Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges including sex trafficking and racketeering and will remain in custody until his trial, provoking a range of sharp reactions from rapper and longtime critic 50 Cent, and other celebrities in the hip-hop and R&B communities.
Combs was indicted on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, cause or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution, with prosecutors alleging he engaged in physical abuse, coercion and obstruction of justice when organizing sex parties he described as “Freak Offs.”
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, tweeted a photo of him and actor Drew Barrymore captioned, “Here I am keeping good company with [Barrymore] and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house,” referencing investigators’ findings while they searched Combs’ homes in March, when law enforcement recovered more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to Combs’ indictment.
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God said during a Monday segment on “The Breakfast Club” if Combs is convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking “there will be others involved” who will be “probably going to jail.”
Singer Audrey O’Day, who has been outspoken about Combs, said Monday she felt “validated” after the rapper’s arrest, following up the tweet by saying she “chose to speak to people who could move justice in the way I needed to see it.”
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50 Cent has long criticized Combs in the leadup to his indictment. In May, 50 Cent reshared a post from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office condemning a video showing Combs assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. The attack took place beyond the statute of limitations, provoking 50 Cent to say the office released the video knowing “they can’t charge him with what we saw, but they know we can’t [unsee]
what we saw.” 50 Cent also chimed in on the raids conducted on Combs’ residences, saying in a tweet “they don’t come like that unless they got a case.” 50 Cent put out a diss track against Combs in 2006 and announced last year 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 R&B girl group Danity Kane, which was signed to Combs’ record label, Bad Boy Records, in 2005.
Key Background
Combs was denied bail Tuesday and will remain in federal custody until his trial over the three charges, which carry a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors accused Combs of engaging in “verbal, emotional, sexual and physical abuse” and manipulating women into engaging in “extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers.” The charges against Combs follow months-worth of allegations made by women against the rapper accusing him of rape, sexual assault and abuse dating back several years. The allegations, which mainly materialized from late last year to this summer, were denied by Combs’ attorneys, who told Forbes some of the lawsuits against the rapper were money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”
