Episode #155 | 12.12.23
Sean “Diddy” Combs: A Nightclub Shooting, a Fatal Stampede, and the Cost of Doing Business
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In this episode
Sean “Diddy” Combs is a music producer and rapper, but he is a businessman first. And as every businessman knows, you gotta pay the cost to be the boss. You’ve gotta bet big to win big. You have to have drive, determination, and swag. Three things that Diddy possesses and which helped Diddy navigate through the fallout of a fatal stampede, an alleged beatdown of a record exec, and a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub. All of them obstacles on the road to building one of the most dominant empires in hip-hop: a record label and a brand that commanded top dollar and defined the commercial apex of the genre in the mid-to-late 1990s.
Sources
I ain’t foolin’ around I’m building assets (Forbes)
STAMPEDE AT CITY COLLEGE; Inquiries Begin Over City College Deaths (NY Times)
Sean 'Diddy' Combs opens up about father Melvin's death as he promotes new music TV network Revolt (The Daily Mail)
TEN FOUND GUILTY OF HEROIN CHARGE (NY Times)
2 Weeks After City College Deaths, Many Questions Remain (NY Times)
Rap Producer Testifies on Fatal Stampede at City College (NY Times)
Judge Says Rappers and State Share Blame in a Fatal Crush (NY Times)
`Puffy' Combs Arrested In Assault (Washington Post)
Music Executive Recounts Day of Altercation With Rapper Combs (LA Times)
Puffy Breaks Silence On Stoute Attack (MTV)
Puffy Beats Assault in Bottle Bash Assault (NY Post)
Rap Performer Puffy Combs Is Arrested After Shootings at Times Sq. Nightclub (NY Times)
Between High Life And Street Life; For Sean (Puffy) Combs, Rap Success Came With Touches of Violence (NY Times)
As Puffy Combs's Trial Opens, Fame Is Cast in Starring Role (NY Times)
These Days, Even Puff Needs A Mommy; Star's Devoted Mother Is There, With Lunch (NY Times)
Witness Insists Hip-Hop Star Was Holding Gun Inside Club (NY Times)
Reporter's Notebook; Scenes From a Courtroom: Hip-Hop and Unhipness Collide at a Rap Star's Trial (NY Times)
Driver Says Rapper Offered Him Bribe to Beat Gun Charge (NY Times)
Rapper Accused of Trying to Bribe 4 Potential Witnesses (NY Times)
Combs Will Take the Stand at Trial But Lopez Will Not, Statements Say (NY Times)
Judge in Combs Case Permits Statement by Missing Witness (NY Times)
Defense Calls Combs Trial 'Stupid' Case (NY Times)
Combs Trial Jurors Consider Gun Case Against Rap Star (NY Times)
Hip-Hop Star Cleared of Charges In Shooting at a Manhattan Club (NY Times)
Relieved, Combs's Lawyer Basks in Victory (NY Times)
Jurors in Rapper's Trial Recall 3 Days of Heated Exchanges (NY Times)
Diddy settles civil lawsuit over NY club shooting (Reuters)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy edited by James Sullivan.
Scored and mixed by Sean Cahalin.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
DISGRACELAND theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie,” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak