Hip-hop is struggling to have its own ‘MeToo’ moment

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At some point in 2010, Sean “Diddy” Combs was within the kitchen of his Beverly Hills property together with his assistant Capricorn Clark. “Let me present you one thing,” he stated, summoning his girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, into the room.

Turning to her, he issued a string of instructions: “Sit down, get up, flip round, stroll over there, hand me that. Now return.” His girlfriend obeyed his each phrase.

“Did you see that?” stated Combs to his assistant. “You will not do this. That is why you do not have a person like me.”

This account, shared by Ms Clark in her testimony throughout Combs’ current eight-week trial, gave a glimpse into his dynamic together with his companion – and a way of what was taking place behind closed doorways.

Ms Ventura (also referred to as Cassie), an R&B singer who was beforehand signed to his document label, testified that all through their long-term relationship, Combs – who was 17 years her senior – beat her, blackmailed her and coerced her into drug-fuelled intercourse classes with escorts. He had, she continued, managed her life.

Central to the trial was the declare that Combs, 55, a multimillionaire music mogul as soon as credited with bringing rap into the mainstream, pressured his companions to interact in elaborate sexual performances, often called “freak-offs”, that he directed, typically filmed and organized with the assistance of his workers.

Final week, he was discovered responsible on two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution. He was acquitted on the extra critical fees of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking.

After the decision was introduced, Ms Ventura’s lawyer, Doug Wigdor, stated that by coming ahead, she had “introduced consideration to the realities of highly effective males in our orbit and the misconduct that has persevered for many years with out repercussion”.

However now, campaigners, survivors of sexual violence and insiders throughout the music trade are asking: Why did it take so lengthy to carry Combs accountable?

And, in gentle of Hollywood’s MeToo motion that uncovered and helped root out sexual harassment and abuse within the movie trade, and which started practically a decade in the past – is it now time that the music trade, or extra particularly, hip-hop, had a MeToo motion of its personal?

Cristalle Bowen is a rapper from Chicago who was a part of an all-female trio known as RapperChicks. “The Diddy trial solely highlights what many people already know,” she says, referring to the battle to carry highly effective individuals to account.

In 2022 she wrote a guide about misogyny within the trade. The tagline is: Navigating Hip-Hop and Relationships in a Tradition of Misogyny. “Being the token girls on labels and in crews leaves you prone to, on the very least, identify calling,” she claims. “On the most… you’ve got been abused indirectly.

“When there’s cash concerned, it turns into tough. From hush cash to stalled careers to the best way all of us see survivors handled… It is a troublesome process.”

Campaigners and trade insiders who spoke to the BBC say that sexual abuse and harassment exists throughout all genres within the music enterprise, not solely hip-hop. They level to a tradition of silence, the place they declare that predators are protected and victims threat being blacklisted, sued or fired.

Caroline Heldman, a tutorial and activist, agrees. She is co-founder of the US-based Sound Off Coalition, which advocates for the elimination of sexual violence in music, and argues that there’s a historical past of utilizing “threats to push out girls artists who’re targets of abuse by males”.

“The music trade has adopted a playbook for coping with sexual abuse that shields predators, together with musicians, producers, managers, executives, and different behind-the-scenes gamers, from legal responsibility,” she claims.

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) – authorized contracts that cease individuals from sharing sure agreed-upon personal info – are used legitimately within the trade, for instance to assist defend industrial secrets and techniques. However some argue that these are being misused and may contribute to a tradition of silence in instances of abuse.

“[It] makes for a really troublesome choice for lots of victims,” says Arick Fudali, a New York-based lawyer. One in all his purchasers is Daybreak Richard, a singer who testified in opposition to Combs on the federal trial and has an ongoing lawsuit in opposition to him.

“I’ve had purchasers who’ve declined that and chosen to file their lawsuit publicly,” he provides. “They’ll obtain much less cash than if that they had simply settled privately and confidentially.”

Ms Bowen argues that she has seen this occur first-hand. “Moguls write the cheques and artists want the cheques – there’s often no checks and balances when mogul cash is concerned.”

However, there could also be different causes for not talking out.

And in hip-hop particularly, some survivors of abuse and consultants we spoke to argue that this tradition of silence is exacerbated by the mixed forces of racism and misogyny, and a need to fiercely defend a style that has created uncommon avenues to stardom and monetary success.

Originating within the African-American and Latino communities of New York Metropolis within the Nineteen Seventies, hip-hop turned a mouthpiece for liberation and resistance in opposition to the authorities and social injustice.

“Hip-hop allowed younger black individuals to inform their very own tales on their very own phrases, it gave that era a voice,” explains Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African-American research at Duke College, notably when common tradition was providing a restricted portrayal of black America.

It is now essentially the most commercially profitable music style within the US, main in album gross sales and streaming numbers. “Rappers are the brand new rock stars,” says Thomas Hobbs, a author and co-host of a hip-hop podcast, Exit the 36 Chambers. “They’re the individuals now most certainly to fill arenas.”

As an artist and businessman who ran an empire that encompassed vogue, alcohol and TV in addition to his label, Unhealthy Boy Data, Combs – who has an estimated web price of about $400m (£293m) – has been championed not just for serving to hip-hop turn into commercially viable however for creating jobs and alternatives, notably for black males.

All through his profession he has been vocal about “black excellence” – platforming achievements – in addition to highlighting struggles throughout the black group.

This was one thing his authorized defence raised in courtroom, saying: “Sean Combs has turn into one thing that may be very, very laborious to be. Very laborious to be. He’s a self-made, profitable, black entrepreneur.”

Exterior courtroom throughout his trial, followers erupted in cheers after he was acquitted of the extra critical fees and onlookers debated aloud whether or not he had been unfairly focused. “In fact he was. He is a robust black man,” one stated.

For weeks, others had been carrying and promoting “Free Puff” T-shirts, after Combs’ 90s stage identify, subsequent to a speaker blaring out his music.

Sociologist Katheryn Russell-Brown has described a phenomenon she calls “black protectionism”.

“Those that have managed to acquire large-scale prosperity, regardless of authorized, political, financial, academic and social limitations, are given the standing of racial pioneers,” she wrote in her guide, Defending Our Personal: Race, Crime, and African People, which was impressed by the OJ Simpson case.

“It’s, due to this fact, predictable that black individuals as a gaggle are suspicious when felony fees are introduced in opposition to members of its elite, protected class.”

Black girls specifically carry the concern that talking out might reinforce dangerous stereotypes about their group, argues Treva Lindsey, a professor within the Ladies’s, Gender, and Sexuality Research Division at Ohio State College who researches misogyny in hip-hop.

“Once we painting hip-hop as uniquely sexist, or sexually violent, or dangerous, that has repercussions for black individuals of all genders,” she says.

And but throughout the leisure trade extra broadly, a retrospective focus is slowly taking place now, partly due to shifts in attitudes.

Latest modifications to regulation in some US states have additionally enabled individuals to take motion over alleged historic misconduct.

New York and California handed legal guidelines in 2022 known as the Grownup Survivors Act that for one-year solely allowed individuals to file sexual abuse claims, no matter when the alleged incidents came about.

Ms Ventura filed a lawsuit in opposition to Combs in November 2023, accusing him of bodily and sexual abuse. It was settled the next day, and Combs denied the claims.

He’s additionally going through greater than 60 civil instances from women and men accusing him of drugging or assault, spanning his complete three-decade profession.

In an announcement, Combs’ staff has stated: “Irrespective of what number of lawsuits are filed, it will not change the truth that Mr Combs has by no means sexually assaulted or intercourse trafficked anybody – man or girl, grownup or minor.”

There are a number of different hip-hop titans of the 90s and 00s who’ve been accused in a comparatively current wave of allegations.

Music govt and producer Antonio LA Reid, who labored with artists together with Usher, Kanye West (now often called Ye) and Rihanna, was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed in 2023. He denies all claims in opposition to him.

In the meantime, Russell Simmons, co-founder of hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, has confronted allegations of violent sexual behaviour by greater than 20 girls since 2017, all of which he has denied.

Drew Dixon, who’s former vice chairman of Artists and Repertoire (A&R) at Arista Data, is amongst them. She has claimed she was abused by each Mr Simmons and Mr Reid when she labored within the music trade within the Nineties and 2000s.

She informed The New York Instances: “You are not simply going up in opposition to the one who assaulted you,” she stated. “You’re going in opposition to everybody who advantages from their model and income stream.

“These forces will mobilise in opposition to any accuser. It is daunting.”

Sil Lai Abrams, who’s a author and gender violence activist, started working as an govt assistant on the Def Jam music label in 1992. She is likely one of the girls who accused Mr Simmons of sexual assault. He has denied all allegations.

“It is tougher for girls of color to talk out in opposition to abuse within the music trade,” she argues – one thing that she believes nonetheless applies immediately. “[Women have] been conditioned to see abuse of energy and sexual harassment as the worth one pays to work within the trade.”

Then there’s the query of the response from the general public if individuals do converse out. When Ms Ventura first filed her lawsuit in opposition to Combs, she confronted widespread abuse. Memes on social media accused her of being a gold-digger. Some within the hip-hop trade criticised her too.

“Stop attempting to reveal individuals for cash,” US rapper Slim Thug stated in a video shared together with his two million followers on Instagram in 2023.

Solely when CNN broadcast safety digicam footage relationship again to 2016 which confirmed Combs grabbing, dragging and kicking Ms Ventura within the hallway of a resort did the sentiment in the direction of her change.

Slim Thug publicly apologised for his feedback.

Combs responded in a video assertion posted on Instagram, saying: “My behaviour on that video is inexcusable. I take full accountability… I am dedicated to be a greater man each day… I am actually sorry.”

“Earlier than the video of Combs beating her got here out and other people could not deny the proof, individuals stated Cassie was a liar,” says Dr Nikki Lane, assistant professor in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Research at Duke College.

But Dr Lane argues that extra nonetheless wants to alter. “Black girls’s our bodies are consistently traded upon throughout the tradition of hip-hop as tropes to be ridiculed”.

Dr Lane factors to the instance of rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who was shot within the foot in 2020.

Fellow rapper Tory Lanez is presently serving a 10-year sentence for the assault, however after the incident, the artist Drake was criticised for lyrics in his 2022 tune Circo Loco – “This b- lie ’bout gettin’ pictures, however she nonetheless a stallion” – which appeared to discuss with the incident.

There stays the query of what occurs to the artwork – and certainly the music – when an idol is convicted of significant crimes.

R&B singer R Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2022 for intercourse trafficking, racketeering and sexually abusing girls and kids, however years later, his music stays common. It generated about 780 million audio streams within the US since January 2019. On Spotify, he has round 5.2 million month-to-month listeners.

“There are nonetheless individuals [who] defend R Kelly,” says Mr Hobbs. “I will not be shocked if Diddy’s streams, identical to R Kelly’s, keep excessive.”

“There is a sort of cognitive dissonance” from followers, he argues. “These songs turn into so embedded in individuals’s lives that they discover it very troublesome to eliminate them… [they’re] a part of individuals’s DNA.

“So, I feel some persons are capable of look the opposite approach.”

The larger query, maybe, is how ought to the trade react? After the MeToo motion started in 2017, at the very least 200 distinguished males accused of sexual harassment misplaced their jobs, and modifications had been made to office insurance policies.

Nonetheless, the Combs verdict in itself is unlikely to result in wider modifications, in response to Prof Lindsey. “I feel what occurs on this second is Diddy, sort of like R Kelly within the R&B black music pantheon, is seen as distinctive… and never indicative of one thing else,” she says.

“There is not a cultural reset the place we glance inward and ask: ‘How does this occur?'”

However that’s precisely what’s lacking, argue some others within the trade, together with Ms Abrams. “What’s missing is a political surroundings in opposition to which survivors can rely on to alter the fabric circumstances that allowed somebody like Combs to behave with impunity,” she says.

Following MeToo in Hollywood, sure modifications had been launched, together with making intimacy coordinators extra of a regular observe when filming intercourse scenes. Some music insiders now hope that migrates over to music video units.

The Sound Off Coalition is asking for brand new firm guidelines that require individuals in positions of energy in music to report accusations of sexual assault.

Tangible measures are what matter, argues Dr Lane. “The one approach for me to consider that there is been a reckoning can be to see modifications in legal guidelines, insurance policies, and precise enterprise practices of the trade… [Ones] that aren’t primarily based on how lengthy Diddy goes down for.”

For all the most recent response and evaluation on the decision, you’ll be able to hearken to the Diddy on Trial podcast out there on BBC Sounds.

Further reporting by Florence Freeman and Fiona Macdonald

High image credit score: Wealthy Polk/NBCU Photograph Financial institution by way of Getty Photographs

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