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Eminem returned with his first album in four years as The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce) hit streaming services on Friday (July 12). Tapping into his Slim Shady alter ego at times throughout the LP, Em doesn’t hold back when targeting fixtures around pop culture and within hip-hop, especially when it comes to Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The embattled mogul caught the Detroit legend’s wrath on multiple tracks, as Eminem sniped the Bad Boy CEO regarding the litany of sexual misconduct allegations made against him in recent months.
The only clean name-drop of Combs from Em came on the jarring “Antichrist,” in which he seemingly references the 2016 footage of Diddy assaulting his ex Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel. (Diddy apologized days after for his actions and said his “behavior on that video is inexcusable” in a self-recorded video posted to Instagram; the apology was later deleted when he wiped his account clean of all posts.)
“Next idiot ask me is getting his a– beat worse than Diddy did,” Em raps, but stops short of naming Cassie. “But on the real, though/ She probably ran out the room with his f—ing d—o.”
Billboard has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.
Fans believe there were another pair of disses on the J.I.D-assisted “Fuel,” on which Em pays tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, and appears to insinuate Diddy had a role in the deaths.
“R.I.P., rest in peace, Biggie/ And Pac, both of y’all should be living/ But I ain’t tryna beef with him (Nope)/ ‘Cause he might put a hit on me like Keefe D did him,” Marshall Matthers spews.
Just the bar before, Em seemingly uses “P, did he?” as a homonym of P. Diddy. “I’m like a R-A-P-E-R/ Got so many S-As (S-As), S-As/ Wait, he didn’t just spell the word, ‘Rapper’ and leave out a P, did he?” he asks.
Part of Cassie’s sprawling 2023 lawsuit alleging rape and years of physical abuse against Diddy included an allegation that the decorated music executive attempted to blow up Kid Cudi’s car in 2012 after finding out that the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper was romantically interested in her.
“Mr. Combs told Ms. Ventura that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car, and that he wanted to ensure that Kid Cudi was home with his friends when it happened,” Ventura’s lawyers wrote. “Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.”
Em seems to rap about it on “Bad One”: “The f—ing bomb with the puffy on/ I’m blowing up for Kid Cudi’s car/ In front of his house where all his buddies are.”
Cassie and Diddy ended up settling the lawsuit less than 24 hours after she filed in November 2023. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Diddy and his legal team have vehemently denied all of the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in other lawsuits.
Listen to “Antichrist,” “Fuel” and “Bad One” below:
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Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with a new lawsuit by exotic dancer Adria English, who claims she was a victim of sex trafficking orchestrated in the 2000s by the Bad Boy mogul and others she named in a sprawling complaint filed Wednesday (July 3) in New York federal court.
According to the lawsuit, filed by attorneys Ariel Mitchell-Kidd and Steven Metcalf, English was a victim of sex trafficking at the hands of Combs along with his fellow defendants Tamiko Thomas, who was allegedly an employee of Bad Boy Entertainment at the time, and a man named Jacob Arabov (a.k.a. Jacob The Jeweler). She alleges that the trio was “aided and abetted” by several companies also named as defendants in the complaint, including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Global Enterprises, Sean John Holdings, VIBE magazine and its current parent company, Penske Media Corporation (PMC). (PMC did not own VIBE when the alleged events occurred.)
Notably, the complaint alleges that the actions of all defendants amounted to a violation of federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws, which have historically been used to target the mafia, drug cartels and other organized crime rings (a similar state-level law in Georgia has formed the basis of prosecutors’ case against rapper Young Thug, whom they allege leads a violent Atlanta street gang known as Young Slime Life). These types of racketeering laws make it easier for prosecutors to sweep up members of alleged criminal enterprises based on many individual actions.
English claims she first came into contact with Combs in 2004 — when she says she was working as a dancer at Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club in Manhattan — after accompanying her then-boyfriend, model Anthony Gallo, to an audition for a Sean John modeling campaign. While at the audition, she says Gallo and another model were asked to perform fellatio on Combs as a condition of booking the job. After Gallo refused, she claims he was later told he could book the campaign if he commanded English to work as a go-go dancer at Combs’ Labor Day White Party in the Hamptons, N.Y. “In an effort to assist Mr. Gallo’s desire to become a model, Plaintiff agreed to what she believed to be legitimate employment,” the complaint reads.
While working the event, English says she was instructed to give lap dances and be “sexually flirtatious” with guests and “forced to consume liquor and illicit narcotics,” including bottles she claims were laced with ecstasy. She alleges she was subsequently invited to perform at additional White Parties, where Combs and Thomas — whom she compares to Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein — eventually “groomed” her into sex trafficking.
By her third White Party, English claims that Combs and Thomas demanded she partake in sexual intercourse with guests, using knowledge of her past work in adult films “to coerce” her into doing so. This activity, she claims, continued through 2009 at White Parties thrown at Combs’ Hampton and Miami residences.
One of the men English says she was forced to have sexual intercourse with during this period was Jacob Arabov (Jacob The Jeweler) at the behest of Combs, as she feared she could lose her job along with her boyfriend’s future modeling opportunities. “Plaintiff, fearing not only her safety, but her and her then-boyfriend’s job security, did as instruct and went with Defendant Jacob where she engaged in forced sexual intercourse with Defendant Jacob at the demand and behest of Defendant Combs,” the complaint reads.
English further alleges that Combs kept hidden cameras in every room of his Hamptons and Miami homes and believes her sexual assaults were caught on tape, including when she was “unconscious.”
During this period, English also alleges that VIBE magazine published an image of her in a November 2006 story about Combs’ White Parties without her consent, claiming its use violates her “rights to privacy via misappropriation.” She claims she “did not discover the infringing use” until April 2024. She further accuses VIBE and parent company PMC of “intentionally and falsely marketing and promoting” Combs’ White Parties “as a high-profile networking and social event in an effort to disguise and deceive the real intent of the event…and to further the goals of the Defendants illegal and criminal Enterprise.”
English says she continued putting up with Combs’ demands in part due to promises that he would help her break into the music business by putting her in an all-female music group. She says she finally detached herself from Combs when she returned to California in 2009, at which point she claims she suffered from deep depression and anxiety in response to the past trauma of being assaulted and trafficked, along with her unraveling career.
According to the lawsuit, English’s victimization at the hands of Combs and his alleged co-conspirators has led her to suffer continued “extreme emotional distress” that has impacted every aspect of her personal life.
In a statement sent to Billboard, Combs’ attorney Jonathan Davis said, “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court.”
Billboard reached out to Thomas and Arabov for comment but had not heard back by press time. PMC declined to comment.
This is the 10th sexual misconduct lawsuit to be filed against Combs since his ex-girlfriend, pop star Cassie, made waves with her sexual abuse suit against the mogul in November, which was settled less than 24 hours later. He has vehemently denied all cases against him. Combs’ Miami and Los Angeles homes were raided by federal agents in March, though no arrests were made.
In May, disturbing footage obtained by CNN showed Combs abusing Cassie in an elevator bank at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016. Soon after the footage came out, Combs apologized for his actions, which he says he was “disgusted” by.
“I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses,” he said in the since-deleted Instagram clip. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
In the wake of the allegations, the fallout for Combs has continued to reverberate. Last month, his media company Revolt announced employees would become the company’s largest shareholders after Combs reportedly sold his stake to an anonymous buyer. Also in June, Combs’ Miami Day honor was revoked and Howard University withdrew an honorary degree it bestowed upon him.
Editor’s Note: PMC is the parent company of Billboard.
Though Black artists have made major strides on the recent country music scene — with Beyoncé and Shaboozey launching No. 1 hits and acts like Brittney Spencer and Tanner Adell marking breakthroughs — racism in the genre still exists. For Americana-country husband-and-wife duo The War and Treaty, it came last week at the Coca-Cola Sips & Sounds Music Festival in Austin, Texas.
Ahead of their performance, Michael Trotter Jr. tells The Hollywood Reporter, “There was a cotton plant” in their dressing room. “And we all know what that means. We all know what that represents in this country to people that look like us.”
“Anger is what I felt. Disrespect is what I felt. Sadness is what I felt. Sadness not just because of what that plant represents to people that look like me but sadness for myself because I am a son of this country. I served this country honorably in the United States Army 16th Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. I’m wounded for that service. I’m very vocal about my wounds and my scars, and I felt betrayed,” he explains. “It’s not fair. It’s something that white artists don’t have to worry about at all. … It just happens to come through the bowels of this genre. So, I feel that it’s not enough for us to talk about it, we have to demand that we be about it.”
The Grammy-nominated duo went on to perform on the main stage, though Trotter explains: “When I demanded that we quickly leave this festival and get out of there, Tanya and I had a moment in our hotel room where we wanted to address our son, Legend, who’s 12, and he ended up addressing us. He said that this is not the time to be quiet about it. He was very upset, and he understood exactly what it meant. He’s home schooled, and he knows what that means, and he doesn’t know what it means because Ty and I have sat down and drilled it in his head.”
The War and Treaty released their major-label debut, Lover’s Game, to critical acclaim last year and made history at the 2023 CMA and ACM Awards, becoming the first Black performers to be nominated for duo of the year at both shows. And they launched their first Top 15 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Hey Driver,” their collaboration with streaming juggernaut Zach Bryan.
This year, they earned two Grammy nominations, including best new artist; they performed during the In Memoriam segment at the Emmy Awards; and they will open for The Rolling Stones at SoFi Stadium on July 10 and 13.
Tanya Trotter says their experience in Austin “hits hard when you are a granddaughter of a sharecropper.”
“My grandfather actually bought the plantation that he picked cotton on in New Bern, North Carolina. My family actually still lives there. So when you see these things, you look at it and you’re like, ‘Wow, even though my grandfather bought the plantation, there’s still a lot of pain rooted for people that didn’t get an opportunity to change it into economic development for their families.’ I didn’t want to sit in there and educate because it’s not my position to educate anybody on what cotton is and what it represents in this country. It just shouldn’t happen. Beyond it just being about racism, it’s broader now. It’s now a safety issue because we have to feel safe coming to these festivals,” she says.
She continues, “If we’re going to infiltrate and we’re going to have Black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, then you have to look at it as a safety issue the same way they did when they integrated the school in Arkansas. They had the police there. It has to be safe for people to come to get an education, to be entertained, whatever the case may be. So that’s the position that I take as we are moving into this genre and the spaces broadening not just for us but for everyone. Anybody with melanin in their skin, you have to provide an environment of safety for them.”
A representative for the Sips & Sounds Music Festival didn’t immediately respond to The Hollywood Reporter’s request for comment.
“My skin color is red, white and blue — the flag. I’m an American soldier. That is what this country called upon when it asked me to serve, so I feel betrayed,” Michael says. “Yes, it’s a safety issue, but it is bigger than that. It is a humane problem. It is humanity, and I was put in a position where I felt I had to protect my wife, and my son, and my daughter, and my band members at all costs, which would mean I got to go into war mode in my own country.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite criticizing Joe Biden and possibly sitting out the upcoming presidential election, Cardi B calmed some fans’ worries when it came to where her party allegiance lies in the political realm.
“She may have betrayed our country and turned Republican but at least she found a nice tune,” a member of the Bardi Gang wrote on X earlier this week in response to Cardi teasing a track for her upcoming album.
The Grammy-winning rapper replied early Tuesday (June 2), promising that she’ll never take the red pill and join the Republican party. “I will never turn republican lol,” she assured.
The fan responded back, essentially attempting to guilt trip Cardi. “You might be forced to next year since you’re not voting and discouraging people from voting,” they said.
In her May cover story with Rolling Stone, Cardi B slammed President Biden for the United States’ involvement in the Israel-Hamas war, and also criticized his inaction on the economy.
“I feel like people got betrayed,” she said. “It’s just like, ‘D–n, y’all not caring about nobody.’ Then, it really gets me upset that there is solutions to it. There is a solution. I know there’s a solution because you’re spending billions of dollars on any f–king thing.”
After interviewing and endorsing Biden in the 2020 election, it seems like Cardi may be distancing herself from either candidate in 2024. “I don’t f–k with both of y’all n—-s,” she said of Biden and Trump in her RS interview.
On the music side, Cardi B is still working toward the release of her sophomore album; the long-awaited project remains without a release date. Cardi teased another track possibly on the LP earlier this week, which finds her showing off a softer side while sampling Janet Jackson’s “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun).”
“Yall like this vibe for CB2?” Cardi captioned the video, which shows her in a car.
Cardi put out some good energy into the universe on X over the weekend when it comes to her proving her haters wrong once again. “I have everything planned, locked, and ready to go. Every thing I said I would do this year, I’m going to do it. Nothing is going to stop me. I proved myself before and I’m going to do it again… now rest,” she wrote.
The clock is ticking, as Invasion of Privacy celebrated its sixth anniversary in April. Cardi has also teased pivoting to release a Spanish album following her sophomore effort.
See Cardi’s tweet reassuring fans that she won’t be voting red:
I will never turn republican lol— Cardi B (@iamcardib) July 2, 2024
When New Orleans rapper B.G. came home in September after serving an 11-year sentence following his guilty plea on two counts of possession of a firearm and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, the rap community rejoiced. He’s the man responsible for entering the phrase “bling-bling” into the pop culture lexicon, after all.
But nearly a year later, the founding member of ’90s rap group Hot Boys is facing an unusual legal challenge: On Friday (June 28), a U.S. District Court judge in Louisiana ruled that the New Orleans rapper must provide the U.S. Probation Office with a copy of the lyrics to his upcoming songs for approval before producing or promoting them.
The decision, handed down by U.S. district court judge Susie Morgan, came several months after B.G. (real name Christopher Dorsey) was arrested in March for performing at a Las Vegas concert alongside rapper Lil Boosie; apparently, B.G. needed prior permission from the court to associate with acts that also have felony convictions on their record, as Lil Boosie does. The probation officer in the case also cited B.G.’s work with Gucci Mane, another rapper/convicted felon with whom B.G. released a collaborative mixtape, Choppers & Bricks, in December.
B.G. was subsequently released on his own recognizance pending the judge’s decision. Shortly after, the rapper expressed his frustration in an Instagram post, saying in part, “It’s crazy how after paying my debt to society with 12 and a half years of my life I come home and still ain’t free…I been doing everything the right way and it seems like that ain’t enough.”
At a court hearing on June 18, B.G. and prosecutors confirmed they had reached a deal to modify the conditions of the rapper’s supervised release following his March arrest but “disagreed” over the prosecutors’ request to prohibit the rapper “from promoting and glorifying future gun violence/murder” in his music and at his concerts, according to the June 28 ruling.
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“The Defendant argues that the additional condition proposed by the Government is an unconstitutional prior restraint of speech that is an overly broad condition of supervised release,” the ruling reads.
The judge ultimately found that the prosecutors’ request was “not sufficiently clear and specific to serve as a guide for the Defendant’s conduct and for those entrusted with his supervision,” instead imposing a special condition that B.G. provide the probation office “with a copy of the lyrics of any song he writes,” according to the ruling. All lyrics B.G. shares with the probation office will be passed to the U.S. government, which can then decide if his “conduct is inconsistent with the goals of rehabilitation,” the ruling continues.
A representative for B.G. did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The ruling is certain to cause controversy at a time when the practice of lyrics being used against rappers in criminal court has become a hot-button issue. In November, a judge ruled that Young Thug‘s lyrics can be used during his YSL RICO case, saying that “the First Amendment is not on trial.” Bobby Shmurda and the late Drakeo the Ruler have also had their lyrics used against them in criminal cases. There have since have been laws passed and proposed on both the state and federal levels to stop the criminalization of rap lyrics; in September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a statute restricting the practice, while similar laws have been proposed in New York and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Spotify has removed the music and profiles of several Russian artists who support the Ukraine invasion and have been sanctioned by the European Union and elsewhere in the West, Billboard has confirmed. The removals were first reported by The Moscow Times. “Platform Rules clearly state that we take action when we identify content which explicitly […]
In June 2022, Jeffery Williams, the rapper professionally known as Young Thug, said from jail: “I always use my music as a form of artistic expression, and I see now that Black artists and rappers don’t have that freedom.”
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Rap is the most important musical development of the last half-century. It is a Black art form that reflects, comments upon and helps define the American experience. Like other artistic expressions, rap lyrics are often fictitious and hyperbolic; they cannot be assumed to be autobiographical. And like famous surrealist painters, some rappers combine their experiences with flights of imagination, leaving the audience to decide what is “real” and what is not. Other rappers write wholly fictional accounts without labeling them as such — sometimes for commercial appeal. As Young Thug explained to XXL Magazine in 2016: “I started doing a thuggish style … I started to make cool trap music … Them songs have made millions of dollars but them songs are not me.”
Just like other artists, the creators of rap music are protected by the First Amendment; as such, they are entitled to create ambiguous art that does not separate fact from fiction.
Unlike other types of artists, however, rappers find their art used against them in criminal court, as overly aggressive prosecutors charge rappers with having committed the alleged crimes depicted in their lyrics. It seems the ultimate rap battle is between the First Amendment and the Sixth Amendment — pitting the freedom of expression against the right to a fair trial. The racial injustice of this tactic is obvious. Directors of horror and action movies are not forced to defend themselves in criminal court against allegations that their films depict actual events. Nor must the creators of country or death metal music justify their songs to a judge or jury as fiction — no matter how violent their lyrics may be. Only rappers are singled out in this way.
Hearteningly, the music industry and the social justice community have joined forces with lawmakers in opposition to this egregious prosecutorial overreach. For instance, California amended its rules of evidence to place additional burdens upon prosecutors who seek “to admit as evidence” of criminality “a form of creative expression.” In New York, proposed legislation similarly seeks to create a presumption against admitting evidence of a defendant’s creative expression in criminal trials. And, at the federal level, the Restoring Artistic Protection Act (RAP Act), seeking to shield artists from the misuse of their lyrics in both criminal and civil proceedings, has been reintroduced in Congress. This bill has support from groups such as the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), the Recording Academy, the Black Music Collective and SAG-AFTRA. All of these pieces of legislation aim to safeguard artists from prosecutors who want to use their creative expressions as evidence in criminal trials — ensuring rap artists enjoy the benefits of both the First and Sixth Amendments of our Constitution.
While these efforts are commendable, a significant loophole remains within the domain of criminal conspiracy prosecutions. A conspiracy is a crime where two or more people agree to commit an unlawful act, and someone in the conspiracy takes an affirmative step — or “overt act” toward the act. While the actual and proposed California, New York and federal statutes would make it harder for prosecutors to use rap lyrics as evidence of a crime, they do nothing to prevent prosecutors from alleging that rap lyrics themselves are an element of a crime — specifically, the so-called “overt act” element of a conspiracy crime. Additional legislation is urgently needed at the state and federal levels to prevent this from happening.
Conspiracy charges are darlings of prosecutors because many criminal conspiracy statutes permit the government to charge each alleged conspirator with all crimes committed by the conspiracy, so long as the alleged conspirator: (1) knowingly and willfully joined the conspiracy; and (2) committed an “overt act” in support of the conspiracy. Thus, by alleging that a rapper’s lyrics constitute an “overt act,” a prosecutor can seek to hold that rapper criminally responsible for crimes that the rapper did not even commit but rather were committed by other members of the “conspiracy.” In other words, rappers can be charged with and convicted for other people’s crimes merely by virtue of rapping. This prosecutorial tactic is literally criminalizing rap music.
The ongoing Young Thug/YSL trial vividly illustrates the urgent need for legislation banning this tactic. In that case, the prosecution has charged the defendants under a criminal conspiracy statute, Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) law. The grand jury indictment characterizes YSL as a gang engaged in criminal activities, with the Grammy-winning artist purportedly at the forefront. To link various defendants to the alleged “conspiracy,” and thus to ensnare them into the defendants’ seats at trial, the prosecution has alleged that specific sets of rap lyrics constitute “overt acts.” On their face, these lyrics are a mode of artistic expression, involving clever wordplay and other forms of humor. Lyrics cited by prosecutors include the following:
“Red just like Elmo but I never f—in’ giggle”— Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams
“Where you from, I’m from Bleveland, throw your set up” — Wunnie “Slimelife Shawty” Lee
“I shot at his mommy, now he no longer mention me” — Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams
Without legislation preventing these or other rap lyrics from being charged as “overt acts,” prosecutors will continue to use them to bolster their cases. We call for the music industry to unite with its allies to press for the introduction and passage of such legislation. Until that happens, the music industry and its allies should press candidates running for district attorney to promise not to prosecute rap lyrics as “overt acts.” Moreover, and until new legislation passes, criminal defense and music industry attorneys should advise their clients about the risks of prosecutions for merely creating rap, however outrageous and unfair that may be. Otherwise, rappers will continue to navigate a precarious line that could see their lyrics construed as a crime, undermining the fundamental principles of artistic freedom and raising urgent questions about racial and creative justice in the courtroom. Rap artists should not have to choose between their First and Sixth Amendment rights.
Jeffrey Movit is a civil litigator in New York and Los Angeles whose practice areas include copyright, trademark, defamation and entertainment law. He has been called the “lawyer to the stars” by the New York Post, and he was named by Billboard magazine as one of the “Top Music Lawyers” for 2022, 2023, and 2024.
Priya Chaudhry is a nationally-known, award-winning criminal defense trial attorney who routinely handles high-profile, high-stakes criminal cases. With nearly 50 jury trials in 25 years of practice, The Hollywood Reporter named Ms. Chaudhry as one of the “25 Power Lawyers” it recognized as “Hollywood’s Troubleshooters.”
Awais Arshad is a criminal defense attorney at ChaudhryLaw, a Fulbright Scholar and barred in multiple jurisdictions, including New York, England & Wales and Pakistan.
The Sean “Diddy” Combs fallout continues in wake of the leaked Cassie assault footage and mounting sexual misconduct lawsuits against him. Diddy has maintained complete innocence in the sexual misconduct and sexual assault lawsuits against him, and he continues to deny all of the allegations.
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According to the Miami Herald, the Miami Beach Commission revoked the Diddy Day recognition dedicated to the Bad Boy mogul on Oct. 13. He received the honor courtesy of Mayor Philip Levine at a REVOLT conference in 2016.
The decision to rescind the recognition was made on Wednesday (June 26) “without discussion.” Diddy has been a staple of the Miami Beach Star Island community where he owns a mansion, which was raided by federal agents alongside his L.A. estate in March.
Earlier in June, Diddy returned his key to New York City after a request from Mayor Eric Adams. Combs sent the key back to Adams’ offices after the mayor received letters asking for it to be sent back to City Hall, and Diddy obliged on June 10.
“I strongly condemn these actions and stand in solidarity with all survivors of domestic and gender-based violence,” Adams wrote at the time in the letters.
Howard University also rescinded an honorary degree that was awarded to Combs and ended a scholarship program in his name following the release of the disturbing video involving Cassie. CNN released surveillance footage in May of Diddy physically abusing Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel outside an elevator bank from March 2016.
Diddy apologized for his behavior, which he says he was “disgusted” by, but ended up deleting the video when clearing his Instagram account last week.
“I was f—ed up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses,” he said in the since-deleted clip. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it, I’m disgusted now.”
Cassie and Diddy dated on-and-off for over a decade from about 2007 through 2018 before calling it quits for good.
The “Me & U” singer filed a sprawling lawsuit against the famed music executive in November accusing him of rape and physical abuse during their time together. The two parties quickly reached a settlement less than 24 hours later. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Find a photo of when Diddy was presented with his own day in Miami Beach here.
Diplo is facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of violating “revenge porn” laws by sharing sexually-explicit videos and images of a former romantic partner without her permission.
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In a complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, an unnamed Jane Doe accuser claimed that the DJ (real name Thomas Wesley Pentz) recorded their sexual encounters and shared the materials with others on Snapchat “without plaintiff’s knowledge or consent.”
“Plaintiff brings this action to recover for the emotional and physical injuries she endured because of Diplo’s actions and to make sure no one else is forced to suffer the privacy invasions and physical and mental trauma she felt and continues to feel to this day,” the woman’s attorneys write.
In her complaint, the woman claims she had consensual sexual relationship with the DJ from 2016 to 2023. During that time, she says she occasionally “gave defendant Diplo permission to record them having sex, but never gave him permission to distribute those images and videos to third parties and reiterated that he was not to record them without her explicit consent.”
“Plaintiff trusted defendant Diplo and believed that he would respect her wishes to keep their sexual images and videos confidential and that he would not record them having sex without her consent,” her lawyers write.
But last fall, the woman says she was contacted by someone claiming to be in possession of images and videos of “plaintiff and defendant Diplo having sex.” She says the materials, allegedly shared over Snapchat five years earlier, depicted her “genitals, buttocks, and face,” as well as her voice.
After the incident, Jane Doe says she reported Diplo’s actions to the New York Police Department, which later “issued a warrant for defendant Diplo’s arrest for dissemination of intimate images and/or videos depicting Plaintiff.”
In an email to Billboard, the NYPD confirmed that a report had been filed and that there was an active investigation, but declined to comment on the claims of an arrest warrant: “There is a criminal complaint on file for unlawful dissemination for a suspect with the name of Thomas Pentz which is currently being investigated by NYPD detectives.”
In 2022, when Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, lawmakers created for the first time a federal law banning the disclosure of “intimate” images without the consent of those depicted in them. The lawsuit accuses Diplo of violating that provision, as well as an earlier revenge porn law enacted by the state of California.
Both representatives and an attorney for Diplo did not return requests for comment.
Diplo was previously accused of revenge porn by another woman. In 2020, he was sued by a woman named Shelly Auguste over claims that he had distributed nude photographs of her without permission. His attorneys called it a “smear campaign” and sued her back for stalking, trespassing, and distributing private materials. That litigation is ongoing.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump faced off Thursday night (June 27) in their first debate ahead of November’s general election, and among the audience of voters tuning in to CNN were a handful of musicians and celebrities taking to social media to weigh in.
Most active among them was Bette Midler, who was a vocal critic of Trump’s first term and stuck to her guns in a string of posts on X (formerly Twitter) throughout the debate.
“All my friends are taking their blood pressure medicine now, preparing for the debate,” Midler tweeted ahead of the face-off. “I wonder how many TV screens are going to be broken tonight?” It remains to be seen whether Midler’s TV will stay intact on Thursday, as her posts called out Trump’s “astonishing” comments. “Every word out of his mouth is a lie. Every single word.”
Midler made her stance even clearer with this tweet: “The Worst President In The History of The United States. The absolute worst, Donald Trump, now and forever.”
Outkast rapper Big Boi kept things a little briefer in his X posts, typing “WTF” and a red-faced, wide-eyed emoji during the debate.
The first presidential debate ahead of the 2024 general election aired on CNN and was moderated by the network’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.
All my friends are taking their blood pressure medicine now, preparing for the debate. I wonder how many TV screens are going to be broken tonight?— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
My God, the way this fucker lies. It’s just astonishing.— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
Fear and grievance, ad infinitum. The best environmental numbers! Jesus Christ. Every word out of his mouth is a lie. Every single word.— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
Hahahahahahahaha! Trump is hilarious!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
“I have the biggest heart!” Tell that to the Gold Star families and the Muslims you banned!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
Lies lies and more lies. Remember this bastard is the one who destroyed Roe. He goes back to immigrants. Guess that’s he’s go-to when he can’t think of anything else.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
The Worst President In The History of The United States. The absolute worst, Donald Trump, now and forever.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
We were doing very well with addiction…we bought a dog…— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
Hahahagahahah I took two cognitive tests!!!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
“I wasn’t really going to run” THE BIGGEST LIE SO FAR!— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) June 28, 2024
WTF
— Big Boi (@BigBoi) June 28, 2024
😳
— Big Boi (@BigBoi) June 28, 2024
Debates are not governing. They are about televised theatrics. Biden is accomplished at governing. He is experienced and has accomplished a great deal.https://t.co/H7miKQKXMj
— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) June 27, 2024
This debate is deplorable.🤯— Nia Long (@NiaLong) June 28, 2024
Without a fact checker that puts up facts on a giant screen behind them, this debate is useless . #Debates2024— Vinny Guadagnino (@VINNYGUADAGNINO) June 28, 2024
This is the most stressful debate I’ve ever watched and my parent was a nominee against Obama. #DebateNight— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) June 28, 2024
DEBATE NIGHT IN AMERICA! Sweet Jesus! The networks are packaging this as entertainment, like a boxing match, and selling democracy down the river. It’s a shame.— Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 28, 2024
My God, this Presidential debate proves that we need younger presidential candidates.— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) June 28, 2024