Diddy’s empire is crumbling. The warning signs were there all along.

livemint.com:

In early November, Sean Combs blew out candles around a bright red cake to mark turning 54 at a party in London that doubled as a celebration of his new album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid." Months later, the party is over. Since mid-November, Combs has been named in lawsuits alleging physical violence, rape, forced druggings and sexual harassment from seven women and a man. In March, his houses in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by Department of Homeland Security officers as part of a sex-trafficking investigation.

Combs denied the claims and has since filed motions to dismiss in at least two of the cases. He reached a settlement with former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie" Ventura a day after she filed her lawsuit in November. Then, in May, video footage from 2016 surfaced of Combs attacking Ventura, who had also been an artist on his label, Bad Boy Entertainment.

Combs issued a public apology on Instagram in a video in which he sits under a thatched roof. “I make no excuses," he said. “My behavior on that video is inexcusable." The series of events has hastened a fall for a music mogul who helped make hip-hop more palatable to the mainstream.

More than simply an artist, Combs excelled at influencing the art of music as a promoter and producer. He did this by mixing familiar pop sounds like the Police’s “Every Breath You Take" with rap, helping take hip-hop to a more commercial level than ever and minting major stars such as the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J.

Blige. Even as Combs built a formidable business, he was consistently dogged by both legal battles and allegations of wrongdoing and even violence. For years, that didn’t appear to interfere with his success.