Fresh Air · 2026-09-24 · 49 min · 7,491 words

Investigating the system that protected Sean “Diddy” Combs

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This message comes from the podcast Before and After with Lester Holt. One moment can change a life forever. Hear Lester's conversations with Jeremy Renner, Gabby Giffords, and others about rebuilding after the unimaginable. Search Before and After to follow now. This is Fresh Air.

I'm Tanya Mosley. For 30 years, Sean Combs was one of America's most visible men. He helped shape Mary J. Blige's early sound, sign the notorious BIG, and built bad boy records into a hip hop powerhouse. Then he turned himself into a brand, rapper, clothing mogul, actor, celebrity host.

He even got the world to call him by a new name every few years. My guest today, Rolling Stone investigative reporter Cheyenne Roundtree, examines whether those reinventions also gave Combs a way to outrun the scandals that came before. A note to listeners this conversation includes descriptions of sexual violence, drug use, and other adult subject matter. Combs is now serving a four year federal prison sentence after being convicted on two counts of transporting people for prostitution. Jurors acquitted him of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

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