladies, a number of lawsuits, and even a 2008 legal trial over baby sexual abuse materials. Many argued that the rationale Kelly was given a move for therefore lengthy was that the ladies coming ahead to report abuse by him had been Black. In 2021, he was convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in jail; a second, 20-year sentence was added the next 12 months (with all however one 12 months to be served concurrently with the primary sentence).

Three ladies stated publicly in 2017 that one other influential music business determine, Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons, had raped them. Like Kelly, he was the topic of a documentary specializing in the allegations, although he has not confronted fees.

Now, Ventura and the opposite ladies submitting go well with are reporting violent rape, intimidation, and abuse by one of many greatest names in music, somebody who symbolized the motion of hip-hop into each mainstream and high-end tradition. Diddy in his heyday was an icon of energy and affect in music, vogue, and enterprise, and the lawsuits filed towards him signify a brand new willingness to name that energy to account.

Additionally they function a reminder that the Me Too motion has made enduring modifications, together with influencing regulation and coverage and making a highway map for survivors of assault to come back ahead and share their tales.