TAKE THAT
THE UNRAVELING OF HIP HOP MOGUL SEAN PUFFY COMBS
SET UP On November 16th, of 2023 famed R&B singer CASSIE filed a sweeping civil case against HIP-HOP mogul Sean “Puffy” Combs. The documents filed in the Southern District of Manhattan list a litany of federal and state crimes that includes: SEX TRAFFICKING • RAPE • EXTORTION • VIOLENT ACTS A veritable laundry list of a decade of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. At the same time of the filing in the Southern District a “source” within the NYPD has confirmed a sweeping criminal probe into Sean Combs, that would be the final unraveling of a storied business and music career.
THE INVESTIGATIVE DOCUMENTARY SERIES & TIMELINE TAKE THAT, is a four-part investigative documentary series that delves deep into the criminal history, and federal civil case, arguably of Hip-Hop’s biggest star. The series will be broken into four parts.
PART I THE CITY COLLEGE STAMPEDE /COMBS INITIAL LEGACY Nine young people die in a crowd stampede in New York City on December 28, 1991. The event was a charity basketball headlined by hip-hop stars Heavy D. and Puff Daddy. Shortly after 6:00 p.m., according to eyewitness accounts, the crowd outside the City University of New York broke at least one of the glass doors separating them from the building. Despite the presence of at least 66 NYPD officers, 38 City College campus-security officers and 20 private security guards hired by the event’s promoters, the crowd was able to surge through those doors and rush into the building shortly after 7:00 p.m., when the event finally got underway. Once inside the lobby, the crowd rushed down a short set of stairs leading to the gymnasium. At the bottom of those stairs, however, were four swinging doors — three of them closed — that opened not into the gymnasium, but into the stairwell. While the 3,000-strong crowd surged forward obliviously, those people who reached the stairwell first were caught in a crush that would leave eight dead on the scene and 29 others injured, one of whom would later die of her injuries at St. Luke’s Hospital. Combs starts his meteroic rise to super-stardom shortly after these deaths.
PART 2 CLUB NEW YORK: J. LO & HIP-HOP STAR SHYNE TAKES THE RAP FOR COMBS
On December 28, 1999, Sean “Puffy” Combs and then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez had been celebrating a soon-to-be released album by Shyne, a.k.a. Jamal Barrow, the rap mogul’s 21yr-old protégé, at midtown’s Club New York. They were leaving when Combs, with a bottle of Champagne, accidentally jostled one of the club’s patrons, knocking a drink out of his hand. The man, Matthew Allen, a street tough known as “Scar,” responded with a shove. Things escalated. One of Allen’s people allegedly threw a stack of money in Combs’s face—and shots were fired, leaving three people injured. Combs and Lopez were arrested fleeing the scene in a Lincoln Navigator with a gun in the trunk. J. Lo was quickly absolved, and although witnesses said they’d seen Combs with the weapon — and his driver testified that his boss had bribed
him to claim ownership — his legal team, including Johnnie Cochran, created enough doubt that Combs was acquitted, too. “I don’t know if you know this, judge, but this person Jennifer Lopez is a very famous actress,’’ one lawyer pointed out. “To think Mr. Combs is walking around with her with a loaded gun … it’s so ridiculous that it stretches the imagination.’’ In the end it was Shyne who served amost nine years for assault, gun possession, and reckless endangerment, though he did so angrily, claiming Combs had sold him out to save his own skin. After his acquittal, Combs changed his nickname to P. Diddy in hopes of putting the past behind him, but the saga lived on for years in song (“Whatcha gonna do when shit hit the fan / Take it like a man or snitch like a bitch?” Shyne asks pointedly.
PART 3 THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES AROUND THE DEATH OF KIM PORTER The sudden death of Kim Porter, Diddy’s former girlfriend and mother of three of his children, remains a mystery after the Los Angeles coroner’s office reported that an autopsy failed to immediately establish the cause of death. Sarah Ardalani, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County office of the medical examiner-coroner, said that an autopsy was performed but was inconclusive. The model and actress, 47, was found unresponsive Thursday in her home in the San Fernando Valley area of the city. She was pronounced dead in her home, according to the coroner. Ripples throughout the gossip circle of Hip-Hop, remain convinced that Diddy had a hand in her death, and many people surrounding Kim supported that.In a Instagram post that seemingly came out of nowhere, singer/songwriter Al B. Sure! claimed his ex-girlfriend, Kim Porter, didn’t die suddenly from lobar pneumonia in November 2018, but was murdered. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, Kim — who is perhaps best known for her lengthy on-again, offagain relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs — passed away in her sleep at the age of 47 after developing a lung infection. But is there something more sinister at play here?
PART 4 THE UNRAVELING- THE NYPD AND THE END OF A HIP-HOP MOGUL R&B singer Cassie has filed a shocking lawsuit against her ex-partner Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York federal court in the Southern District of Manhattan. According to the NY Times, Cassie’s lawsuit accuses the Bad Boy Records founder of subjecting her to years of rape and abuse. “After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships,”. With the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivors Act fast approaching, it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life.” Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, said she met Combs in 2005 when she was just 19 years old. Since that meeting, she said Combs was controlling and abusive. Ventura said the media mogul supplied her with drugs, beat her and forced her to have sex with a “succession of male prostitutes while he filmed the encounters.” As the case in the Southern District made headlines, sources within the NYPD, LAPD have confimed criminal investigations into sex trafficking, sexual assaults, and violent extortion.
ACCESS: THE STORYTELLERS • Access to the inner sanctum of Sean “Diddy” Combs security apparatus • Access to criminal investigators in the NYPD and LAPD • Access to friends and family of Diddy’s wife Kim Porter • Access to employees of Bad Boy Entertainment • Access ot other sexual assault victims of Sean “Diddy” Combs • Access to former lawyers, fixers, and handlers of Sean “Diddy” Combs