Even before the 2016 video of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs appearing to assault his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura was released, things were not looking great for the rapper and music producer. Diddy faced multiple lawsuits from people who accused him of crimes including sex trafficking, and his homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided. It was something that filmmaker dream hampton said she saw coming and warned him to “tap out” and come clean.
Best known as an executive producer on Surviving R. Kelly, dream hampton has been around the music industry since the 1990s, and she told Rolling Stone she saw the writing on the wall for Sean Combs (who has gone through several name changes over the years) and reached out after Cassie Ventura filed her lawsuit in November. The filmmaker said:
I reached out to him because I know that I’m someone that he’ll listen to. And I said, ‘Puff, I’m not trying to Olivia Pope you at all, [but] I think that you’re done and that it’s time to tap out.’
Referencing the fictional “fixer” made popular by Kerry Washington on Scandal, dream hampton said she firmly believed Diddy was guilty of the crimes he was being accused of, despite her never witnessing any abuse for herself. (“Men don’t beat their partners in front of you,” she said.)
The filmmaker reached out a second time via voice note when she was afraid she hadn’t been clear enough, asking him to take accountability. She continued:
What you need to do, what we need…What we’ve needed really, since Mike Tyson raped Desiree Washington, is one of y’all motherfuckers to just say, ‘I did this. And I’m going to spend the rest of my life, and that includes financial restitution, trying to make this right.’
According to dream hampton, straight denial was unlikely to work for the rapper because of his established reputation. She said:
I was like, this is a Sisyphean struggle that women are involved in. The so-called Me Too movement, the rock is coming down. And this whole Johnny Depp, Russell Simmons, deny, deny, deny? That’s not even an option for you, Puff. Nobody is going to believe you. You’re loathed already. So you actually have an opportunity here to enter into a different paradigm.
Sean Combs did not take dream hampton’s advice. He settled with Cassie Ventura a day after she filed the suit, and went on to call the allegations made against him by her and others “sickening.” The rapper said his accusers were “looking for a quick payday.” An apology came only after the hotel security footage from eight years ago appeared to show him throwing Cassie Ventura down, kicking her and then dragging her.
More lawsuits and allegations followed, with many in the music industry weighing in on Diddy’s situation. 50 Cent is releasing a docuseries about the record exec. Slim Thug said he couldn’t “stand beside this,” while former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day showed disdain for the apology that came after multiple denials. Investigations seem to be ongoing in the lawsuits against Diddy, and he has not yet been charged with any crimes.
