Earlier this month, the world was shocked by the arrest of one of the vital profitable music moguls within the historical past of rap, Sean “Diddy” Combs, at a Manhattan resort on fees starting from intercourse trafficking and aiding within the transportation for prostitution to racketeering.
The 55-year-old rapper’s arrest and subsequent indictment had been the results of a ten-month investigation that started after a number of girls publicly accused him of sexual misconduct and different types of abuse.
In November 2023, American singer Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit in opposition to Combs claiming he had repeatedly raped her, subjected her to bodily and psychological abuse, utterly managed her life and demanded she carry a firearm for him in her purse throughout their over-a-decade-long relationship. She additionally alleged that he compelled her to take medication and interact in sexual relations with a collection of male intercourse employees in what she described as “freak-offs” – staged, drug-fuelled sexual encounters involving numerous those that at instances lasted a number of days and had been recorded by Combs.
Combs denied the astounding allegations however settled the cost simply sooner or later later. Extra lawsuits in opposition to him quickly adopted, nevertheless, together with one from a girl who accused him of “intercourse trafficking” and “gang raping” her, again in 2003, when she was simply 17 years previous.
4 months earlier than his arrest, CNN broadcast a surveillance video recorded at a California resort in 2016, which confirmed him violently seize, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Ventura throughout an altercation.
Combs instantly printed an apology, however because the lawsuits continued to mount, accompanied by more and more troubling and horrific allegations, he underwent a dramatic fall, echoing the destiny of one other well-known determine within the leisure sector, disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Forbes Journal has estimated Combs’s internet price at $740m, a testomony to his profitable pursuits in music, vogue, tv, and the alcohol business. But, regardless of his different successes, his title is completely linked to 1 particular space: hip-hop.
Diddy undoubtedly exemplifies the archetype of a hip-hop impresario. In 1993, he launched Unhealthy Boy Data, a music imprint that got here to characterize many business legends and in style music stars, together with Infamous B.I.G., 112, Religion Evans, The Lox, Ma$e, French Montana, Janelle Monae, and Machine Gun Kelly. Underneath his stewardship, the label achieved extraordinary milestones, together with gross sales exceeding 500 million information, the manufacturing of 38 platinum singles, and a number of Grammy Awards. Moreover, all through his profession within the music business, Diddy has been recognised with numerous honours, together with a World Icon Award from MTV as lately as September 2023. Throughout the similar month, New York Mayor Eric Adams awarded him a key to town in a proper ceremony in Instances Sq. for his “alleged service to the general public and the widespread good”. This accolade got here 9 years after Howard College honoured him with an honorary Physician of Humanities diploma and established a scholarship program in his title in Could 2014. However, each town and the college subsequently revoked these distinctions following the airing of the Ventura assault video.
Precisely assessing Combs’s affect on hip-hop is a difficult endeavour, as it’s tough to disentangle his successes and notable failures from the style itself. In some ways, nevertheless, his life and conduct, as one of many greatest stars of the style, seem to function a stark illustration of hip-hop’s inherent tendency to endorse and exalt sexual violence in opposition to girls.
Rising within the Nineteen Seventies, hip-hop developed as a cultural motion within the African American communities of the South Bronx, New York Metropolis. By the early Nineteen Eighties, it had gained vital mainstream reputation, with artists like Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy attaining worldwide success. Though the style was primarily male-oriented, the rise of feminine rappers equivalent to Roxanne Shante, Queen Latifah, and MC Lyte quickly allowed it to broaden its illustration throughout genders.
With time, hip-hop got here to characterize way over simply an revolutionary and vibrant type of creative expression. It functioned as a big medium for important commentary on the adversities encountered in inner-city life, expressing deep-seated frustrations concerning gang violence, unemployment, systemic racism, social marginalisation, gun-related points, drug issues, and police brutality affecting African American communities.
Groundbreaking songs equivalent to NWA’s “F… The Police” and Public Enemy’s “Combat The Energy” turned world sensations, as they struck a chord with audiences exterior the US who additionally expertise the oppressive nature of white supremacist violence. In its adolescence, hip-hop was characterised by a profound consciousness of Black and African id, articulating the need for social reform and justice by way of its lyrics. However, it additionally had a disturbing facet, rooted in sexual violence and overt misogyny, from the very starting.
In rap, girls are generally known as “bitches”. Distinguished examples of tracks that insult girls embody NWA’s “A Bitch Iz a Bitch,” which claims “all girls have a bit of bitch in ’em – It’s like a illness that plagues their character.” Snoop Dogg, the well-known rapper who only a few months in the past served as America’s chief cheerleader on the Paris Olympics, has a track titled “Ain’t No Enjoyable (If the Homies Can’t Have None),” which may solely be interpreted as a four-minute celebration of gang rape. Likewise, the Marshall Mathers LP – the third and most profitable studio album of hip-hop famous person Eminem – contains a vital quantity of overt, violent misogyny.
One other business heavyweight, Dr Dre, has additionally confronted accusations of misogyny and violence in opposition to girls all through his profession. In 2015, he confronted a lot scrutiny for his previous conduct, and his resolution to exclude the ladies he’s recognized to have abused from his biopic Straight Outta Compton, that he issued an announcement in The New York Instances, apologising to the “girls he harm” previously. The apology, nevertheless, was not accepted.
A yr later, Lifetime launched Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel’le, based mostly on the true life story of R&B singer Michel’le. The movie depicts Dr Dre as a violent and abusive man, who assaulted his then companion Michel’le to such an extent that she required corrective surgical procedure. Dre by no means challenged the accusation that he recurrently beat Michel’le throughout their relationship.
Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Data, has additionally confronted a large number of sexual assault and rape allegations.
So Combs is, certainly, not an exception within the hip-hop panorama. When Diddy is dropped at trial, the hip-hop business will inevitably additionally bear an examination. In probably the most shameful circumstances, it will likely be compelled to replicate on its inherent misogyny.
This can be the one good factor that comes out of Sean Combs’s crimes in opposition to girls. Certainly, the business should urgently confront its unsettling evolution from a revered artwork type giving voice to the struggles inside Black city communities right into a money-making car fraught with sexual exploitation and violence. It is usually important to analyse how a motion rooted in a need to provide a voice to and higher the lives of inner-city African Americn communities has ultimately morphed into an outlet for insulting and attacking girls, particularly Black girls. This can be a pivotal second to scrutinise the underlying motivations for the substantial monetary investments poured into the industrial degradation of all girls.
Eminem, Dr Dre, and Snoop Dogg’s continued success expose the hip-hop business’s continued inclination to assist male violence in opposition to girls. It must be questioned how and why ballads of misogyny and hate created by the likes of Snoop Dogg and Diddy have develop into the business normal whereas tracks that emphasise social consciousness, like these by Public Enemy, have been marginalised. This method has been an ethical catastrophe, however financially advantageous, because the Recording Trade Affiliation of America (RIAA) reported that hip-hop generated $15.9bn in 2022 from music streaming and gross sales.
In 2017, the arrest of Harvey Weinstein underscored the systemic nature of sexual exploitation and marginalisation that girls face within the movie business. Sadly, hip-hop is grappling with an identical problem. To make certain, the abusive depictions of girls are predominantly the end result of an business that has lengthy deviated from moral requirements and displayed super reluctance to interact in significant self-reflection or change.
It is very important recognise that sexual violence and misogyny in society will not be merely outcomes of hip-hop; nonetheless, hip-hop has a accountability to assist the event of inclusive, progressive, and non-violent views in the direction of girls.
It takes a whole business to develop a person like Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
