Hey there, 2020 listeners, this is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020.Today on the podcast, Secret Life of Diddy, a special edition of 2020 on the shocking arrest of Sean Diddy Combs and the downfall of the famous and powerful hip hop mogul.
My resume basically speaks for itself.I produced the greatest rap of all time.You know, I've just begun.I tell people this all the time, and they look at me, how can you say you've just begun?And I just know in my heart, I've just begun.
I've just started.I've just started getting to the point where I'm becoming a better man.And I'm just starting to understand a little bit, just a little bit, what life is about.
Everybody off the runway, please.
If you could describe Diddy in one word, what would it be?
Powerful.Hustler.Problematic.
When I look back on not even just hip-hop, not even just R&B, but American music, American pop culture, it's impossible to tell that story without Sean Diddy Combs.
This is a guy who was dating J-Lo, fashion, alcohol, TV shows, political campaigns, vote or die.This is one of the most famous people in America over the last half century.
Diddy finally has the key to the city!
Sean Cones was bigger than big.He was beloved in some circles, revered in others.One of the most powerful men in the music industry.And then suddenly, it was over.
Federal agents were seen raiding P. Diddy's Los Angeles and Miami homes.
Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.
Sources telling ABC News it is connected to a human trafficking investigation.
When Diddy's home was raided, they found AR-15 style rifles, narcotics, and 1,000 bottles of baby oil.
It seems like Diddy did lead a secret life, the guy in the limelight.Then there are all of the people being flown in to spice things up, to satisfy his sexual desires.
The raid by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations spilled the criminal investigation into public view, and we now know the results of that investigation.
The indictment alleges that Combs abused and exploited women and other people for years, and in a variety of ways.
As alleged, Combs used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers.
This is different than the sex drugs and rock and roll folklore that I think a lot of us are very familiar with. This sounds like a sex crime.
Combs allegedly planned and controlled the sex performances, which he called freak-offs.
Freak-offs.Freak-offs.Freak-offs.What is that?
Him having sex workers have sex with his partner, whoever it is, while he watches or participates.
Prosecutors have said that these were elaborately produced events bringing lighting in, cameras, linens.
Prosecutors said he would masturbate during these freak-offs, and women had no choice.
These freak-offs would last for so long that they would sometimes have to recover with IV drips, that the bedsheets needed to be swapped in, that hotel rooms were damaged, and that there was a preparation, but also a cleanup afterwards to try to hide the evidence of these allegedly illegal freak-offs.
According to prosecutors, this has been going on for a really long time.And the reason why they say that he's been able to get away with doing this for so long is that he essentially has been blackmailing people. into being silent.
It's been a gift and a curse, my success.But, you know, my musical career has probably been one of the most successful musical careers of a hip-hop artist, producer in history.And that's something I take pride in.
Puff becomes an intern at Uptown Records where he starts to get mentored by Andre Harrell, one of the great record men of his time.
He moves from intern to A&R man and
The first huge star he makes is Mary J. Blige.There were stories that he was very imperious to other people.But he was practically Andre's son, and he was the big dog, and so he's not really being called on the carpet for these things.
Again, his talent and power and success protect him from accountability.And Andre says to him, you know, There can only be one lion in the jungle, and he fires him.
But he let him take two rappers that Andre didn't know what to do with, Craig Mack and Biggie Smalls.
He gets fired, and within a few weeks, he creates Bad Boy Reckless.
By 1994, everyone knew who Diddy was. produced some of the biggest artists in the world.Biggie.
I mean, this is a person who's created some of the most amazing music in our culture.
It was this Midas touch thing.Everything they were putting out was hot.
You know, this is a big time for me.Number one album in the United States.Debuting number one.
So many of their songs really exploded.I mean, Mo Money Mo Problems.
Me and Mase, we doing the Benjamins and More Money More Problems.
Diddy was kind of known for producing these really big, classic, iconic songs like 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
I remember multiple nights of being in a club, they're playing a string of Bad Boy records, you get in a cab to go to another club, the radio is playing Bad Boy records in the cab, you get in the next club and they're playing Bad Boy as soon as you walk in.
He was very successful in a lot of the things that he did, which made him this larger-than-life American celebrity for much of his life and much of his career.
Around 2000, the music business starts to crater.Revenue is shrinking rapidly. And Puff was able to say, OK, I have this brand that's about lifestyle, that's about partying, that's about success.How can I translate the brand into other things?
I think Diddy is one of the best strategists when it comes to marketing.So you go from Bad Boy to Sean John, Sean John to the Diageo deal with Ciroc. You're scaling and you're diversifying your portfolio.
And he was somebody that I think was just a celebrity magnet.
Everybody wanted to be next to somebody who made everything hot.
I was going to make the clothes that you would get dressed in, the fragrance you would put on, to go to the club and listen to the music that I produced.
Whatever was in the realm of entertainment or lifestyle, a curator of cool, you know, that's what I do.
Here's my music, here's my drink, here's my clothes.You can be like me.And so he's sort of selling himself and the Puff lifestyle to the audience.
I love a party period, whether it's an Oscar party, whether it's my man's house party from around the way.I just like people coming together and having a good time.
Diddy is... very into being famous.At one point, he had a camera crew following him around at all times.
I got some cameras and stuff coming in here, man.In an era when MTV is shifting from video, video, video to shows, he's like, OK, I can provide you with reality shows.And the first one is with him as Mogul making the band.
Welcome back.It's your boy, Diddy.We are back with a new season of Making Them.
He is a guy that has always loved the limelight.He's loved being famous.He's loved being a celebrity.
Sean had some pretty high-profile relationships. A long relationship with model Kim Porter.A huge, big, paparazzi-covered relationship with Jennifer Lopez.
It really helped establish him as this national figure and really sort of confirmed, like, oh, like, he really is that guy.
Like, he's got all the money, and he's got all the business success, and he's also got this amazing woman who's like, yeah, I'm rocking with him.Like, oh, well, damn, he must be really that guy.
They make this music video together, been around the world.Sexy, successful.
There's a great moment when Puff is dancing in a video with J-Lo.Here he's doing the tango, but he looks really good doing the tango with J-Lo. He knew how to do these things.
I'm hanging with J-Lo, or I'm making a movie with Russell Brand, or I'm going to the Met Gala, or I'm in Vogue in Paris with Naomi Campbell wearing some opulent thing.And it was always like, This guy is about success.He's about wealth.
He's about opulence.He says he represents taste.You know, he's about the art of celebration and partying.
They couldn't stop the kid.
They know fast food.But he's also about himself. and about promoting himself, you know?I mean, he's the biggest star Bad Boy ever had.
He thrives off adulation.He thrives off love.He thrives off the public seeing him as, like, this flashy playboy type of character.That's gone.That's gone forever.
And for Sean Combs, for Diddy, I think that's the worst thing for him, because he can never be who he once was ever again.
A lot of you have grown to know me as the king of celebration, a master in the art of celebration, through the many luxurious parties I've thrown all around the world.Simply put, I enjoy seeing people have a good time.
This is an ad for BetterHelp Online Therapy.What's something you've always wanted to learn?An instrument?A new language?How to not burn pasta?Whether it's big or small, Imagine how great it would feel to finally do it.
As kids, we were always learning and growing.But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity that made life feel so exciting.It's easy to think that we are who we are, and we can't change.
But BetterHelp is here to tell you that it's never too late to be who you want to be. Therapy can help you reconnect with your sense of wonder, because your back-to-school era can come at any age.
BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable phone, video, or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere, and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up.Rediscover possibility with BetterHelp.
Visit betterhelp.com today to get 10% off your first month.That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P, dot com.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.It's Brad Milkey, host of ABC's daily news podcast, Start Here.You chose to hit play on this podcast today.Smart choice.
Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it at Progressive.com, a progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates not available in all states or situations.
Prices vary based on how you buy.Another woman has come forward accusing Sean P. Diddy Combs of sexual assault.This is the fifth lawsuit against Diddy.
120 alleged victims, men and women, whose allegations span more than 30 years.
The more the stories come out, it doesn't sound like he was changed by the music industry.It sounds like he was empowered by it.He decided, bad boy for life.He decided, that's a choice.
We sat down with Tiffany Redd, a Grammy Award winning producer.She was one of the first people who had access to that world, who spoke publicly.And for a period of time, she was out there by herself.She's played the game at the highest level.
She worked with Zendaya on her hit, Replay. In this cutthroat music industry, she was good friends with Cassie Ventura.Cassie is sweet.
She's quiet.She's kind.She's a good person.
Cassie came onto the scene in 2006 with her self-titled debut album and then her hit single, Me and You.
♪ They know you're the one I wanna give it to ♪ ♪ I can see you want me too ♪ ♪ That was me and you ♪
So Cassie is a singer who was introduced to the world by Diddy.And Cassie had one of the most disastrous performances we've seen on live television on 106 and Park.
You've been waiting so long, I'm here to answer your call.
It didn't go well.People had a lot to say about the performance, and Diddy spoke up about it.He defended her.
Not too long after that, we find out that Diddy and Cassie are in a romantic relationship.
They met in 2005 when she was 19.He's like 37 and he's running the record label that she's a part of.He controls whether or not Her album comes out.
You're signed to Diddy's label.What was it like the first time you met him?Were you starstruck?I was so nervous.So nervous.But we sat down for about two hours, talked about my career and the future.And it was great.You know, it turned out amazing.
And he's a great guy.Great guy.
I started working with Cassie in 2015.We started working together.I started writing for her.And we started hanging out.
They worked together on a number of projects.One of their biggest hits, Don't Let Go.
My first interaction with Puff, he walked up to me and he was like, you're the one writing all these songs about me.And I was like, yeah.He was like, so she's talking to you, huh?And then he just looked at me and then he walked away.
What was the message he was sending to you, you think?
I mean, I felt intimidated.You know, I definitely felt like it was like, it felt like he didn't want her to be talking to me.
You look at her debut in 2006 and then, you know, her music career after that, you know, nothing that she did really hit the same marks as they do in 2006.We began to see her more in the public as Diddy's girlfriend and less as the artist, Cassie.
So I'm wondering about the boyfriend, Diddy, whether he came to the set to make sure everything was copacetic with you.
No, he actually really trusted the situation.Him and Terrence spoke beforehand.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.You date P. Diddy?
There were always rumors about Diddy and his relationships with women.They ranged from inappropriate behavior, from flashes of rage and yelling at people, and physical abuse.
There was this one night, 2015, I believe, we went out, took the car, went to McDonald's to go get some food, and I remember her being like, you wanna see something crazy?And I was like, what?And she answered the phone.And as soon as she answered,
Like, he was so upset that she was out.He was just like, I remember him screaming and saying, is somebody in the car with you?I know someone's in the car with you.So that was like my first time being like, something is wrong, you know?
I have heard over the years that Diddy was violent with Cassie.
There would be an interview with a former bodyguard or someone who said that he, you know, had a history of violence with Cassie and also with Kim Porter, the late mother of four of his children.
Tiffany talked in great detail about one particular night in 2015, Cassie's 29th birthday.
I walk out the room, and right behind the door, there's his security is around him.They have her in the corner, and he's in her face, and he's cussing her out.He was really mad.He was really close to her face, and she just had her head down.
And when I was, like, standing over to the side, she just was kind of, like, looking up at me.My sense was that everybody around him was afraid of him.
I mean, because he's explosive.
Why didn't her friends, why didn't her circle step up and say, yo, man, what are you going to do?
He got the key to the city.He's friends with the politicians.He's friends with this person.You know what I'm saying?
It's like, who's going to challenge that?
Who's going to challenge that and win and be believed?You're right.
She was working on an album for 10 years.It never had a release date and it never had a title. This was never intended to come out.This was a pacifier just to keep her happy in between what we do at night.And why didn't the album come out?
Because he was using the music to control Cassie.Because it was never, at least from what it seems, like it was never going to come out.It was never supposed to come out.
He was kind of playing her.
I'm going to put the record out.I'm going to put the record out.
And the only, she told me the only time he was willing to like really talk about the plans for her music was during the freak offs.
We heard about their relationship.We heard the rumors, issues in regards to infidelity.Every time we would question it, they would pop back up together at some event until 2018 when they called it quits.
Five years after Cassie and Diddy broke up, Cassie files this bombshell lawsuit, and it was a huge deal.Nobody stood up to Diddy.
You would hear things about him, people would say things about him, but seeing a woman who was so close to him relive these terrible and traumatizing moments and file this lawsuit, It was shocking.
Some of the things that Sean made Cassie do, according to her lawsuit, is have sex with male sex workers when she didn't want to do that.He would direct her how to touch the sex worker, how to pour oil over her body, and he would
watched these things happen while he was masturbating.
In Cassie's lawsuit, it said that Diddy supplied her and sex workers with drugs before and during these freak-offs.You ever personally witnessed Cassie under any influence?
The night of the party was a freak-off.He was saying, tell your girl she wants some birthday.That was a freak-off.That's where he was taking her.When he was cussing her out and she didn't want to go,
Cassie's lawsuit was settled within 24 hours.We know that she was asking for $30 million, but the actual amount was undisclosed.
At the time, Combs denied all wrongdoing and made clear he said settling was not an admission of guilt.
And because of the misogyny that exists, in hip-hop culture, I do not feel like at that time people were going to completely write Diddy off.I do not feel like until the CNN video was leaked, that was when everything changed for Diddy.
Diddy's flying through the hallway of this hotel and he's so brutal.And Cassie is so small and just appears to be so broken.Like there's a point where she just stays on the ground.
When I saw the video and I saw her trying to pick up her little bag and then be dragged.
And I just felt like I knew what she was feeling.She just wanted to get out of there.
And I just broke my heart.That hotel footage showed us that there's a monster within.Because that video happened and everyone watched that video, it changed everything for a lot of people, I think.
There's this massive public outcry once that videotape is released.Two days later, Sean Combs makes a statement.
I was f***ed up.I mean, I hit rock bottom. that I make no excuses.My behavior on that video is inexcusable.I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.
Apology video.What'd you think of that?
And I thought it was for him.I mean, I think I think that all of it was he was talking about himself and how he felt.This is the hardest time going through.
These are the darkest times in my life, you know, and it's like it's all about him, him, him, him, him, him, him.
When you read or heard about Cassie's lawsuit, it was horrendous and horrific and disgusting and grotesque.But it's words, and it's horrifying, but it's words.
When you see a video of him assaulting her, he kicked her when she's on the ground, posing no threat to him. It was heartbreaking, and it was the immediate destruction of any smidge of image, legacy, reputation that you might have.
His credibility is out the window, especially after that apology, where we now know he's capable of lying.And now the question becomes, what else is Sean Combs lying about?
Huff always wanted to be driving culture, not just in it, but shaping it and creating it.And there's a point in time when the guys around him were like, hey, what's cool is the Hampton.
An all-white party where we have to wear white definitely fits the beachy vibe of the Hamptons.
He was one of the people who invented hip-hop party culture.
I take pride on being a leader.You get out of life what you put into it, so I just try to give my all.
Diddy's white parties were very famous.Anyone who you can think of who's a celebrity has attended a Diddy white party.
And there's this Victoria's Secret models wearing like, halo and angel wings and hand you champagne.And they're like, welcome to heaven.
They were said to be wild, right?And everyone wants to be at your party.That confers a certain amount of power upon you.
This is a legendary white party.It's the real white party.The kids have like, an hour left. Because this thing turns into something that when y'all get older, y'all don't want to come to.
Now Diddy After Dark is a different party.
We knew that there was an after-after party, and we heard that, you know, those were much more debauched.
I think the more wild, racy stuff now is like a very rarefied sort of thing.It wasn't just for, everybody come, we're doing Eyes Wide Shut tonight.You need some water.
Diddy even went on Conan O'Brien.Knowing what we know now and watching that clip, it's... He let us know, but people weren't listening.
No, no, I don't know if guys have noticed this, like, a lot of ladies drink water at parties.They just, you know, so if you don't have what they need, they're gonna leave.Right.Gotta keep them there.Right.You need locks on the doors.
This is sounding kind of dangerous now.
It's a little kinky, but yeah.
I think one of the noteworthy things about this pending trial is that maybe for the first time we'll discover who Sean Combs really is.
This man was a pillar of society for a really long time.He had this really great up from his bootstraps story.
My Scorpio brother here, my daddy.
Diddy's life now, it was a lot different than how he grew up.Being from Harlem, you know, was raised by his mom, Janice, with his sister.
He's created multiple narratives.His father was a drug dealer.He grew up rough and tumble life.
My father was killed when I was three.I just remember my mother, you know, working four jobs.
On the other hand, he says, oh, I was a paperboy in Westchester County.
He somehow was able to consolidate several paper routes.So he had these kids delivering the papers on his routes for him.He's already being entrepreneurial and capitalist within that system.He was always the boss from a very young age.
So everybody around him has to do what he says.
I just want to get paid for it.That's what I'm saying too.I don't want to be wasting my time. Yo, how y'all getting this date out there?
There was a time everybody in the music business wanted to work for Puff and it was so much fun and it was so cool.So like, if he screamed at you sometimes, well, that's part of the price of admission.
If so, bump somebody.There's a clip that was in his 2017 documentary, Can't Stop, Won't Stop, where he's in his office.There it's like destroying stuff.
I got my MTV out. Oh!I'm a savage!Whatever I want, I'm going to get!Whatever I want, I have to get!
You know what was inspiring for me about that video?Was when Puffy said, what's next?
What's next?What's next?I got to get it.I'm not going to stay down.
For him to say what's next means I'm ready for everything.A savage in business can be a profitable energy.
I think that there's a relentlessness in this person who is saying, I will do whatever I have to do to accomplish the goal.You couldn't tell him no.This person was emotionally volatile.
The rapper and music mogul arrested for assault after a fight with a football coach at his son's school.All charges were later dropped.
Combs was arrested on assault charges for allegedly beating a music industry executive.
He manages to escape any significant legal accountability.
This man was celebrated for so long in the hip-hop culture.But I think when powerful people are not checked, bad things can happen.
In 1999, Puffy was dating J-Lo and there was an incident in a New York nightclub in which Diddy and some of his entourage get into it with some people and shots are fired.
He went to Club New York to celebrate a new album from Shine.
Shine is a rapper from Belize that was signed to Bad Boy Records.
In Club New York, something happened.Somebody got bumped into.Several witnesses say that they saw Puff with a gun.Three people got shot in that incident.
Police say Shine had a gun.He was convicted and spent nine years in prison.Shawn Combs acquitted.
It was one of those moments that shows, like, wow.He may find himself in, like, bad situations, but eventually he always gets out.It probably made Diddy believe to an extent that, like, I'm pretty much invincible.
People were very afraid to come forward with their stories.
He's always been mired by allegations and suspicions of domestic violence and abuse.They've always kind of fallen apart as whispers.
It took a watershed moment, which was the Cassie lawsuit, to really open that Pandora's box.
Cassie describing the music mogul as a vicious, cruel, and controlling man.
After Cassie filed her lawsuit, it kind of opened up the floodgates.
Sean Diddy Combs faces new sex trafficking allegations.Former model is now suing Diddy.One became three, became five.
A former member of Combs' girl group, Danity Kane, is accusing him of sexually abusing her for years.
Rashard is the eighth person to accuse Combs of abuse.Combs' attorney calls Rashard's claims false and said he looks forward to proving that in court.
He began to see lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit being filed.
His former producer, Rodney Jones, claims Diddy repeatedly sexually assaulted him.
His attorney also responded to Jones' lawsuit, saying in part, he's looking for an undeserved payday and that they have indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies.
The Texas attorney tonight says he now represents 120 alleged victims, men and women, whose allegations span more than 30 years.
The biggest secret in the entertainment industry that really wasn't a secret at all has finally been revealed to the world.
We've had over 14,000 people contact our office in three weeks and now we represent 293 claims against Sean Combs or his associates.
Our youngest victim at the time of the occurrence was nine years old. We have an individual who was 14 years old.
Though this attorney has yet to file lawsuits, he's made these allegations.
Based on the people that we've talked to, based on what they've told us, it seemed before 2005, it was men and women equally that were kind of sucked into this orbit.And then after 2005, it almost went 90% to men.
An attorney for Sean Combs said he can't address every, quote, meritless allegation, but that he denies any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors.
We have not heard the last of someone filing a lawsuit against Sean Combs.There's no way he acted alone.The culture of silence was colossal.
There will be more people looking for defense attorneys very soon.
What other names are we going to start seeing?
Hey podcast listeners, tired of ads barging into your favorite news podcasts?Good news!With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your Prime membership.
Stay up to date on everything newsworthy by downloading the Amazon Music app for free or go to amazon.com slash adfreenews.That's amazon.com slash adfreenews to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.
Tonight, breaking news in New York City.
Sean Diddy Combs arrested in a New York City hotel by federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations after being indicted by a grand jury.
He's been under criminal investigation since his former girlfriend accused him of sexual and physical abuse in a civil case.
According to his lawyer, Sean Combs knew that the raids on his home scared his kids, and he said he didn't want anything else to be so scary.
And that's why his lawyer says he decided to relocate to New York, so that everybody would know where he was to make the arrest easy.
Did you witness anything?
Didi is the father of seven children.He has three adult sons, and he has four daughters.His adult sons have been very publicly supportive, and they showed up to support him at his arraignment.
He's confident.He is dealing with this head-on, the way he's dealt with every challenge in his life.
Didi pleaded not guilty, and he was denied bail twice.
There's no amount of money, no amount of security measures that could be put in place that these judges believe would not make him a flight risk and not make him a danger to those around him.
The first time Sean Combs came into court, I thought he looked kind of stunned, almost.This is a whole new reality that he's facing.And in that moment, he may well have understood the gravity of the charges.
Sean Combs is facing a three-count indictment, racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for the purpose of prostitution.
It puts Combs as the leader of what prosecutors called this criminal enterprise to subject women to a pattern of physical and sexual abuse.
When it comes to the three counts that Sean Combs is facing, the racketeering conspiracy charge is the top charge.And within it are a number of crimes.There is kidnapping, forced labor, bribing of witnesses.
Prosecutors became concerned that Sean Combs was going to obstruct the federal investigation, which is ongoing. and tamper with witnesses.
In Sean Combs' appeal for his bail, Judge Carter said that obstruction of justice is a real concern for him.
And in saying that, he's looking at the evidence, or the alleged evidence, that the prosecution is providing, that after Cassie's civil lawsuit,
After even the raid, Sean Cones began communicating and reaching out to people within his circle, women that are alleged victims, trying to ensure that they're not going to come forward with any allegations against him.
Okay, thank you guys.Thank you very much.
If Combs is convicted as charged, he could be facing decades in prison.The closest analogy would be the sex charges against R. Kelly.
Late today, a federal jury found R. Kelly guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors accusing him of leading a criminal enterprise of managers, bodyguards, and other employees to recruit and abuse women, underage girls, and a teenage boy.
When I first heard about the Sean Combs allegations, I wasn't surprised.Nothing really surprises me these days.
Lizette Martinez told us that she met Sean Combs in the 90s in Miami.
He's like, hey, you have really pretty eyes, like started to compliment me.I just looked at my friend like, I've been down this road before.I didn't have a good feeling about it.I really wanted nothing to do with men in the industry.
Lizette was Jane Doe number nine in this case involving R. Kelly, a man who was convicted of being the leader of a criminal enterprise and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
And she says she sees similarities in the allegations against R. Kelly that were proven to be accurate and the allegations now against Sean Combs.
I've spoken to the other girls that are involved in my case, and we all were deeply saddened and triggered.I can't unsee that Cassie video.You could tell me whatever you want to tell me about him.I cannot unsee the video.
She helped others to feel that they could come forward.And that's huge.You put yourself on the line.
There have been several reckoning moments in the world of Hollywood and music over the last few years.
Myself and other women have always shared stories of the various ways in which we were approached inappropriately.We've talked about the misogyny within the industry.
The way women are talked about in hip hop music is so vile and so hateful, you know, as though women are things to be used and consumed.
And that's not to say that there isn't predatory behavior going on in rock and country and any other genre of music, but like, hip-hop is just open about its hatred for women in ways that other genres of music are not.
Every time, which is sad that there isn't every time, but when something like this happens, you hope that there is some kind of reckoning, but there is so much ingrained in this culture that it's really hard to tell.So the hope is that that changes.
Simply put, the bigger they rise, the harder they fall.From the fancy jets, the fancy jewelry, the luxurious lifestyle, Sean Combs is tonight in one of the most notorious jails in all of New York.
Let's take some money, man.
Sean Combs led the life that many of us would only dream of.This is a celebration of life.This is a legendary white party.
It's the real white party.
The way he dressed, the way he traveled, the way he partied.His presence on social media, few could compare.
The multi-million dollar homes, the private jets flying from here to there.But now he'll be housed in the Metropolitan Detention Center.
It has had a rather notable roster of inmates.R. Kelly was there for a time before he stood trial in Brooklyn.Glenn Maxwell, El Chapo spent time there.
When people talk about MDC, they use words like infamous, corrupt, violent.It's dangerous.There are constant fights and lockdowns.It's going to be a very, very different lifestyle change for him.
in this industry where people love to talk.No one talked about this part of Sean Combs' life, but now everyone has an opinion.People are talking.Charlamagne Tha God on radio has had plenty to say.
Being in that cell is going to be the first time in probably forever that he's forced to sit still.Reality is going to hit him hard.Whatever he's been running from, he cannot run no more.
He was known to have the Midas touch, and now his touch is anything but golden.It's allegedly criminal.
I'm going to scream from the rooftops.It's not just him.It's a systemic problem.I'm going to continue to advocate and do something to really change this.Sean Combs was not made in a vacuum.
People are really overly impressed by men. We do not hold men to rigorous standards of behavior, particularly famous men, right?We don't take into consideration their relationship to women when we're judging their character.
Nobody really knows, like, where this is going to lead.Celebrities were at these parties.People could be caught in that net.And I think that also, you know, plays into the fact of why you haven't heard people
speak on Diddy and speak on a lot of these allegations.
We've received accusations against very well-known celebrities that allegedly participated in these after parties that were either in the room maybe witnessing these sexual assaults taking place or even participating in them.
How's the story end for him?
How it turns out, like, once all things are said and done, I can't imagine somebody that's lived a life that lavish, like, facing the music and, like, going to jail.But I think that's where it's going in, though.Too much has happened.
I'm extremely proud of the women and men.So I'm not going to sit here and say that, you know, the trial's going to be easy.It's not. However, we did it, and you have a whole survivor army behind you.
No matter how powerful these people portray themselves to be, so are you.
I think one can make the argument that hip-hop is on trial, but I think we've seen, with the fall of other high-profile celebrities, that entertainment is on trial.Power is on trial.
Somehow when power is in the hands of too few people, too often they abuse it.
You can't look away anymore.I hope that powerful men understand that time's up.
This is Deborah Roberts.In recent weeks, at least 120 alleged victims have come forward, a small portion of which have filed the first wave of civil lawsuits, each claiming they were sexually assaulted by Combs.
Some say they were minors when the alleged assaults occurred, one as young as nine years old.
An attorney for Combs tells ABC News, quote, In court, the truth will prevail that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone, adult or minor, man or woman.You can find ongoing coverage of the Diddy story at abcnews.com.
For all new broadcast episodes of 2020, join us on Friday nights at 9 on ABC.
