Sean “Diddy” Combs was the one to be around in 1990s and early 2000s New York. Trial in Manhattan now, hair grey, beard grown, it’s difficult to conceive that he was “the Pied Piper… of the most elite level of partying of that time” – but that’s Amy DuBois Barnett’s assessment.
She was the first Black-American female to head a major mainstream magazine in the US, and headquartered in Manhattan during the height of hip hop.
“Urban culture actually controlled the city,” she states. “That’s where much of the money was… you had all the finance bros trying to make it into Puffy (Combs) parties, all the fashion executives attempting to get into Puffy parties.”
And although he was received with open arms by the upper levels of the world of arts and entertainment, she states: “He was never known to be a placid type of person.”
Combs was “very dismissive” with her, and she acknowledges: “Puff never really liked me that much.”
But DuBois Barnett would find herself being invited to his parties from time to time because she could include his up-and-coming artists in her magazines.
From being Ebony magazine’s editor-in-chief, she would become editor-in-chief at Honey and Teen People magazines, and subsequently deputy editor at Harper’s Bazaar.
She describes the man she met at those parties as “lacking warmth” and being “complicated.”.
“When he entered the room, the whole energy shifted. Puffy had his people around him… as soon as the space around him would sort of fill with everybody fighting for his attention,” she says.
“I think that was partly also why he didn’t necessarily care about me because I wasn’t necessarily fighting for his attention.”.
“He actually reserved that attention for the individuals that he was either attracted to… or the individuals that he perceived were significant enough to his business success.”
She adds it was well known that he was not a person to be crossed because of “rumours. of what he could do.”.
“There were a lot of individuals in journalism, in media, in other businesses that were frightened of his power and also frightened of his temper,” she continues.
“When things at parties would not go his way or someone didn’t bring him something fast enough, or… the conversation wasn’t going his way… he would just kind of snap and he was just not afraid to yell at whoever was around.”.
“There was not a lot of boundaries in his communication, let’s just put it that way.”
But she says it was a time when a tremendous amount of misogyny was running throughout music, things that in today’s culture would certainly give pause for thought.
“So many things were done to me, everything from being groped at parties to being trapped in a limousine with music executives and having him refuse to open the door to let me out until I did whatever he believed I was going to do, which I didn’t.”
She maintains: “We didn’t have the language to grasp the extent to which it was problematic. it was a thread that weaved through the culture.”
Star-studded parties were the party of choice
A ticket to one of Combs’s star-studded “white parties” was the party of choice at the time.
She confesses: “It was like nothing you’ve ever seen before… the dress code was very strict.”.
“No ecru, no beige, plain white, you’d actually be rejected if your dress was off. Puffy did not kind of just put up with persons in his soirees who didn’t look ‘grown and sexy’ as it were.”
She reports having people mingle around the pool area listening to the world’s best DJs, while topless models posed dressed in mermaid attire and waiters served weed brownies on silver platters.
“It was all the boldface names you could think of, just this beautiful throng.”
Behind the glamour, there is now said to have been a man with the capacity for sexual abuse and violence, and a gross abuse of power. Criminal charges which he has already pleaded not guilty to and vehemently denies.
Without doubt, Combs possessed the golden touch. Diversifying his music business into other business ventures that in 2022 had seen his net worth hit about £1bn. For decades his success story was cherished.
“I believe that within the black community, there is a sense that if a black man succeeds you don’t want to tear him down because there aren’t that many… these are cultural forces that stem from the systemic racism that exists within the United States… but I believe that these were among what could have possibly safeguarded Puffy from people speaking out.”
Couple became ‘isolated and very unhappy’
Whereas Combs had built a modest fortune during the time span of two decades which she met him, the ex-magazine editor states that his manner had significantly improved from the initial party she attended, to the last.
“The last one was a post-Grammys party, 2017 or 2018, and just the atmosphere was totally different. He was actually pretty much sitting by himself in a corner with Cassie, you know, looking totally miserable.”
For approximately 10 years, Combs dated singer Cassie Ventura, who broke up with him in 2018.
After she was over him, she sued him that both of them ended up settling when she claimed she was trafficked, raped, drugged and assaulted by the rapper numerous times – which he had denied. Last week, she made similar allegations in court.
“Cassie appeared very glassy-eyed and there was a sadness to her energy. Whatever was going on between the two of them, I mean, it didn’t seem good,” says DuBois Barnett.
“They were kind of holed up in the corner for pretty much the whole night… it did feel very different from the kind of jubilant of energy that he exuded in his previous incarnations.”
For Combs, freedom will rely on the success or otherwise of these next few weeks. His spokespeople say he is a victim of “a reckless media circus”, adding that he absolutely denies he sexually abused anyone and wishes to clear his name.
Specifically, they add, he hopes to establish the “truth. based on evidence, not speculation”.