Before he was convicted on sex-trafficking charges, Sean Combs — also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy — was one of the most successful producers and entrepreneurs in contemporary music. He played a key role in making hip-hop a global cultural force, and helped turn rap and R&B artists like the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige into household names.
Rising from middle-class origins in Harlem and suburban Mount Vernon, N.Y., Mr. Combs, 55, willed himself into the music business from a young age. While still a teenager, he appeared as a backup dancer in music videos for Fine Young Cannibals and other acts, and he got an internship at Uptown Records, the label at the forefront of new jack swing and the blending of R&B with rap. He soon became an executive there and showed a rare talent for not only producing hit songs but conceptualizing the overall look and attitude of his acts. By putting himself in their high-budget videos, he made himself recognizable to fans too.
Mr. Combs quickly became a star in his own right, with his own label: Bad Boy. As Puff Daddy, he went to No. 1 in 1997 with “I’ll Be Missing You,” which sampled the 1980s band the Police; on MTV’s hit reality show “Making the Band” he played the role — perhaps only slightly exaggerated from real life — of the foul-mouthed, short-tempered label boss who demanded the best from everyone in his circle. At the same time, Mr. Combs was becoming a fixture in the tabloid celebrity media through his bacchanalian White Parties at his Hamptons estate and elsewhere, and, at one point, by dating Jennifer Lopez. At his peak, he made fame itself a form of performance art.
Yet he had also been trailed by various accusations of violence, misconduct and negligence. In 1991, at the very beginning of his career, he promoted a charity basketball game in Harlem where nine young people were crushed to death in a stampede. Five years later, he threatened a photographer with a gun. In 1999 he and his bodyguards beat a rival music executive; later that year, Mr. Combs was arrested after a shooting at a New York nightclub where three people were injured. Still, Mr. Combs largely escaped major consequences. He was acquitted at trial for the nightclub shooting and paid about $750,000 of the $3.8 million in settlements for the wrongful death suits over the basketball stampede.
Those controversies and accusations had little effect on his fame or success in his many business enterprises, which included a popular fashion line and a lucrative deal promoting liquor brands. As recently as two years ago, Mr. Combs was being feted as an industry visionary and a philanthropist.
That reputation began to crumble in late 2023, after a former girlfriend, the singer Cassie, accused him of sexual assault, rape and years of physical abuse. In a bombshell lawsuit, Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, said that Mr. Combs had coerced her into participating in drug-fueled sexual marathons that he called “freak-offs.”
Cassie’s suit was settled in just one day, for $20 million, she testified. But her case led to a federal criminal investigation that resulted in Mr. Combs’s arrest in September 2024 on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Ms. Ventura was the government’s star witness in the case.
Mr. Combs pleaded not guilty and has strenuously denied the accusations against him. His legal team argued his accusers were former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships with him. They also argued that his efforts to arrange sexual marathons involving his girlfriends and male escorts, which involved members of his coterie and staff, did not amount to racketeering.
After an eight-week trial, Mr. Combs was found guilty of transporting people across state lines for the purpose of prostitution but acquitted of the more serious sex-trafficking and racketeering charges.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
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