We are less than two weeks away from Diddy's sentencing date for his federal conviction, the partial ending to his massive misconduct scandal. While the court found him guilty on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution, they acquitted him on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. That's not taking into account the mountain of ongoing, settled, or since-dropped civil lawsuits against Sean Combs, alleging sexual assault, sex trafficking, physical and emotional abuse, and many more accusations. We learned of many of these confirmed horrors during the trial; even more horrifying allegations remain unconfirmed. Yet despite proof of the crimes the Bad Boy mogul did commit, many folks in hip-hop continue to support him.
Of course, this doesn't manifest as a very visible, endorsed, or in-sync movement; most celebrities won't touch this with a ten-foot publicist. A majority of famous rap figures who did speak on this condemned Diddy's actions. In fact, witnesses during the trial included Kid Cudi himself. But there are still some high-profile artists who, whether consistently or sporadically, threw their platforms behind Sean Combs to varying degrees. Some are simple. Others are overbearing. Nevertheless, all of them risk obfuscating this behavior and selfishly perpetuating its real consequences.
In addition, hip-hop media itself is also experiencing some debate. Funk Flex supported Puff in the wake of the verdict, and Wack 100 thinks his career will be just fine. But Wack and folks like DJ Akademiks, for example, don't necessarily excuse his actions, but rather question and sometimes diminish the narratives against him. Yet, it's done in a way that leads to a lot of hate and unreasonable doubt. These artists, on the other hand, rarely leave any room for nuance.
Jay Electronica
The most recent supporter on this list is Jay Electronica, a longtime friend and collaborator of Sean Combs. He was previously spotted supporting his colleague in July, walking his dogs outside of the Manhattan federal courthouse where Diddy faced trial. But the New Orleans lyricist's new A Written Testimony albums, Leaflets and Power At The Rate Of My Dreams, contain more fleshed-out defenses.
On the former, Combs provides an introductory narration, ironically saying that hip-hop is in "a dangerous place." Then, on the track "Four Billion, Four Hundred Million," Jay Electronica raps about him and Cassie. "I was living with Puff and Cass, and never showed up in the affidavit / I'm a smoother criminal than Michael Jackson maybe."
On the other hand, PATROMD outright blasts the persecution of Combs on the track "Blood Libel. Who's That Lying On God?" "They tried to hang my n***a Love high up on the cross / Like Jigga said, they either repo your vehicle / Or you get hit unjustly with a RICO / When s**t was all good just a week ago / Slander your name on the worldwide stage."
These remarks point to conspiracy theories around larger powers using Diddy as a scapegoat and unjustly punishing him. While the RICO charges fell through, Jay Elec's bars display a nuanced but dangerous disconnect between the initial condemnation of Puffy's confirmed crimes and the mixed verdict. Assessments like these excuse personal crimes just because they don't reach the severity of the most extreme accusations, and tie real details up with tinfoil hats.
Cash Cobain
This is a far more casual example of the support behind Diddy, but it still represents an easy way for folks to forget about the seriousness of these accusations and convictions. Cash Cobain once remarked on social media that he wants to go to the first party Sean Combs throws after he leaves jail, which caused a lot of debate. Some folks saw this as an innocent yearning for legendary events in the culture in the wake of the acquittals on more serious charges.
But others were quick to remind folks of the alleged and confirmed crimes and activities that went down at these parties. Sure, some of these folks are just averse to any sexual or queer storylines on their timelines and are hyper-fixating on the wrong thing. But the New York rapper and producer's excitement over a potential Puff party is an example of how casually folks can dismiss everything about this case just because of a federal verdict. It weighs a lot, yes. Still, the questions around industry standards, imbalanced power dynamics, and the normalized, abusive tendencies of those in power are ones folks should at least have the common sense to respect, not throw out of the window for a good time. Even in jest.
Boosie Badazz
Boosie Badazz is an interesting case. For many fans, his initial condemnation of Diddy for physically assaulting Cassie contradicted his later attacks against the singer for allegedly trying to extort the Bad Boy mogul. Although this could simply reflect his belief that the federal case against Combs went too far, it eventually devolved into invalidating any sort of similar accusation from any woman who's been with a celebrity.
Whether it was accusing Cassie and her husband Alex Fine of plotting Puff's downfall or claiming that Yung Miami's relationship with him made all these accusers jealous, the Baton Rouge MC's defense of the executive strayed away from the actual facts of the case. Instead, it reflected his ever-present commentary in "gender wars"-adjacent spaces, using isolated interpretations and presumptions to paint the will of many women without empathy or understanding.
In Boosie's case, the defense of Diddy becomes more about what the accusations against him represent, and what the outcome of this accountability might say about either side of the story. It's not about the specific dynamics of the abusive relationships. And even when the court clears him of the worst allegations, folks are too quick to accept that as the only answer. Call it projection or preconceived animosity, but these staunch backings muddy the perception of this case by interpreting it through a much larger, more biased filter.
Ray J
Then there's Ray J, who has been so outspoken about his support of Diddy that he even got himself kicked out of a Kai Cenat livestream because of it. At first, he was condemning his abuse of Cassie and he even got into an altercation with Combs' kids as a result. But when folks like Nicki Minaj and even Puff's rival 50 Cent thought Ray was going too far, he apologized and changed his tune. But instead of just stepping away from the situation, he called the whole thing a "conspiracy" and went on to defend the Bad Boy mogul with Amber Rose, Chrisean Rock, and many more celebrities and platforms.
Since the singer often makes headlines for his antics, his change of heart here is something that many fans interpreted as a deliberate clout chase. That may be too dismissive or skeptical, but it's clear that it worked, even if unintentionally. This is another instance in which folks separate what we know about Cassie and the larger federal accusations, but it's one with many contradictions throughout.
As such, this reveals how these contradictions don't matter to the general public; only what the larger perception of an issue dictates at any given moment. As testimony after testimony followed, there was more and more media outcry in support of Puff because of the impending possibility of his jail time. Ray J is just one of the folks who dismissed all of his previous condemnations for the sake of questioning the most extreme allegations. All his other threats to expose the industry and actually address the issues that caused these circumstances just fell to the wayside.
Kanye West
Finally on this list, we have the most notable public example of a rapper supporting Diddy, probably because Kanye West is the biggest name to do so. This defense involves all of the previous narratives: industry conspiracy theories regarding Diageo, downplaying the testimonies of victims like Cassie and accusing them of extortion, normalizing abusive behavior, casually commenting on serious case aspects, and so on. On top of that, Ye released an EP with Bad Boy heir Christian "King" Combs, went to the trial, was a target of a few accusations against Combs, and more.
A few other rappers escaped mention on this list, and they have similar narratives. To be clear, we're not saying any of these folks should want Diddy in jail following his mixed verdict or must condemn him publicly and privately. The more dangerous risk that folks like the Yeezy provocateur represent is that, by speaking on the issue in the first place, they open their platforms to a host of viewers and Internet users who already carry intense hatred for the retribution of abuse survivors or indictments of the system.
Kanye West is probably the closest comparison to Sean Combs himself among the latter's supporters, mostly because of their scale. Pair that with Ye's tendency to sink folks to his level, and you have a horrifying and disheartening reality: power will always excuse peccancy. A famous figure's benefit of the doubt will allow a litany of crimes, as long as they don't hurt the system. Even if the federal trial was hypothetically a conspired attack and not a legally insufficient argument, those fully defending Diddy refuse to acknowledge the disgusting realities of the industry normalcies he perpetuated.
