When Sean “Puffy” Combs joined the A&R department at Uptown Records in 1990, his first assistant, Pam Lewis-Rudden, looked at her 20-year-old boss and considered her own career. Easily 10 years his senior, she was well aware of the hype surrounding the popular party promoter whom Uptown founder Andre Harrell had brought in off the nightclub floor as an intern, then soon excitedly put in charge.
Harrell’s Manhattan offices were then a laid-back haven for some of the greatest R&B and hip-hop talent of the time. A pre-Grammy-Awards-winning Mary J. Blige would stroll through. The ’90s heartthrob group Jodeci would sing in the hallway. Into this mellow atmosphere, Combs tore through like a hurricane, Lewis-Rudden recalls—frenetic and unintimidated, hurling demands and derogatories. He ran talent development the same way he ran his parties: with bluster, swagger, excess, and attitude.
“He was always in a hurry, and you knew when he came in, it was like, all the fun would end,” remembers Lewis-Rudden, who lasted about a year working for Combs, and is now a record executive in London. “He was always really pissed off about something, and he’d blow in, get everybody all riled up, and leave. A couple months in, he started calling everybody a ‘bitch’: ‘All bitches to the meeting room.’ I consider myself lucky to have gotten out when I did, because if I had stayed there, heaven only knows.”
Combs, now 55, was indicted in September on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He also faces at least 30 civil lawsuits filed by former employees and others who allege they were coerced into sexual acts, or assaulted by Combs and his associates, as adults, teenagers, or children. Combs’ lawyers have repeatedly said their client is innocent, and called the indictment and recent lawsuits frivolous and opportunistic. In response to inquiries for this article, a representative from Combs Global released a statement saying, “Mr. Combs cannot respond to every new publicity stunt, even in response to claims that are facially ridiculous or demonstrably false. Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone—man or woman, adult or minor.” Representatives for Combs Global declined to respond on the record to other specific allegations in this article.
For the worldwide fans of hip-hop who made Combs a billionaire, these charges are mind-boggling. How could one of the most visible figures in the entertainment business have gotten away with this alleged behavior for so long? To find out, Fortune reached out to roughly 100 people who have worked with Combs at his many companies and organizations, many of them executives. Most declined to be interviewed or named in this story, with some citing concerns about professional retaliation or even physical injury. The dozen or so who did agree to talk did so mostly on condition of anonymity. (Two asked for money, and thus don’t appear in this piece.) Diddy’s former assistant Lewis-Rudden is one of only a handful of people willing to go on the record to talk about working with Combs.
He was always in a hurry, and you knew when he came in, it was like, all the fun would end … He’d blow in, get everybody all riled up, and leave.
Pam Lewis-Rudden, Combs’ first assistant at Uptown Records
Their memories paint a picture of a marketing genius with an obsessive attention to detail, a steely drive, and an undeniable creative instinct, which helped Combs accumulate a portfolio of companies and assets worth an estimated billion dollars at its height in 2022. (Read Fortune’s analysis of his diminishing wealth here.)
They also tell of a man whose relentlessly controlling behavior and assertion of ownership over everything—and everyone—in his orbit made many feel trapped and gaslit. He clearly was a person few could oppose—and those who did sometimes paid a price for it. While the allegations against him remain just that, allegations, insiders’ accounts depict an atmosphere where there would be few limits on the boss’s behavior.
Despite some accusations coming to light over the years, Combs’ fan base had largely ignored them. However, after a video surfaced in May showing Combs punching and kicking his then-girlfriend, the singer Cassie Ventura, in a hotel hallway, perceptions began to shift. (Ventura had filed a lawsuit against Combs in fall 2023, which Combs settled one day later.)
Combs now sits in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, awaiting a trial scheduled for May of 2025.
Working for Sean Combs
Even given the patriarchal cultural norms of his time and industry, the scale of the behavior Combs is accused of is staggering. Texas attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents plaintiffs in several of the cases, predicts at least 200 additional civil suits will be filed based on calls he says his offices have received. As ever more lawsuits and allegations emerge, and well-known names are increasingly dragged into the public arena, even casual observers are asking: If these allegations are true, how could Combs have kept his alleged victims from telling their stories for decades—or being listened to when they did?
Those questions don’t have easy answers. But some clues to Combs’ character, his treatment of those around him, and his strategies for controlling the narrative can be found among the tentacles of the dozens of companies, social good organizations, creative enterprises, and brands that Combs created or collaborated with. They’re woven through the dazzling careers he launched and the celebrities he befriended. They’re in the vast sums he amassed and in the incalculable wealth he created for other individuals and companies large and small—the favors he was owed, as well as the fear he cultivated.
Those clues live also in the gray space between the many personas the man has worn: Puff Daddy the rapper, P. Diddy the recording impresario, Diddy the business genius, and his most recent rebrand as “Brother Love.” For Sean John Combs (his birth name, and the name we’re using for this article), his many enterprises were each an extension of self—his ideas and his taste and his tempers and his appetites shaping everything.
“He has a lot of professional discipline with the way he approached his art; he had a lot of perfectionist tendencies,” says one former employee of Combs who has knowledge of deals including his partnership with Diageo for the vodka brand Cîroc and the work his branding studio did for Gap Inc. When it came to how he treated people, the former employee says, Combs’ attitude was, “This is my motherfucking company. Y’all going to do what the fuck I say, and if you don’t? Get out.”
It may be this disregard for traditional norms that allowed Combs to achieve all he did, says Naima Cochrane, a former record executive, journalist, and chronicler of hip-hop history who now teaches in the arts program at New York University—and once interned at Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment.
“The people who tend to be great artists and creative minds also tend to be boundary pushers,” Cochrane notes. “They’ve been told their whole lives that because they are special, the normal rules don’t apply to them.”
A billion-dollar portfolio
After being famously fired from Uptown Records in 1993, Combs ran a plethora of his own businesses, starting with Bad Boy Records and Daddy’s House Recording Studio in the 1990s. There he made Faith Evans, Ma$e, and the Notorious B.I.G. superstars. That was the beginning of a remarkable three decades of empire building, which peaked in 2022.
As his ambitions grew, Combs folded new businesses into the Miami-based Combs Global, which, at various points over the past three decades, included Bad Boy Records; Blue Flame Marketing; Combs Wine and Spirits; Revolt TV; Sean John clothing; the voter education organization Citizen Change; two perfumes, an alkaline water brand also backed by Mark Wahlberg, and investments in various cannabis companies, among other ventures.
Meanwhile, Combs helped turn hip-hop and R&B into the powerhouse it is today, accounting for about a quarter of all music consumption in 2024, according to a report by the tracking service Luminate. The artists he worked with also included Craig Mack, Usher, Lil’ Kim, TLC, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, SWV, Aretha Franklin, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, and Fabolous. He briefly managed Kelis and mentored Justin Bieber.
Combs’ hallmark is, quite simply, himself: He inserted his face, his voice, or his name into nearly every video or track he touched.
Combs starred in or produced several reality television shows (I Want to Work for Diddy, and 12 seasons of Making the Band ) and films including Get Him to the Greek and A Raisin in the Sun. He produced film soundtracks, including that of 2001’s Training Day. In 2004 he performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. In 2022 he hosted the Billboard Music Awards. He has been featured in at least 137 music videos, making him ubiquitous on MTV for a time.
Combs’ hallmark is, quite simply, himself: He inserted his face, his voice, or his name into nearly every video or track he touched. His collaborations and endorsements were also major businesses in their own right: He filmed commercials with Burger King and Fiat; and Peloton’s Bad Boy Records anniversary rides turned into a social media win.
But by far his largest deal was in 2007 with Cîroc vodka, owned by the spirits giant Diageo. He introduced the liquor brand to a new audience: well-heeled Black people and fans of hip-hop and Combs. Cîroc commercials posted on Instagram by Combs’ Blue Flame Marketing showcased a plethora of stars, including DJ Khaled, Cassie Ventura, Monica, and French Montana, all hawking “the blue dot.” Prior to the dissolution of their agreement earlier this year, Diageo told media that Combs “amassed nearly $1 billion” over 15 years from the partnership.
“Sean understands Black [consumers] in a way that most other Black people and certainly almost no white people do,” a former staffer said. “I think that’s why he was so good at creating these aspirational moments.”
A legendary party scene
The ultimate aspirational moments, of course, were Combs’ once coveted and now infamous White Parties, where guests abided by a swanky yet strict dress code to wear only white, and instructions to get wild, be beautiful, and have fun. The parties also allegedly provided the backdrop for some of the assaults detailed in various lawsuits against Combs.
Combs, with his roots in party promoting, knew the power of FOMO, and these much-photographed spectaculars splashed across the Instagram grids of scores of celebrities and influencers were a testament to Combs’ tastemaking clout. Whether it was a Hamptons White Party, a Beverly Hills MTV Video Music Awards after-party, or a St.-Tropez turn up, Combs’ events evoked Great Gatsby–style excess with Champagne, white fur rugs, dancers, and fireworks.
And there was a kind of halo effect to the parties and events, too: In an America divided, Combs rubbed shoulders with celebrities and industry leaders of every race and political affiliation: Martha Stewart, Mariah Carey, Al Sharpton, Penny Marshall, Wyclef Jean, Paris Hilton, Russell Simmons, and Donald Trump all made appearances.
Combs was, at the time, a rarity: a figure from hip-hop who could draw a cross-section of the power elite, Cochrane says. “It wasn’t even just a popularity amongst Black people,” she explains. “He also became the barometer for what was cool and hip amongst the Hollywood set.”
If an invite to these swanky affairs was once a mark of social success, following the raft of allegations that have emerged, many celebrities are now avoiding acknowledging that they attended. Several of the lawsuits allege that grooming and assaults on staff occurred at Combs’ fetes, often behind the scenes in separate rooms or late in the evening, with some involving several people.
The allegations are harrowing. One of the people suing Combs, Joi Dickerson-Neal, was a college student at the time of her alleged encounter with Combs. Her filing states that she was “drugged, sexually assaulted and abused,” and subsequently became “the victim of ‘revenge porn’ that Sean Combs or ‘P. Diddy’ created and distributed.” (Dickerson-Neal and her attorney declined to speak to Fortune for this story. Combs has denied Dickerson-Neal’s allegations and called her lawsuit a “money grab.” His lawyers have challenged the legal basis of some of the claims.)
Lewis-Rudden says she had no direct knowledge of the alleged crimes described in the indictment and lawsuits, but was not surprised that such abuse would not be reported in that era. It was hard to speak out in the early-1990s milieu of grin-and-bear-it work culture for women, Lewis-Rudden points out—and Combs’ companies lacked the most basic gestures toward worker welfare. Plus, she adds, it was known that other powerful figures in the music industry subjected women to disrespect, abuse, and violence.
“There’s nobody even doing HR,” Lewis-Rudden says. “So, I’m going to go to HR and tell him that Puffy drugged me and raped me? Right.”
The cultural commentator and writer Jamilah Lemieux says the #MeToo movement shifted perceptions of what went on at these events and workplaces. “It was the first significant reckoning with sexual assault that we’ve ever had in this country,” says Lemieux. “That movement gave [Combs’] victims the courage to come forward.”
People as a platform for branding
Plenty of celebrities lend their name to clothing brands or other endeavors these days, but when Combs got into the garment business in 1998 with his streetwear label, Sean John, he was seen as a pioneer. The designer Tommy Hilfiger and Vogue editor Anna Wintour mentored him, and the fashion world soon embraced him.
Wintour had Combs pose, styled by creative director Grace Coddington, in Paris with the supermodel Kate Moss in 1999, and Vogue pronounced on its cover: “Puff Daddy Conquers Couture.” Famed photographer Annie Leibovitz did the shoot. (The magazine celebrated that cover again on Combs’ 50th birthday in 2019 with a behind-the-scenes review of the original story.)
The first pieces Sean John released were baggy streetwear, but eventually the line incorporated suits and other silhouettes. By 2004, Combs had won the CFDA menswear designer of the year award—the first African-American to ever do so—and his work on Sean John catapulted the careers of then Sean John creative director Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne, who went on to create the swanky fashion line Public School.
Until Macy’s cut ties with the brand last year, after the settlement with Cassie Ventura, Sean John was sold in nearly every branch of the department store in the nation. At its height, the line raked in $525 million in annual sales.
Even as Sean John became a luxury status symbol for customers, the designer label also became a kind of uniform for those who worked for Combs across his earlier enterprises, former associates and employees say. One case in point was the Bad Boys of Comedy tour. Not only did the touring show feature popular comedic talent and carry the Bad Boy name, its performers were also required to wear Combs’ clothing line onstage—essentially, to emblazon his name across their bodies.
Comedian Damon Williams found this an awkward rule, and joked about it in his stand-up routine this past fall. “I used to always wear suits; I would always be tailored up,” he says to Fortune. But on Combs’ stage, he recalls, “You had to pick from what they had … I ended up taping in this shirt that was way too big. All my clothes looked too big, with that P. Diddy Bad Boy big ass Sean John shirt.”
Assembling an IP empire
Combs helped turn hip-hop into a multibillion-dollar industry, and he was one of its very first moguls. Sources say he asserted ironfisted control and ownership over the creative output of the artists he discovered and cultivated.
“We already know that power skews perspective for anybody, especially from a kid,” says the Grammy-winning poet and rapper Malik Yusef, who toured with Bad Boy Records in the early aughts. Yusef, a spoken-word artist and climate-change activist who became known for his later work with Kanye West and Jay-Z, recalls an early-career deal he made with Combs for the publishing rights to his work—which he claims left him without proper credit on another artist’s record.
“I didn’t know anything about publishing—he bought my publishing [rights] for $15,000,” Yusef says. “And I was upset with him about that.” (Representatives from Combs Global declined to comment on this transaction, other than to say they could not find a record of it.)
But to Combs, Yusef recalls, such an arrangement was simply his due, in return for the exposure he offered: “He’s like, ‘I got you onstage all over the world with me. Make a business for yourself.’ Basically that’s what he was saying.”
And indeed at the time, Yusef says, an affiliation with Combs could offer great benefits—which could lead some to overlook bad behavior. “A lot of people have made money off of Puffy, off of this association because of him,” says Yusef. And it wasn’t just individuals: “MTV made a ton of money off Puff. Fiat did, too. Tommy Hilfiger … Puff was a one-man economy for a nice little minute, you feel me?”
In 2023, Combs reassigned the publishing rights in Bad Boy’s catalog to some of the original writers. At the time, Combs released a statement touting the move as “unprecedented,” and adding that it “could impact the industry and shift how artists are compensated.”
But critics noted that the move, occurring close to the 30th anniversary of Bad Boy and one month prior to Ventura’s lawsuit, was curious given the decades-long criticisms launched at the mogul by a number of artists who say they were treated unfairly. Some artists declined the offer because it required them to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
An Uptown Records employee up until the 1990s called the gesture too little, too late in an interview with Fortune, especially given that some of the artists were deceased at that point. “No one is talking about how much he has exploited creatives both from a credit perspective as well as a financial perspective,” says the former staffer, who is still an entertainment executive.
Combs’ backing and promotional savvy could give an enormous boost to the creative output of the artists whom he worked with. But one incalculable cost, the staffer points out, is the music that artists didn’t create or release while under Combs’ thumb. “He has played a shell game for many years,” the staffer says. “There is a pattern of less and less production. Look at how long Cassie was without an album. He is a kidnapper of creative. He locks them up, he uses them for his own purpose, and he does not put out their work.”
Social change as a path to influence
As moguls have done for centuries, Combs added philanthropy and social change to his agenda—burnishing his image in high society.
Combs’ Vote or Die campaign, part of his Citizen Change political action group, aimed to activate young voters and inspire them to cast a ballot in the 2004 presidential election. With the same eye for talent that had served him well in the music and fashion industries, Combs hired Alexis McGill Johnson, a Yale and Princeton grad who had taught at Wesleyan before being tapped by Russell Simmons to run the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. (McGill Johnson, now a prominent voice in American politics and the CEO of Planned Parenthood, did not respond to requests for an interview about her short time working for Combs—eight months, according to her LinkedIn profile.) That year Combs attended the Republican and Democratic national conventions and student rallies across the nation.
In 2016 Combs founded a charter school, Capital Prep, in Harlem. Advertised as a high-end institution with state-of-the-art facilities, it garnered donations from funders such as Andreessen Horowitz and the Koch Foundation, and boasted a celebrity-filled board of directors. In 2023, Combs was honored at the Apollo Theater in Harlem for his contributions to education, but later that year, after he settled the suit with Ventura, the school cut ties with Combs. Shortly after that, parents came forward to tell the media about their dissatisfaction with the curriculum, frequent violence their children encountered, and staffing problems. Capital Prep did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2021, Combs sunk $20 million into building the Empower Global marketplace, an e-commerce platform promising to vet and showcase Black-owned businesses that was in its early stages when he signed on. Things moved quickly at first: Vendors for infrastructure and web applications were swiftly selected and contracted, and brands joined the platform. But soon after, sources say, Combs became distracted and often left business meetings. After the Ventura lawsuit, multiple sources say the business crumbled and now appears to be largely defunct.
It’s unfortunate that the effort was scuttled, says Dedrick Boyd, the director of engineering and CTO of TechSparq, which was contracted to build the infrastructure of the marketplace. “Building it meant something to me,” he says. “It meant something to the people I was building it for, and it meant something to my team.”
Combs also dived into the media industry in 2013, reportedly sinking $20 million into building a cable network, Revolt TV. Combs brought his customary attention to detail and eye for talent to bear, hiring a stellar crew of journalists, creatives, and executives to dream up the brands and program the lineup. Based in Atlanta, the award-winning channel hosts popular podcasts, television shows, an awards show, and Revolt News. After an initial deal with Comcast, the network has grown and is now reportedly in 50 million households.
Combs was by all accounts a hands-on leader at first, personally spending several days overseeing the creation of a logo for popular media personality Joe Budden’s State of the Culture podcast. He told staff they would work until a logo was selected—no dragging the process out for months. “I had my team mock up like a hundred logos,” remembers Wanton Davis, a former head of creative at Revolt. “We pasted everything on the walls … We just kind of talked it out, ripped stuff up, and redid stuff. ”
As time went on, however, Combs wasn’t as present in the day-to-day operations. Described as a “wild creative” by one staffer, Combs would blitz in with a problem to solve, drop the problem to the management, and then sit back to observe the brainstorm.
Combs also used his platform to call out perceived marginalization of Black perspectives and customers. In 2023 he sued Diageo, accusing the European brand of corporate racism, discriminating against him, and neglecting Cîroc vodka and the DeLeón tequila brand, a joint venture. His lawsuit was settled in early 2024—ending the most lucrative collaboration in his vast portfolio.
The harder they fall
Even before his current predicament, some had whispered that Combs was losing his magic touch—failing to resonate in the youth market and neglecting his core music business.
Still, prior to Ventura’s lawsuit last fall, it seemed that Combs was on the verge of yet another rebirth. He had created a new record label, Love Records, planned to implement Empower Global, and push forward with plans for Revolt World, an extension of the Revolt brand into a music and lifestyle festival focused on Black entrepreneurship. He was prepping for more potential Grammy nominations. Maybe he would have announced a new name.
Is this the end of the road for Combs as a business leader and public persona? That remains to be seen. Several sources who spoke to Fortune wondered aloud whether President-elect Trump will pardon Combs before his May court date. The two often attended the same events and appeared friendly in photos together that go back decades. (And Trump issued pardons for the rappers Kodak Black and Lil Wayne on firearms charges in 2021.)
But whether or not he’s tried or convicted, the court of public opinion may have already delivered its verdict on Combs, says Cochrane. “Can he rebrand?” she asks, then answers her own question: “No … I mean there might be a niche market somewhere … But a global brand the way he used to be? Absolutely not. Never again.”
Adrienne Samuels Gibbs is an award-winning journalist who has worked at the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times. As an entertainment reporter and senior editor of Ebony magazine, she wrote cover stories on numerous celebrities, including Sean Combs.
