Marketing prowess may run in the family.
On the day Sean Combs’s defense was set to present its closing argument to jurors, the music mogul’s son Christian, who raps as King Combs, released a long-teased set of seven new songs, including one track called “Diddy Free.”
The song, credited to King Combs and Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, includes lyrics about those who “try to play the victim” and states plainly “[expletive] the world, critics and the witness.” Later, King Combs, 27, raps, “this Bible might come in handy / this rifle might come in handy” with a chorus that promises not to sleep “’til we see Diddy free.”
A previous demo version of the song by Ye — without King Combs — had leaked online last month. The superstar rapper and producer, who has become a pariah in the music industry for his persistent, button-pushing antisemitism, has been the highest-profile celebrity to offer public support for Mr. Combs, who is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Earlier this month, he briefly appeared at the Manhattan courthouse where the trial is being held in a show of solidarity.
Ye is credited as the executive producer of King Combs’s new music, the “Never Stop” EP, which uses a photo that appears to depict the dilapidated headquarters for Bad Boy Worldwide, Mr. Combs’s entertainment company, as its cover art. The EP also includes a featured appearance by North West, Ye’s eldest daughter with his former wife, Kim Kardashian. Her appearance on an earlier version of the song had, according to Ye, been a source of contention between the two parents.
King Combs was among the six of Mr. Combs’s seven children who appeared in court to support the mogul on Friday. (The seventh, Mr. Combs’s lawyer pointed out, is an infant.) He wore a jacket that includes an illustration of his late mother, Kim Porter, who died in 2018 and has been evoked at trial as Mr. Combs’s “soul mate.”
“You always told me to chase my dreams and be a go-getter,” King Combs raps on another track, titled “Kim.”
“In this studio right now, I feel alone in it.”
Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter for The Times who focuses on popular music and a co-host of the Times podcast “Popcast (Deluxe).”
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