In the past, one of the most sought-after tickets in the entertainment world was an invitation to a party that Sean “Diddy” Combs was throwing.
It was an opportunity to mingle with some of the biggest stars, with guest lists including Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, and Justin Bieber. At his gigs, Jay-Z and Beyoncé even dropped new songs.
“You knew you were going to have a really good night when Diddy winked at you and said come into the VIP section,” Rob Shuter, who was the rapper’s publicist during the height of his success, told News line in an exclusive interview.
Mr. Shuter’s former famous client is currently incarcerated in a Brooklyn jail cell, just a short drive from the Hamptons, where he used to host extravagant celebrity parties.
With a lengthy federal criminal case accusing him of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, Mr. Combs’s decline from favor has been fast. The music entrepreneur has also been accused of sexual extortion, rape, and assault in over a dozen civil actions. According to one lawyer, he represents over 100 people who allege they were sexually abused.
The rapper, who was born in Harlem, has consistently denied any misconduct, whether it is in connection with the criminal or civil accusations.
“Mr. Combs remains strong, healthy, and disciplined, fully committed to his defense with the unwavering support of his family, legal team, and the truth,” a representative informed BBC News for this report in response to the accusations made against Diddy.
His trial is scheduled for May 2025.
Mr. Shuter, who was Diddy’s employee from 2002 to 2004, claimed that when Mr. Combs began working for the rapper, he was at a turning point in his career.
In 1993, Mr. Combs established Bad Boy Records, a label that signed some of the top hip-hop singers, such as Usher and Notorious B.I.G. He founded the Sean John clothing line in 1998, which went on to become a cultural icon. He then ventured into the worlds of fragrances, booze, and even television, hosting a number of reality shows where he would find up-and-coming talent and turn people into celebrities.
According to Mr. Shuter, Mr. Combs sought to change his image and further his career when he initially entered the rapper’s world. He also hoped to use his parties to maintain his position at the forefront of the entertainment business.
“He was just figuring out that becoming the party king of New York was the best way to get the most attention.”
Mr. Shuter explained that the celebrity loved to have his picture taken and sought to flaunt his lifestyle, claiming that Mr. Combs was power-hungry and desperately wanted to stay famous. Mr. Shuter was responsible for keeping “Diddy” at the top. He claimed that being a member of his group was similar to being in a circus, with the rapper serving as the “ringmaster.”
“I never saw any sexual misconduct,” he added. “I’ve seen the imbalance of power,” he stated. “What I haven’t seen is what is now alleged, which is just horrific.”
His obsession with Diddy is the reason he was such a sensation. Mr. Shuter told BBC News, “From the moment he wakes up until the moment he goes to bed.” “Diddy is Diddy’s pastime.”
According to him, Mr. Combs was also deeply enamored with the British royal family. According to Mr. Shuter, he recalls being asked over ten times to call Prince Harry and Prince William and extend invitations to parties, promising to pay for their transportation, accommodation, and even security.
“He thought of himself as a king so it makes perfect sense that he would like to have two princes in his entourage,” Mr. Shuter explained, referring to the rapper’s collection of framed pictures of the princes in his opulent New York apartment.
He said that neither Harry nor William ever accepted an invitation from Mr. Combs.
Many others, however, did not say “no” to the music magnate.
Mr. Shuter described metal detectors in his apartment that looked like those at an airport, saying, “There were always guns around Diddy.” “It was peculiar.”
According to Mr. Shuter, the rapper’s house was filled with weaponry. Guns were fastened to the ankles of security personnel in his private residence. Mr. Combs had a close-knit circle and took his reputation and safety very seriously.
“Unless everyone around you was dressed up, you don’t get to be Diddy. Nobody was careless around him.
In the Los Angeles area, the rapper lived on what has become known as Beverly Hills’s most expensive street.
The high fences allow celebrities to hide from prying eyes. Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion sits a few doors down.
The towering gates of Mr Combs’ estate have flaming torches burning day and night.
Neighbours told the BBC they often called police over his parties.
A freedom of information request by the BBC has revealed that officers were dispatched to parties at the P Diddy mansion 14 times over seven years.
On a street where discretion and privacy are of the utmost importance, no-one wished to be named, but neighbours described privately to the BBC what they witnessed, saying they were fed up and disturbed by what they saw.
“For six or seven years it was just parties, parties, parties,” one neighbour said, adding she saw females at all hours “coming out and sitting down on the street, they didn’t know where they were”.
She said they appeared “lost” and “their underwear was showing”.
Mr Combs’s mansion in Beverly Hills was one of several venues he used to host his annual “White Party”, a flagship event which he held from 1998 to 2009.
He began the parties in New York’s exclusive Hamptons area with a strict all-white dress code, bringing together East Hampton’s old-money elite and the rising stars of hip hop.
Mr Combs once described the parties as a way to break down racial and generational barriers.
But the hottest party of the year was a “facade” that allowed “sinister” conduct, a recent lawsuit alleges.
In a lawsuit filed this week, a man – who was 16 years old at the time – described the thrill of getting to attend Mr Combs’s first “White Party” in 1998. Walking into the Hamptons mansion, he saw celebrities and entertainment executives left and right. In the lawsuit, he said he hoped the party may open doors to a music career.
He said he was on his way to the bathroom when he ran into the rapper. They started talking and then walked to another, more secluded spot. That’s when Mr Combs suggested the adolescent had the correct “look” and he could transform anyone into a star, the lawsuit alleges.
Then things took a turn. Mr Combs unexpectedly ordered the then-teenage child to drop his pants so that Mr Combs could examine and touch him, the lawsuit states.
Mr. Combs claimed it was “the route to becoming a star” and “a rite of passage,” according to the lawsuit. Additionally, it states that he asked the teenager, “Don’t you want to break into the business?” and claimed that it was a means for him to establish his worth.
The parties are at the center of at least two other cases.
After working at several White Party events, Adria English, a former adult film actress, said she was “groomed into sex trafficking over time” because the wine she consumed was allegedly tainted with narcotics. This week, a guy filed an anonymous complaint alleging that a 2006 White Party occurred. In the case, he claimed that Mr. Combs had assaulted him while he was working security at the event, where there were supposedly drug-laced drinks.
The music entrepreneur has been accused of sexual extortion, rape, and assault in over a dozen civil actions. Both men and women allege in these lawsuits that Mr. Combs or members of his entourage pushed them into having sex. Others claim that they complied because Mr. Combs’s influence in the entertainment industry frightened them. Some spoke of having their opportunities or careers ruined because they refused to give in to Mr. Combs’s demands.
“Clear attempts to garner publicity” is how Mr. Combs’ legal team has described the lawsuits. A representative for the rapper informed BBC News that accusations of misconduct at his well-known parties were baseless in response to this story.
“Sean Combs’ white parties and other events were iconic, a true convergence of hip-hop, Hollywood, and Black excellence,” the statement continues.
“Watching the media and social pundits distort these cultural events into something they weren’t is disheartening. It is just not true to disparage the celebrities who were present, remove images and videos from context, and attempt to connect these incidents to unfounded accusations.
In a lawsuit, singer Cassie, who had been dating the rapper intermittently since 2007, accused the mogul of controlling every part of her life, forcing her to use drugs excessively, having sex with other men, beating her for years, and threatening her and those in her social circle when she attempted to end the relationship.
The singer said in a lawsuit, which sparked a barrage of charges against the rapper, that she discovered Mr. Combs had a “tremendously loyal network” that would comply with his requests when they were dating.
According to the lawsuit, “she understood that she had no choice and that reporting Mr. Combs to the authorities would not change his status or influence but would only give him another reason to harm her.”
According to the lawsuit, Cassie, whose full name is Casandra Ventura, claimed that his record label threatened to “not release her single if she did not answer Mr. Combs’s phone calls” after she tried to leave him.
Mr. Combs’s attorneys refuted the accusations once more, claiming that he “has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”
“Spirit is infectious.”
Federal investigators seem to be focusing on so-called “Freak-off” events at hotel rooms, even though multiple complaints describe alleged sexual assaults at parties hosted at Mr. Combs’s hotels. In a 14-page indictment last month, the Department of Justice accused him of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr. Combs has been charged by prosecutors with filming sex activities at “Freak Offs,” which are defined by federal officials as multi-day sex parties.
According to the accusation, in order to record the orgies, Mr. Combs and his friends reserved hotel rooms and furnished them with ketamine, lubricant, extra bedding, and lighting.
According to court records, Mr. Combs allegedly “hit, kicked, and threw objects at victims” during the “Freak Offs,” causing injuries that occasionally took weeks to heal.
The indictment claims that participants were threatened and given medicines to keep them “obedient and compliant.” Prosecutors claim that those implicated would then receive intravenous fluids to help them recuperate.
Ms. Ventura’s complaint, which was filed in November 2023, over a year before he was indicted in New York, has explicit information on these so-called “Freak-Off” parties. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Combs would arrange these gatherings every week in hotels in New York and Los Angeles, bringing in prostitutes, providing substances including ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine, and pressuring the singer to engage in sexual acts.
When police raided Mr. Combs’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles, they found thousands of bottles of baby oil and lube, AR-15-style firearms, and magazines with a big capacity.
The controversy surrounding Mr. Combs’s career and his arrest have given campaigners and survivors of sexual assault hope that his case will lead to significant change in the music business.
Gloria Allred, a well-known attorney for women’s rights who has represented several women throughout the #MeToo movement, thinks that the music industry is finally seeing a “reckoning.”
She is defending Thalia Graves, who claims the artist drugged her and sexually assaulted her in 2001. She claimed that Mr. Combs intimidated her and that she remained silent out of concern that he would “ruin her life,” Allred added.
However, Ms. Allred told the BBC that she believes Diddy’s arrest will have a lasting impact.
She asserted that courage is infectious.
Additionally, attorneys and prosecutors for the expanding list of Mr. Combs’s accusers have alluded to additional ones.
The Southern District of New York’s US Attorney, Damian Williams, stated that Combs did not do this alone. “He got what he wanted by using his company, its employees, and other close associates.”
Authorities say the situation is still under investigation.
Mr. Combs repeatedly raised his palms to his heart in a prayer sign and mouthed the words “I love you” to his family as he exited his most recent court appearance wearing a beige prison jumpsuit.
Fans gathered on their tiptoes at the courtroom doors as the session came to a close in the hopes of seeing the rapper and showing their support.
For his former assistant, there is a tinge of irony in the current media frenzy surrounding the artist.
According to Mr. Shuter, “He wanted to become the most famous person in the world, and ironically, he is now.”
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