Diddy faces public scrutiny over alleged sex crimes as questions arise about future of his music

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Diddy faces public scrutiny over alleged sex crimes as questions arise about future of his music

2024-09-22 00:07 Last Updated At：00:10

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs created a hit-making empire with big name performers, earning his place as a savvy music mogul and becoming a three-time Grammy winner while securing high-profile deals across other industries.

But now, Combs’ kingdom is collapsing under charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. He was arrested in New York on Sept. 16 and accused in an indictment of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers in “Freak Offs” along with allegations of abuse dating back to 2008.

If convicted, Combs could face at least 15 years in prison. He is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty.

Since several allegations surfaced last year, Combs’ public image has taken a nosedive as major deals slipped away: He stepped down as Revolt TV chairman then later sold off his majority stake in the company. He reportedly lost a reality show with Hulu and his influential fashion line Sean John no longer can be found on the Macy’s department store website.

After footage emerged from 2016 of Combs’ hotel hallway attack of then-girlfriend R&B singer Cassie, he lost the key to the city of New York, Peloton paused the usage of his music and he saw his honorary degree from Howard University evaporate in disgrace. His charter school, Capital Preparatory School in Harlem, also cut ties with him.

Earlier this year, Combs withdrew a lawsuit filed last year against Diageo as part of a settlement with the London-based spirits giant, making the company the sole owner of Ciroc and DeLeon.

Combs may have lost his major deals but his music remains untouched, at least for now. While awaiting further details, let’s delve into Combs’ music and his public image in the wake of the indictment.

Combs' Bad Boy Records might be associated with 1990s artists like Notorious B.I.G., Faith Evans, Ma$e and 112, but his label was still in the mix with recent releases by a couple of popular performers.

Last year, Combs released his first solo studio album since 2006 with “The Love Album: Off the Grid” and Janelle Monae put out “The Age of Pleasure” through his label. Both projects were Grammy nominated including Monae's album, which earned a nomination in the record of the year category.

In 2022, Machine Gun Kelly dropped his album “Mainstream Sellout” under the Bad Boy umbrella too.

Despite his arrest, Combs' music is still available on several major streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. The streamers have yet to comment on their plans for how his music will be featured on their platform in the future.

Before the release of “The Love Album,” Combs reassigned his Bad Boy publishing rights back to artists and songwriters. The move came after some criticized him over the years for mistreating his artists.

Some expressed concern for Combs’ children, while others feel shame over his alleged missteps and actions, which have become the subject of jokes.

Entertainers from 50 Cent, LL Cool J, Shyne, Aubrey O’Day, Charlamagne tha God and the Notorious B.I.G.’s mother have publicly shared their thoughts on Combs.

“I feel for his kids,” LL Cool J told The Associated Press in a recent interview. He and Combs collaborated on the 1997 album “Phenomenon.”

While LL Cool J showed concern, 50 Cent took a jab in a social media post. The rapper turned TV mogul trolled Combs after he learned law enforcement seized drugs, videos and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant during raids at his Los Angeles and Florida homes.

50 Cent posted his thoughts after a recent appearance on the Drew Barrymore’ talk show.

“Here I am keeping good company with @thedrewbarrymoreshow and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house,” said 50 Cent, who often has criticized Combs during the accusations. He expects to release a docuseries on Netflix about the allegations against Combs.

Shyne, a former Bad Boy artist, said he finds no satisfaction in seeing Combs potentially facing prison time despite past trouble between them.

“This is someone who destroyed my life,” said Shyne, who was convicted of assault and other charges stemming from a Manhattan nightclub shooting that injured three people in 1999. Combs’ then-girlfriend, singer and actor Jennifer Lopez, also was there when shots rang out.

Combs was acquitted of charges that he took an illegal gun into the club and tried to bribe his driver to take the fall for the weapon. However, Shyne was convicted of assault and other charges in the shooting and served about eight years in prison.

Now going by Moses Barrow, he is a member of the House of Representatives in his native Belize, where his father was once prime minister.

“But do I take any joy or any satisfaction with what he's going through? Absolutely not," he continued. “I am different than most people. No one has to fail for me to succeed.”

After B.I.G.’s mother, Voletta Wallace, saw Combs’ attack of Cassie, she wanted to “slap the daylights” out of him. She felt embarrassed for Combs, who along with her son played a huge role in shaping 1990s East Coast hip-hop.

The short answer is mostly no. However, listeners of Combs' music are proceeding with caution. Some online are questioning whether it's time to back away from his records.

Most online are saying that could be challenging, especially since many of his biggest hits are collaborations with other artists.

Combs has had several infectious singles including “I'll Be Missing You” with Faith Evans and 112, “Victory” featuring The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes, “I Need a Girl (Part One)” with Usher and Loon, “Last Night" with Keyshia Cole and “Been Around the World” with Ma$e, who also teamed with Combs on “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down.”

Two Hezbollah leaders were among the 37 people killed in the Beirut apartment block strike: Israel

2024-09-22 00:09 Last Updated At：00:10

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a Beirut apartment block killed two senior Hezbollah leaders and about a dozen other members of the militant group, Israel's military said Saturday as Lebanon raised the attack's death toll to 37, including women and children.

The airstrike during the Friday afternoon rush leveled the building in a densely populated neighborhood in southern Beirut as Hezbollah members were meeting in the basement, according to Israel. Among those killed were Ibrahim Akil, one of Hezbollah's most senior leaders and the commander of its special forces group the Radwan Force, and Ahmed Wahbi, another top commander in the group’s military wing, the Israeli military said Saturday.

As rescue crews were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Saturday and hoping to find survivors, Israel and Hezbollah continued to trade fire, with Israel launching an intense wave of airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to an Associated Press journalist in the area. The militant group responded by firing a bevy of rockets back at Israel, local media reported.

The Israeli army confirmed that about 90 rockets were fired Saturday on northern Israel, while Israeli air attacks and artillery units targeted a number of sites, including rocket launchers in Lebanon that it said were poised to attack.

Lebanon's health minister, Firass Abiad, told reporters that at least seven women and three children were among those killed in Friday's airstrike in Beirut. He said another 68 people were injured, including 15 who were hospitalized, and that the casualty figure would likely rise as the search and rescue effort progressed.

It was the deadliest strike on Beirut since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

Akil, the main target, had been wanted by the U.S. for years for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was under U.S. sanctions, and the U.S. State Department last year announced a reward of up to $7 million for information leading to his “identification, location, arrest, and/or conviction.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan called Akil's death “a good outcome” and said he had “American blood on his hands” for the embassy attack.

“You know 1983 seems like a long time ago,” Sullivan said. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”

Wahbi was described as a commander who played major roles within Hezbollah for decades and was imprisoned in an Israeli jail in south Lebanon in 1984. Hezbollah said he was one of the “field commanders” during a 1997 ambush in southern Lebanon that left 12 Israeli troops dead.

Hezbollah announced overnight that 15 of its operatives had been killed by Israeli forces, but it didn't how or where they died. Meanwhile, the Israeli army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said Saturday 16 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Friday's strike.

Lebanese troops cordoned off the area around the destroyed building as Lebanese Red Cross members stood nearby to take any bodies recovered from the rubble. On Saturday morning, Hezbollah’s media office took journalists on a tour of the scene, where workers were still digging through the ruins.

Lebanon's minister of public works and transport, Ali Hamieh, told reporters at the scene that 23 people were still missing.

The airstrike on the crowded Qaim street knocked out an eight-story building that had 16 apartments and damaged another one adjacent to it. The missiles destroyed the building and cut through the basement where the meeting of Hezbollah officials was being held, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.

Shops in a nearby building were badly damaged.

Friday's strike came hours after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.

The militant group said its latest wave of rocket salvos was a response to Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon. However, it came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded roughly 3,000 others.

Abiad, the Lebanese health minister, said Saturday that hospitals across the country were filled with the wounded.

The pager and walkie-talkie attacks have been widely attributed to Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied involvement. They marked a major escalation in the past 11 months of simmering conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border.

It wasn't immediately clear if anyone was killed or wounded in the back-and-forth attacks between Israel and Hezbollah on Saturday.

Earlier this week, Israel’s security cabinet said stopping Hezbollah’s attacks on the country’s north, which would allow displaced residents to return to their homes, is now an official war goal, as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon that could spark an all-out conflict. Israel has since sent a powerful fighting force to its northern border.

Hezbollah has maintained that it will halt its strikes only when a cease-fire is reached in Gaza.

The tit-for-tat strikes have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in both southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire regularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel ignited the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. But previous cross-border attacks have largely struck areas in northern Israel that had been evacuated and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon.

—

Associated Press writer Jack Jeffery in Jerusalem and White House correspondent Zeke Miller in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report.

Diddy faces public scrutiny over alleged sex crimes as questions arise about future of his music

ENT

Diddy faces public scrutiny over alleged sex crimes as questions arise about future of his music

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