Sean “Diddy” Combs scored a significant authorized victory this week as he managed to keep away from essentially the most critical of the intercourse trafficking and racketeering allegations in his felony trial, leaving these within the music enterprise questioning how an business with a notoriously murky previous in dealing with abusive conduct goes to maneuver ahead.
“I’m uninterested in dwelling in a world the place cash, energy, misogyny and patriarchy continues to win,” Tiffany Purple, a prominent music industry advocate and an in depth buddy of Cassie Ventura’s wrote on Instagram after the decision went out Wednesday.
The probabilities of Combs’ picture itself being considerably rehabilitated appears slim, provided that violent, abusive conduct was caught on digital camera and aired to hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe. And Combs nonetheless faces a litany of civil fits that can proceed to comply with him for the foreseeable future. No matter profession he has to return to comes with a big asterisk.
It’s early to know what, if any alternative would even be doable for Combs sooner or later. Combs confronted weeks of brutal testimony from witnesses together with Ventura and Child Cudi, and his acquittal got here from what observers are calling an overreach from the prosecution on his expenses. He was denied bail on Wednesday, maintaining him jailed by means of his sentencing in October. And his two transportation to interact in prostitution convictions may carry a most 20-year sentence, although it’s unclear what his official size of punishment shall be.
Jail time apart, Combs seemingly won’t ever maintain any of the identical mainstream attraction or success he had earlier than the allegations surfaced. But when there’s a enterprise the place besmirched picture could not disqualify you from some degree of return, insiders say, it’d be music. Regardless of years of tried cultural shifts within the submit #MeToo period, the concern of retaliation over these points nonetheless looms giant within the music enterprise. Seven completely different executives who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter for this text all requested anonymity citing concern of retaliation or a want to guard their relationships within the business.
“He’s a monster. And the fact is the music industrial advanced has protected him for many years,” says one music entrepreneur who spent a few years within the main label system.
Provides one longtime communications government who has labored with a number of main leisure corporations: “The music business is lawless, and other people have very brief recollections,” she says. “Artists are given license. Rock and roll has all the time been a grimy sport, it’s all the time been intercourse, medicine and rock and roll. You’ve all the time had dangerous boys and dangerous conduct. It was glorified, it wasn’t punished. It’s constructed into the roots of the enterprise.”
Certainly the music enterprise, maybe much more than the broader leisure business, has a spotty historical past with the way it handles controversies amongst its stars and high-powered executives. Whereas the industrial outcomes range, there’s few artists who’ve been utterly blacklisted from the enterprise following allegations of abuse or dangerous conduct .
Chris Brown pled responsible to assaulting ex-girlfriend Rihanna again in 2009, an notorious case that tarnishes Brown’s status to today. And regardless of quite a few felony and civil allegations of violent conduct — together with an arrest in England again in Might over an incident the place he hit a producer over the pinnacle with a tequila bottle — he stays one of the in style artists within the enterprise, releasing eight main label albums since then (all of which have debuted within the top-10) and at the moment promoting out stadiums in his ongoing tour.
After CAA dropped Kanye West as a shopper following the controversial rapper’s first antisemitic meltdown in 2022, he managed to seek out new illustration for bookings with 33 & West earlier than that reserving company determined to drop him earlier this 12 months when he began saying his hateful remarks once more.
Seven ladies — together with indie celebrity Phoebe Bridgers — got here ahead to the New York Instances in 2019 about allegations of retaliation towards Ryan Adams in the event that they spurned his sexual advances, with the singer denying the allegations on the time and issuing an apology in 2020. Adams is definitely much less in style now, although he’s nonetheless securing tour dates, together with at an upcoming present at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium in August.
“Who are you able to level to within the business who has truly been banished for his or her conduct,” the communications government asks. “Russell Simmons nonetheless goes out to music business occasions warmly greeted by his friends. Chris Brown is promoting out arenas, Marilyn Manson continues to be enjoying reveals. There’s R. Kelly possibly, but it surely solely occurred after he was put in jail.”
The communications government says Combs shall be a “pariah” for the foreseeable future, and he or she doesn’t anticipate he’ll meaningfully come again as an artist or producer, however provides she believes the business “will conveniently come again in the event that they suppose he could make them cash.”
“I’ve no religion that in my profession there’s going to be one other #MeToo motion, I believe it’s over,” the manager says. “What else wouldn’t it take?”
One other outstanding document label founder, who mentioned he’s “all the time had superb dealings with Puffy” says he doubts Combs may reestablish a profession in branding like he had with Diageo, however he hadn’t dominated Combs’ possibilities with a music firm.
“Will he have a profession after this? Undecided. I assume it’s important to decide what the jail size is,” the label head says. “I believe he’s gonna be kind of persona non grata for a number of years however then, if you happen to can present hits and discover expertise, it’s the document enterprise. That’s honest sport, all’s honest in love and battle. I might by no means depend him out, however he’s definitely not going to be embraced for a minimum of the foreseeable future.”
A number of others aren’t so assured.
“I don’t suppose the court docket of public opinion shall be forgiving,” Dr. Ann Olivarius, a outstanding legal professional centered on sexual harassment and ladies’s rights, mentioned in a press release Wednesday. “The harm to Diddy’s status is actual, and demonstrates that the world is watching and survivors matter even when their abusers are highly effective.”
One feminine music government mentioned that whereas Combs “can hold placing out music, [having] a profession with a caring viewers, he received’t have that anymore.”
“And also you shouldn’t have that anymore,” she says. “Will you actually have admiration, superfans and love? I don’t suppose so. However crazier issues have occurred, take a look at Michael Jackson. I don’t know if folks will stream [Diddy]. However new music, I’m certain he’ll have a narrative to inform.”
One hip-hop and R&B government says Combs was “over the hill” in his recognition earlier than the allegations started to floor. That coupled with the grotesque video will hold him out of any relevancy going ahead, he says.
“The place do you go after you have got a video that comes out of you beating your girlfriend on a lodge flooring in entrance of an elevator,” the A&R says. “Chris Brown was a lot youthful, and individuals are quickly to overlook. I don’t know the place he goes from right here. Hopefully he has to remain in jail for a number of years a minimum of. As a result of if he doesn’t, I really feel prefer it’s nearly going to be proper again to the place it was. He could be extra cautious about it, proper? However he’s nonetheless gonna be that man.”
Nonetheless the courts rule for Combs’ eventual sentencing, many within the enterprise see the Combs case as only one subject that displays wider systemic points in business. How that’s been dealt with so far hasn’t impressed a lot confidence.
“Far too many individuals are responsible of corruption and abuse within the music business,” Purple wrote on Wednesday, “however only a few are uncovered, and nearly none are held accountable.”