The disgraced hip-hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs lost another prestigious honor this week. The City of Miami will no longer celebrate “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Day” as the media mogul continues to face fallout from the release of a video showing him attacking his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura. The Miami Beach Commission voted Wednesday to revoke the proclamation that declares October 13 “Diddy Day” without discussion, according to The Miami Herald. Mayor Philip Levine presented the “Bad Boy 4 Life” singer with the honor during his third annual REVOLT Music Conference in the city in October 2016.
Combs owns a mansion in Miami, which along with his Los Angeles home, was raided by federal agents in March as he faces a federal investigation for connections to alleged sex trafficking. He has not been arrested or charged in those raids. On November 16, 2023, Ventura was the first of many women to file a lawsuit against Combs claiming sexual assault and trafficking. Ventura and Combs settled the lawsuit a day later, but the rapper’s lawyer emphasized the settlement was “not an admission of guilt.” The former couple dated on-and-off for a decade before finally splitting in 2018.
Combs has denied all accusations of wrongdoing but issued a public apology to fans in May after CNN released surveillance footage of him physically attacking Ventura at an LA hotel in March 2016. Due to the statute of limitations, Combs cannot be charged for the assault. “I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses,” Combs said in a video posted to Instagram before wiping his account last week. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
Ventura addressed the video on Instagram on May 23, writing, “Thank you for all of the love and support from my family, friends, strangers and those I have yet to meet.” “The outpouring of love has created a place for my younger self to settle and feel safe now, but this is only the beginning,” she added. Howard University subsequently stripped Combs of an honorary degree which he was awarded in 2014.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the school’s board of trustees said in a statement. “The University is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.” Combs, a Harlem native, also returned his key to New York City earlier this month at the request of Mayor Eric Adams.
“I strongly condemn these actions and stand in solidarity with all survivors of domestic and gender-based violence,” Adams wrote in a letter requesting the key be returned.
Following multiple sexual-assault allegations made against him, including a lawsuit from Cassie — his ex-girlfriend and a former signee of his label, Bad Boy Records — Sean “Diddy” Combs’s business empire continues to face the fallout. Combs and Cassie settled their case one day after filing, and he recently apologized for a video that shows him physically assaulting her. However, he previously denied the allegations in her lawsuit and in multiple subsequent other claims of sexual misconduct and illegal behavior. Multiple brands and businesses have still decided to distance themselves from him or fully cut ties. Below, here’s what Diddy has either left or been dropped from, including the latest to go: Miami Beach.
The public, tuition-free charter school co-founded by Diddy cut ties with him in November 2023. “Following a comprehensive evaluation, a decision has been made to end the partnership between Capital Preparatory Schools and Sean Combs,” co-founder and head of schools Dr. Steve Perry said in a statement. “While this decision was not made lightly, we firmly believe it is in the best interest of our organization’s health and future.”
At least eighteen companies have distanced themselves from Diddy’s recently launched e-commerce website Empower Global, a marketplace for Black-owned businesses, Rolling Stone confirmed on December 10, 2023. The site functions like Amazon: Sellers pay a $35 monthly subscription to operate on the platform. Of the 160 companies contacted, five said they are monitoring the allegations before making a decision to drop the site, the outlet reported. Nine said they had no firm plans to leave. Some companies who fully dropped Empower Global said the allegations, taken together with the platform’s poor performance, influenced their decision to leave. “We enjoyed working with the team, but have not seen meaningful sales, so we were already planning to terminate our relationship at the end of this year,” Rebecca Allen, founder of the eponymous brand, said. “These harrowing allegations have expedited our decision.”
Annette Njau, founder of luxury company House of Takura, said they decided to leave Empower “the day that Casandra Ventura filed her lawsuit,” she told Rolling Stone. “We take the allegations against Mr. Combs very seriously and find such behavior abhorrent and intolerable. We believe in victims’ rights, and support victims in speaking their truth, even against the most powerful of people.” Diddy announced the venture in 2021 under the umbrella of Combs Global, a company operating a portfolio of media, fashion, and e-commerce companies.
Per Variety, Hulu scrapped a reality series centered on Diddy and his seven children in the wake of the lawsuits against Diddy in December 2023. James Corden’s production company, Fulwell 73, had reportedly been set to produce the show, which had the working title Diddy+7.
In January, Bloomberg reported that Salxco, which previously managed Diddy as an artist, no longer listed him as a client on its website. As of publication time, Diddy remains absent from Salxco’s list of artists.
On March 26, a day after Diddy’s Los Angeles and Miami homes were raided by federal agents, TMZ reported that Diddy has sold all his shares of Revolt TV to an anonymous new owner. The record executive and businessman previously stepped down as chairman of the TV network in November. TMZ reported at the time that the move was temporary. “Sean Combs has stepped down from his position as Chairman of REVOLT,” the Instagram statement from the network read. “While Mr. Combs has previously had no operational or day-to-day role in the business, this decision helps to ensure that REVOLT remains steadfastly focused on our mission to create meaningful content for the culture and amplify the voices of all Black people throughout this country and the African diaspora.” Combs has been with the network since 2013. It added, “Our focus has always been one that reflects our commitment to the collective journey of REVOLT — one that is not driven by any individual, but by the shared efforts and values of our entire team on behalf of advancing, elevating and championing our culture — and that continues.”
On June 4, news broke that Diddy had sold his majority stake in Revolt, making a coalition of its employees and chief executive the new owners.
Peloton is pressing pause on Diddy’s music. CNN reported that the exercise company confirmed via a May 20 reply to a post in a private Facebook group for customers. “We take this issue very seriously and can confirm Peloton has paused the use of Sean Combs’ music, as well as removed the Bad Boy Entertainment Artist Series, on our platform,” the comment reads, per a screenshot obtained by People. “This means our Instructors are no longer using his music in any newly produced classes. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns and for being a member of our Peloton community.”
On June 7, Howard University’s board of trustees unanimously voted to revoke the 2014 honorary degree conferred upon Diddy, who attended the school from 1987 to 1989. “Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the university said in a statement, adding that it will also get rid of a scholarship that was established in his name in 2016 and return his $1 million donation to the program. Howard is also canceling a 2023 pledge agreement with the Sean Combs Foundation, though it said no money will be returned since no payments had been made yet.
The country’s most populous city has dropped Diddy, too. On June 10, the fallen mogul returned New York’s key to the city at Mayor Eric Adams’s request following the release of footage of Diddy assaulting Cassie, per NBC News. Earlier this month, Adams sent a letter to a PR representative for the hip-hop star, writing he was “deeply disturbed” by the assault video. “I strongly condemn these actions and stand in solidarity with all survivors of domestic and gender-based violence,” Adams wrote. “Our city has worked tirelessly to make sure survivors are heard and seen by our administration.” The mayor awarded Diddy the key last September.
Another city wants out. Per The Miami Herald, there is no longer a “Sean Diddy Combs Day” in Miami Beach, Florida. In 2016, then-mayor Philip Levine proclaimed at the Revolt Music Conference that October 13 would be a day recognizing Diddy. The rapper has long had ties to the city, where he owns a mansion. But on June 26, the Miami Beach Commission revoked the proclamation, stating in a resolution that “upon reflection, the Mayor and City Commission have determined that recognizing October 13, 2016 as ’Sean Diddy Combs Day’ is no longer in harmony with the City’s values of safety, community well-being, and respect, and wish to rescind the proclamation.” The decision was reportedly made without any debate.
With a violent 2016 surveillance video made public on Friday showing rapper-mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs kicking, dragging, and throwing an object at his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the hallways of a luxury hotel, the public reckoning facing Diddy is reaching a new boiling point. The graphic video, obtained and published by CNN, seemed to confirm some details alleged in Ventura’s November lawsuit against Combs. According to CNN, the footage was filmed on March 5, 2016, at a now-shuttered InterContinental hotel in Los Angeles. The tape shows Ventura, a singer who performs under the name Cassie, walking down a hallway toward elevators, and Combs running after her in a towel. He throws her to the ground and repeatedly kicks her, and then attempts to drag her down the hallway, presumably back to their room, though she frees herself. Later, he throws a vase at Ventura.
On Sunday, Combs posted a minute-long apology on Instagram acknowledging that it was him captured on the footage. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” he said. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it, and I’m disgusted now.” He said he sought therapy and rehab but did not mention Ventura specifically. In her lawsuit, Ventura, who dated Combs and was signed to his label, alleged that he abused her, urged her to have sex with male sex workers while he filmed, and that he later raped her. That lawsuit included allegations of a 2016 incident at the InterContinental hotel.
In a statement at the time of the suit, Combs’s attorney responded that, “Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday.” But the publication of the video this week, and Combs’s subsequent apology, adds a layer of corroboration to at least some of the accusations made against the rapper.
Meredith Firetog, a partner in the firm Wigdor LLP, which represents Ventura, responded to Diddy’s apology video this weekend in a statement that read, in part: “Combs’ most recent statement is more about himself than the many people he has hurt … That he was only compelled to ‘apologize’ once his repeated denials were proven false shows his pathetic desperation, and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words.” Ventura’s case, settled one day after it was filed, set off a torrent of similar lawsuits, several of which include brutal and disturbing details. Plaintiffs state that Diddy — whose birth name is Sean Combs and who has also publicly gone by Puff Daddy, Puffy, and Love — raped them and, in some cases, trafficked them by coercing them to engage in sex with other men. Together, the cases have redirected public attention toward longstanding allegations of violence against Combs, leading some brands to cut ties with him and Hulu to scrap his upcoming reality show. Speculation around the accusations escalated as homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach linked to Diddy were raided by federal authorities, who revealed that the raids were linked to an ongoing investigation into sex trafficking allegations.
Combs has denied the allegations, saying in a December statement, “I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Especially in the 1990s and 2000s, Diddy was a figure of enormous power, not just in hip-hop but in the business and entertainment worlds writ large. In recent months, however, multiple people have sued him, saying he used that influence and wealth to sexually victimize and, in some cases, traffic them, while avoiding consequences for decades. The cases have captured the public’s attention in part because Combs was such an influential executive and gatekeeper in music and fashion, yet one who had long been the subject of allegations of violence, including arrests. They are among the first major allegations in years against a major figure in the music industry, which many feel has failed to reckon with abuses of power, even at the height of the Me Too movement. Combs is just one of many powerful men who have evaded scrutiny but whose alleged past conduct is being revisited with fresh and more critical eyes — in some cases thanks to the landmark New York laws that have allowed people alleging sexual abuse to file civil lawsuits past the time period specified by the statute of limitations.
Indeed, Combs is now drawing comparisons to R. Kelly, with frequent critic 50 Cent announcing that he will produce a series about Combs in the style of the bombshell docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, with the proceeds going to assault survivors. Dream Hampton, producer of Surviving R. Kelly, told the Times late last year that an accounting was arriving for the Bad Boy founder. “Puff is done,” she said. The suits against Combs also show that despite recent backlash, the Me Too movement and the legal and cultural changes that came with it have had an enduring impact. Even if allegations of sexual assault and harassment do not make daily headlines the way they did in 2017, the reckoning is ongoing — and no industry is likely to remain immune forever.
Source: The Miami Herald, Rolling Stone, Variety, Bloomberg, CNN, NBC News
