America vs. the Rapper: Sean Combs' trial begins. What brought him down?

Sean Combs' hair and beard, once jet black, are now gray. Hair dye is not permitted at the Metropolitan Detention Center. There is a phone line here through which he keeps in touch with rapper Kanye West and his children. The latter serenaded him on his 55th birthday in November. "Thank you all for being strong and thank you for being by my side," Combs says in a video posted by his family. He has been in custody since September. His trial begins on May 5 with jury selection: The United States of America v. Sean Combs aka "Puff Daddy" aka "P. Diddy" aka "Diddy" aka "PD" aka "Love."

The basis for Sean Combs' arrest is a 14-page indictment. The rapper and rap producer is alleged to have sedated, bribed, threatened, beaten, imprisoned, and forced people to perform sexual acts. In addition to the criminal charges, Combs faces more than 100 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse. Some of the plaintiffs were minors at the time of the alleged abuse. The offenses date back to the early 1990s.

The centerpiece of the indictment is count 1: Over eleven pages, the systematic, businesslike, criminal conduct of Combs and the employees of his companies is detailed. They allegedly joined forces to pursue the goal of satisfying the defendant's wishes. The prosecution accuses Combs of running a "criminal enterprise" (the production company "Combs Enterprises"). The prosecution thus emphasizes this aspect rather than sexual violence, which – as past trials have shown – is difficult to prove.

Central to this is the description of the so-called "freak-offs": "elaborately produced sex performances" that Combs allegedly staged regularly after his "white parties," sometimes lasting several days, during which he masturbated and recorded them. The prosecution presumably has video evidence. For this purpose, employees of Combs' companies transported or had sex workers transported across state lines. Combs and his employees used the reputation of his companies to lure "female victims" and persuade them to participate in the "freak-offs." Combs also extorted them. Firearms with removed serial numbers (black market) were carried for intimidation purposes.

A subsection of the document defines Combs' other businesses: the record label Bad Boy Records, a clothing company, an alcohol company, a marketing agency, a television network. And when you read "Bad Boy Records," you're reminded of how important Combs was 20 or 30 years ago.

He was the first rap producer to understand how to bring this music into the mainstream. He became known for his Gatsby-like appetite for spectacle. He hung out with Martha Stewart, Salman Rushdie, Oprah Winfrey, and Donald J. Trump. All manner of celebrities and political figures attended his lavish parties, where sometimes everyone wore white and some wore very little. He was a master brander and played a pivotal role in developing hip-hop into a global cultural force.

Combs grew up with his mother, Janice Combs, in Mount Vernon, New York. He attended Mount Saint Michael Academy, a Roman Catholic high school in the Bronx, and studied business at Howard University, mostly organizing parties. In 1992, he founded Bad Boy Records. Combs took the bubbling mix of rap and R&B and turned it into a commercial sound. His artists were always outstanding—his friend and protégé Notorious BIG and Mary J. Blige, for example.

"Remember how fly Mozart was back in the day? I'm Mozart in 1997," he told the Times at the time. He was as influential now as Mozart was in his time. Those who simply dismissed Combs as arrogant missed the point. He turned the glamorous performance into an art form in its own right and a means of proving that hip-hop has no geographical or cultural boundaries.

Violence, or the threat of it, has always been part of his story. In 1996, Sean Combs was convicted of threatening a photographer with a gun and fined $1,000. He has spent decades dispelling speculation that he played any role in the altercation between Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur that led to their deaths. He has emerged from past trials unscathed (witnesses disagreed on who fired the shot) or with only minor sentences (one day of "anger management").

The lawsuit that triggered the investigation and ultimately the expected mammoth trial was that of Casandra Ventura in 2023. The singer accused Combs of rape and repeated physical abuse over a period of ten years. In May of last year, CNN broadcast surveillance camera footage from 2016. It shows a woman hurrying to the hotel elevator until a man catches her, violently grabs her by the neck, and pulls her to her feet. Combs punches and kicks Ventura. The hotel video changed everything. Even Combs's lawyers have admitted, as the New York Times writes, that the recording "immediately and dramatically turned public opinion" against him.

Nevertheless, his lawyers say Combs is now looking forward to proving his innocence in court. Opening arguments in what is expected to be an eight-week criminal trial are scheduled to begin on May 12. If found guilty, Sean Combs faces a lengthy prison sentence.