Top line
Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested on Monday and pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges including sex trafficking and organized crime. He will remain in custody pending trial, sparking a series of harsh reactions from rapper and longtime critic 50 Cent and other celebrities in the hip-hop and R&B scene.
Combs was arrested on Monday. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Key data
Combs was charged with conspiracy to commit organized crime, sex trafficking by force, coercion or duress and transportation for the purpose of prostitution. Prosecutors accuse him of physical abuse, coercion and obstruction of justice when he organized sex parties he called “freak offs.”
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, tweeted a photo of himself and actor Drew Barrymore with the caption, “Here I am in good company with (Barrymore) and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube in the house,” referring to investigators’ findings when they searched Combs’ homes in March, where police seized more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lube, according to Combs’ indictment.
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God said in a Monday segment of the “Breakfast Club” that if Combs is convicted of organized crime and sex trafficking, “others will be involved” and they will “probably go to prison.”
Singer Audrey O’Day, who has been outspoken about Combs, said Monday she felt “vindicated” by the rapper’s arrest, adding in her tweet that she “chose to speak to people who can advance justice in the way I have had to experience.”
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50 Cent’s years-long feud with Combs
50 Cent has long criticized Combs in the lead-up to his indictment. In May, 50 Cent re-shared a post from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office condemning a video showing Combs attacking his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. The attack occurred after the statute of limitations had expired, prompting 50 Cent to say prosecutors released the video because they knew “they can’t charge him for what we saw, but they know we can’t (unseen) it.”
what we saw.” 50 Cent also commented on the raids on Combs’ apartments, tweeting, “That’s not how they come unless they have a case.” 50 Cent released a diss track against Combs in 2006 and announced last year that his production company would produce a documentary about the numerous allegations against Combs, titled “Diddy Do It?”
tangent
O’Day is a former member of the R&B girl group Danity Kane, which was signed to Combs’ record label Bad Boy Records in 2005.
Important background
Combs was denied bail on Tuesday and will remain in federal custody pending trial on the three charges, which carry a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison. Prosecutors accuse Combs of “verbal, emotional, sexual and physical abuse” and of manipulating women into “extensive sexual acts with male sex workers.” The charges against Combs follow months of allegations against the rapper from women accusing him of rape, sexual assault and abuse dating back several years. The allegations, made primarily between late last year and this summer, have been denied by Combs’ lawyers, who told Forbes some of the claims against the rapper are money-making, “baseless” or “disgusting.”
More information
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail after pleading not guilty (Forbes)
Sean “Diddy” Combs arrested on organized crime and sex trafficking charges: A complete timeline of the charges against him (Forbes)
