What the Diddy allegations mean for the music industry

Sean (Diddy) Combs has been charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and a number of sexual crimes.

The allegations include coercing and abusing women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to ensure obedience and silence from victims. He pleaded not guilty to all charges last week, and has been denied release on bail while he awaits trial.

Today on Commotion, culture critics Kathleen Newman-Bremang and David Dennis Jr. join guest host Ali Hassan to react to the latest news around Diddy's case, and the response from the hip-hop community.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Ali: Kathleen, tell me what your reaction is to where we are at with this case.

Kathleen: First and foremost, I think of Cassie Ventura. I think of Dawn Richard, of Liza Gardner, Rodney Jones, Thalia Graves and all of the other survivors and victims of Diddy's alleged abuse who have come forward. I hope that they are just being covered in love and support, as I can imagine this is all very triggering and retraumatizing for them. And I think it's a good thing that Diddy is sitting in jail right now. I think that he might finally potentially face consequences for the actions he is being accused of.

But watching this all unfold, I have felt relief to see people seeming to actually believe the accusers for the most part, and not trying to defend him just because he's rich and powerful and made some songs we all liked during our formative years. That said, I'm also watching the internet, as you mentioned, devolve into conspiracy theories and a lot of misinformation floating around, which is just wild and unsettling. And I don't think any of that serves the survivors who, again, I think should be centered in all of this.

Ali: David, the number of artists and celebrities that are implicated in this is huge, and they're implicated because they attended a Diddy White Party — Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-Z. We're also seeing names like Mary J. Blige, Salman Rushdie.

There's also been a huge wave of online conspiracy theories, about who knew what and who might have also been involved. What do you make of that aspect of the story?

David: This is a very slippery slope and a very dangerous thing that we're doing on the internet. There's this idea that Diddy was, like, sending Eventbrites to people to commit these crimes and be a part of these things, and everybody who was there was part of it. But that is how you create an empire that's based on your image being one way, and doing something in the dark: you associate yourself with all of these A-listers and all of these people, you can't possibly be doing anything wrong…. And so there is a thing that we need to distinguish here. I'm sure that Diddy threw parties that were just fun parties. And then Diddy probably also did all the things that he was accused of. The internet is doing this thing where we are seeing somebody in his presence and saying, they must have been in on it. They must've been a part of it. But in order to get away with this sort of stuff for as long as you do, you have to be calculated. You have to be careful. You have to be somebody who knows how to manipulate different situations.

I think part of this, also, is that we're comparing it to an R. Kelly situation, where his was very out in the open. It was a well-understood thing that a lot of people knew, that people just didn't speak about, where he was doing things in public. He was publicly married to Aaliyah, and all of this stuff. Whereas you look at somebody like Diddy, there are a lot of people who are genuinely taken aback and surprised by what is going on here because of the fact that he seemed to be a little bit more careful, and the White Party was part of the infrastructure that allowed him to continue to create this facade of innocence while doing a terrible thing.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Ty Callender.