Bad Rap: Me & U

Summary

Podcast Summary: 20/20 – "Bad Rap: Me & U"

Episode Information

• Title: Bad Rap: Me & U
• Host/Author: ABC News
• Release Date: April 9, 2025
• Description: This episode delves into the tumultuous relationship between Cassie Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs, exploring allegations of abuse, the impact on Cassie's career, and the broader implications within the music industry.

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1. Introduction and Background

The episode begins by setting the stage in 2006, highlighting the rise of Cassie Ventura under the aegis of Sean Combs' Bad Boy Records. Cassie, a young artist with a promising single "Me & You," catches Diddy's attention, leading to her signing a notably ambitious 10-album deal.

Notable Quote:

"Sean Diddy Combs had gathered everyone to tell them about a new artist he'd signed to his Bad Boy Records label." [00:57]

2. Cassie's Entry into Bad Boy Records

Cassie's signing was marked by high expectations. Her debut single "Me & You" became a significant hit, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and maintaining chart presence for six months. Her early success was amplified by savvy use of social media platforms like MySpace, which helped her build a dedicated fanbase independently.

Notable Quote:

"Cassie Ventura had built up a fan base, DIY style. The secret ingredient was early social media." [04:27]

3. The Relationship Between Cassie and Diddy

As Cassie's career progressed, her relationship with Diddy evolved from professional to personal. By 2012, their relationship became public, intertwining their professional and personal lives. Diddy's influence over Cassie's career raises questions about the power dynamics at play.

Notable Quote:

"I don't think we thought about that at the time." – Kelly Carter on the power dynamics in Cassie and Diddy's relationship. [24:12]

4. Allegations of Abuse and Control

The core of the episode revolves around Cassie's 2023 lawsuit against Diddy, alleging over a decade of abuse, coercion, and control. The lawsuit details disturbing accounts of sexual violence, drug coercion, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. Despite Diddy's vehement denial, the allegations shed light on the darker side of high-profile relationships in the music industry.

Notable Quote:

"He's using the music to control Cassie. Cause it was never, at least from what it seems like, it was never gonna come out." – Tiffany Redd on Diddy's manipulation of Cassie's career. [40:44]

5. Impact on Cassie's Career

Cassie's promising career trajectory was stifled, with her second album perpetually delayed. The episode explores how Diddy's control may have hampered her artistic growth and visibility in the music scene. Despite releasing a mixtape in 2013 that received critical acclaim, Cassie struggled to regain her initial momentum.

Notable Quote:

"She was trying to keep him pleased, keep him calm, keep him steady so he doesn't attack her." – Jamilah Lemieux on Cassie's public persona. [47:36]

6. Legal Actions and Public Response

Following the lawsuit, Cassie settles with Diddy without admission of guilt. However, her actions inspire others facing similar situations to come forward. The episode also touches on the broader legal battles Diddy faces, including past allegations such as the incident involving Kid Cudi's car.

Notable Quote:

"Survivors act fast approaching, saying in a statement, after years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story." – Cassie Ventura on her decision to speak out. [50:10]

7. Broader Implications and Industry Reflection

The episode concludes by reflecting on the systemic issues within the music industry that allow such abuse to persist. It questions the mechanisms that enable powerful figures like Diddy to maintain control and silence victims. The narrative underscores the importance of accountability and support systems for abuse survivors.

Notable Quote:

"This is how he controls people. That if you want to be in... whatever, a songwriter, then. If you don't, then you're out." – Toure on Diddy's control tactics. [41:27]

8. Conclusion

"Bad Rap: Me & U" paints a comprehensive picture of Cassie Ventura's rise and struggles within the shadow of a powerful industry mogul. Through in-depth discussions, firsthand accounts, and critical analysis, the episode highlights the personal cost of fame and the enduring impact of alleged abuse on an artist's life and career.

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Key Takeaways:

• Cassie's early success was significantly influenced by her signing with Bad Boy Records and her adept use of early social media.
• The personal and professional relationship between Cassie and Diddy became increasingly controlling and abusive, as alleged in Cassie's 2023 lawsuit.
• Diddy's influence potentially stifled Cassie's artistic growth and career progression.
• The episode underscores the need for greater accountability and support within the music industry to protect artists from abuse.

Notable Speakers:

• Debra Roberts: Narrator providing context and additional insights.
• Brian Buckmire: Host delivering detailed accounts and analyses.
• Megan Wright: ABC News contributor discussing the significance of platforms like BET's 106 & Park.
• Jamilah Lemieux: Writer and cultural critic offering perspectives on Cassie's public image.
• Tiffany Redd: Grammy-winning producer and friend of Cassie, sharing firsthand accounts of the alleged abuse.
• Justin Tinsley & Charlamagne Tha God: Commentators reacting to the allegations and their implications.

Timestamp Highlights:

• 00:00 - 02:42: Introduction to Cassie's signing with Bad Boy Records and her early success.
• 05:40 - 09:54: Cassie's excitement about joining a legendary label and initial career developments.
• 12:37 - 21:15: Cassie's performances, public appearances, and growing relationship with Diddy.
• 33:41 - 39:56: Tiffany Redd recounts witnessing abusive behavior and the complexities of Cassie's attempts to leave.
• 40:22 - 50:27: Legal battles, Cassie's eventual departure from the relationship, and her journey towards healing and advocacy.

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This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the "Bad Rap: Me & U" episode, capturing the critical discussions, personal testimonies, and investigative insights presented by ABC News' 20/20 podcast.

Transcript

[Debra Roberts]

Debra It's Debra Roberts here to bring you another weekly episode of Bad Rap the Case Against Diddy. Remember, you can catch new episodes a day early if you follow Bad Rap the Case Against Diddy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And now, here's our next episode. This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season and we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's one you need to hear. $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it.

[Brian Buckmire]

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[Debra Roberts]

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[Brian Buckmire]

A warning. This episode includes discussion of sexual violence and abuse, so please take care when listening in 2006, more than a dozen people sat around a long conference table scattered with water bottles and shiny folders emblazoned with a Bad Boy logo. This was the era of flip phones and DVDs, so people glanced at paper handouts inside their folders as they scribbled down notes in actual notebooks. Sean Diddy Combs had gathered everyone to tell them about a new artist he'd signed to his Bad Boy Records label. Diddy was in the middle of a successful run with Danity Kane on his MTV show Making the Band, and he was getting ready to release the debut album of Atlanta rapper Young Jock. But Diddy wasn't happy with the label's recent performance. He said publicly that he was trying to get things back on track. So now he had another up and coming artist he wanted everyone in the room to meet. Cassie Ventura that day. She wore her long dark hair tucked behind her ears and big gold hoop earrings. She dressed casually with little to no makeup. Combs was in his late 30s. He sat at the head of the conference table while 19 year old Cassie was at the other end. She was there with the producer she'd been working with. They'd release a song you've probably heard of called Me and you'd probably to this day, Me and you is the track Cassie is best known for, a song that would go on to peak at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, a song that stayed on the charts for about six months. In other words, back in 2006, Cassie's song was one of the country's most popular singles.

[Debra Roberts]

It's an infectious song. It has a weird Creepy vibe, but at the same time, it's like fun to sing along to. And it's just simple for me.

[Brian Buckmire]

This song brings back memories of being 18 years old and driving around with my friends in my mom's car. It was the kind of song where if you heard it on the radio, you tell your friends, yo, turn that up. It was this song that caught Diddy's attention. He told everyone gathered at the conference table that the song had been haunting him in nightclubs and that he thought Cassie had a personality that, quote, the whole world could fall in love with. Before Bad Boy released a remix, me and you was already an underground hit. Even without the backing of a big record label, Cassie Ventura had built up a fan base, DIY style. The secret ingredient was early social media. Remember MySpace? MySpace was only about three years old at the time. It was the beginning of social media for millennials like me who grew up in the 90s and early 2000s. My profile had posts about soccer players I liked, like Ronaldinho, Zizou and Henry, and some of my favorite music. I probably posted a picture of me working my after school retail job at Hollister. I hope to God that picture doesn't still exist today. It's pretty common for artists and influencers to get famous off of social media alone. But when Cassie was starting out, it was pretty new to release music without a label, to build connections directly with fans without going through a gatekeeper. Here's Cassie and the producer she'd been working with named Ryan Leslie, talking about this in a video blog.

[Debra Roberts]

If you're a kid on the Internet and you're looking to find new music, you go on the Internet, you go on MySpace, people find me.

[Brian Buckmire]

Within three weeks. This record propelled Cassidy to the top 10 artists on MySpace. And that's when the major labels came knocking, including Bad Boy Records, Sean Combs company. As an attorney, I can tell you that the terms of any deal like this are usually private. We later find out Bad Boy reportedly offered Cassie a contract to make 10 albums. That was huge and also pretty unusual for a new artist without a proven track record. I could only find a couple of examples like this, including the 10 album deal a teenage LL Cool J reportedly got in the 1980s with Def Jam Records. Just think about it. Here's Cassie. She's at the very beginning of her career, only a couple years out of high school, and one of the biggest record labels in hip hop and R and B offers her a chance to make not just one, but ten albums. That's crazy. Cassie was pumped and talked about it in an interview with Fun Radio France.

[Debra Roberts]

Well, I was really excited because Bad Boy itself is just a very legendary label. I mean, to be a part of that, where you think of Biggie and Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige, people like that, it's just exciting to be at such a legendary place.

[Brian Buckmire]

But those 10 albums, they never happened. It's hard to watch some of these early videos of Cassie before everything changed because now we know her dreams got derailed and this legendary label she was so excited to join. She alleges the person who ran it became her tormentor and abuser. That's according to a lawsuit Cassie filed against Combs and his company in 2023. The lawsuit describes in excruciating detail how she allegedly got trapped in a toxic relationship with Combs that lasted for more than a decade. Cassie's allegations include disturbing accounts of abuse that lasted for years, that Combs forced her to use drugs and have sex with male sex workers, that he was controlling, even at times having her medical records sent directly to him, and that he was prone to rage and frequently beat her. When Cassie filed her lawsuit, Combs attorneys issued a statement saying he vehemently denied these offensive and outrageous allegations and that Cassie's lawsuit was riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs reputation and seeking a payday. But within a day of filing her suit, Cassie Ventura and Sean Combs reached an undisclosed settlement agreement with no admission of guilt. Combs issued a statement saying, we have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. I think it's fair to say that Cassie's lawsuit was the first domino to fall in the complicated web of civil and criminal allegations that Combs is now facing. And if he's convicted, some of those charges could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. For his part, Combs denies all allegations and has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges he's about to be tried for. But if we go back 20 years to when Cassie and Combs first met, what can we learn about how we got here? In this episode, we're going to focus on Cassie. We'll retrace the steps of her relationship with Combs and how some people we spoke with say dating him seemed to hurt her career more than it helped him. We'll speak to a friend who claims she witnessed Combs abusing Cassie. And we'll ask what are the mechanisms and forces that fuel the kind of abuse that's been alleged and allow it to stay hidden for so long. Because to be clear, the abuse Cassie alleged in her lawsuit, it's much bigger than one powerful person. I'm Brian Buckmire, and you're listening to Bad Rap, the Case against Diddy. Episode 3 Me and you'd. Cassie Ventura grew up in a small city in Connecticut that sits about halfway between New York City and Boston. Her family is a mix of cultures. She's described her mom as having Mexican, black and West Indian roots. Her dad's side of the family is Filipino. Cassie started modeling when she was 12. As a teenager, she attended a performing arts school where she studied ballet and jazz. Cassie moved to New York City in the fall of 2004 with her best friend. At first, she found work as a model, but Cassie wanted to be something more. She looked up to artists like Sade, Janet Jackson, and Aaliyah. She wanted to be an artist, too. And not just that, she wanted to be famous. She said as much in a 2006 documentary on YouTube called Cassie the Beginning.

[Debra Roberts]

And I remember telling people my entire life, I'm gonna be famous. Like, that's just how I was. I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't know what I was gonna do or what.

[Brian Buckmire]

Once her deal with Bad Boy was finalized in 2006, Cassie started working on her debut album. The album cover is a close up of Cassie's face. She's staring straight at the camera with a serious and mysterious expression. Her hair is parted on the side and falls in loose waves over one eye. The day of the launch, Cassie and her producer, Ryan Leslie, drove to Virgin Records, a big music store in Times Square, to celebrate. They were greeted by a crowd of Fans holding up CDs they had just spot.

[Debra Roberts]

I've been following you since you're on MySpace, yo. I got.

[Brian Buckmire]

I was here.

[Debra Roberts]

I got to work early to get this, yo.

[Brian Buckmire]

Now that she was a Bad Boy artist with a hit single, Cassie was becoming more visible on a national stage. She had a big moment in the spotlight in 2006 when she performed in front of a live audience for the popular TV show 106 and park on Black Entertainment Television or BET. Both the cable network and the show were a really big deal at the time. Here's DJ and ABC News contributor Megan Wright.

[Debra Roberts]

106 and park was, in the early 2000s, the platform for hip hop. Anybody who was promoting something in black and in hip hop culture, you stopped by 106 and park, you know, and it was really important, especially for those new artists, because a Lot of the time it was when, you know, the fans would see these artists perform for the first time. And that was exactly what happened with.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie as a teenager in the late 90s and early 2000s. 106 and park was the place to see my favorite performers and check out up and coming artists. The show brought hip hop to the forefront in a way that was mainstream, big, and just cool. Everyone watched it, so if you missed it and showed up to school the next day, you'd be lost in the conversation. Cassie appearing on 106 and park meant she had made it onto one of the biggest and coolest stages there was. The day of Cassie's big debut on 106 and park, she looked nervous. Her voice sounded shaky, tentative. You could see her eyes D across the audience. Put your hands together for the princess of next selection. Make some noise, Cassie. Come on. What's up, bet? What? At one point, the camera pulls back to show the crowd and there's only a few people dancing. The whole thing feels very low energy.

[Debra Roberts]

Bad Boy Cassie had one of the most disastrous performances we've seen on live television on 106 and Park.

[Brian Buckmire]

Jamilah Lemieux is a writer and cultural critic. She remembers Cassie's BET debut.

[Debra Roberts]

And this was very early into her career, just, you know, within months of her debut single, Me and U coming out. And Diddy takes to the Internet to defend her very passionately, you know, in a way that didn't seem to line up with who he had been say on making the band and having these very high, rigorous standards for performance.

[Brian Buckmire]

Some fans didn't think Cassie met those high standards for Bad Boy. I found an online petition to get Cassie kicked off the label that referenced both this BET performance and another one on MTV. The petition got over 3,000 signatures, so not tons considering she had hundreds of thousands of followers on MySpace. But still, it was pretty vicious. The petition was titled We Prefer Lassie over Cassie. And whoever started it complained of Cassie's penguin moaning vocals. But after the BET performance, Diddy seemed to stand by Cassie. He told mtv, it just made me appreciate that she got nervous and it was kind of cute to me, to be honest. He said he told her, it's like riding a bike. You're gonna fall down. You gotta keep on getting on. At the time, that might have seemed like a label exec defending his artist standing by her, maybe even a bit of fatherly advice. But those comments to MTV where he described Cassie as cute actually showed up in Cassey's 2023 lawsuit. Against Combs. The suit said that by pointing out how young and naive Cassie was, Combs was actually laying the groundwork for his, quote, manipulative and coercive romantic relationship with a woman nearly two decades junior. A lot of what we've learned about Cassie's experience of her relationship with Sean Combs comes from this lawsuit, allegations that he again vehemently denies. But because the lawsuit was settled quickly and the details of the settlement were sealed, all we have is her 35 page complaint to share her side of the story, her account of how their relationship started, what the alleged abuse was like for her and how she says it impacted her life and her career. Cassie hasn't spoken about the alleged abuse since the settlement. It's common in settlements like this for the two sides to agree not to say bad things about each other. So all we've heard from Cassie is an Instagram post where she thanked fans for their support but didn't mention Diddy by name. So what happens if we take the accounts of hidden abuse Cassie alleges in her lawsuit and compare them with the parts of her life that were visible to the public these last 20 years? What picture emerges? That's coming up after the break. Ryan Reynolds here from IMT Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $dollars a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities.

[Debra Roberts]

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[Brian Buckmire]

I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of 45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full [e-mail] hello, it's Robin Roberts here. Hey guys, it's George Stephanopoulos here. Hey everybody, it's Michael Strahan here. Wake up with Good Morning America. Robin GE GEORGE michael, gma, America's favorite number one morning show. The morning's first breaking news. Exclusive interviews, what everyone will be talking about that day. Put some good in your morning and start your day with GMA. Good Morning America. Put the good in your morning. GMA 7A on ABC. The missing child is Lucia Blix, 9 years old. Please let her come back home safely. April 16th. The kidnappers plumbed it meticulously.

[Debra Roberts]

If money is what it takes to.

[Brian Buckmire]

Get her back, we're gonna pay it. The secrets they hide. You can't talk about this. You can't write about it are the clues. The mother's hiding something.

[Debra Roberts]

I know it.

[Brian Buckmire]

To find her, tell me where she is.

[Debra Roberts]

The Stolen girl series premiere April 16th.

[Brian Buckmire]

On Freeform and stream on Hulu. In September of 2007, Cassie threw a party to celebrate her 21st birthday. The party was at a hotel in Las Vegas. In photos, you can see her wearing shimmery pants and a white tank top. She's smiling, holding a glass of bubbly. According to Cassie's lawsuit, Combs showed up to the party uninvited. He brought some of his celebrity friends along, too, including Britney Spears. Combs and his longtime girlfriend, Kim Porter, had reportedly broken up. They were together on and off for about 13 years and raised four children together. In her lawsuit, Cassie alleged that Combs forcibly kissed her in a bathroom that night of her birthday party and that she did not consent to his unwanted contact. That fall, according to Cassie's lawsuit, Combs invited her to come to Miami by herself under the pretense of a work obligation. She says he hired a party promoter to make fake flyers for an event that she was supposed to host. But Cassie's lawsuit claims there was no party. It was all a sham. The suit says Cassie was, quote, stunned at how easily Mr. Combs was able to recruit others to lie for him. Alone with Combs at his Miami home, Cassie alleged he pressured her to take drugs. She felt she couldn't say no because it might hurt her career. And after she took the drugs, the lawsuit says, she became more intoxicated than she ever had been before. And that's when she alleges Combs had sex with her. Then, Cassie alleges Combs used his wealth, power and influence to take control of different parts of her life, first renting her an apartment in New York within walking distance of his, then doing the same in la. He paid for her car, and when she went to events, he paid for her clothes and makeup, too. She alleged he used drugs to keep her complacent and compliant. Cassie alleges that she became increasingly isolated and frightened as her relationship with Combs escalated into sexual and physical violence. As the years ticked by, she says she was, quote, unable to see a pathway out of Mr. Combs abusive hold on her life. Sean Combs categorically denies these allegations. In 2008, Cassie released a new single with Bad Boy called Official Girl featuring Lil Wayne. As Cassie promoted the track on radio stations across the country, she kept getting asked, when are we going to see your next album?

[Debra Roberts]

So tell me more about the album. What are we going to expect? I'm still actually working on it, which is kind of crazy because I've been working on it for a while, but I'm so, like, adamant about it. Like, second chances are so rare and being able to do another album is big for me. So I'm really making. Making sure that it's perfect as it can possibly be. So it's coming out early 2009.

[Brian Buckmire]

Now it's 2009. A few years have passed since Cassie's first album came out. That summer, Cassie does an interview on a hip hop station near Albany, New York.

[Debra Roberts]

Cassie 6.3 so it's been a couple years since we've heard some music from you. So what you been up to over.

[Brian Buckmire]

The past couple years?

[Debra Roberts]

I started recording and then I took a little break to shoot a movie, then went back to recording and been recording, working on that album ever since.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie says the album was pretty much done, that it was being mixed and that she even had a title for it.

[Debra Roberts]

That's awesome. So what's the album gonna be called? Electrolove. All right. You got an idea of when we can expect it later this year, obviously. Fall this year.

[Brian Buckmire]

But by the fall, Cassie's sophomore album was still mia. About a month after that radio interview, Cassie made an appearance at Diddy's White party for the first time. It's the same party that we told you about in episode one, where Ashton Kutcher swung across the pool, Tarzan style. Cassie wasn't officially Diddy's girlfriend at this point, but the young artist caught the attention of the cameras.

[Debra Roberts]

Oh, well, I've never been to the White Party before. I don't know. I'm excited to see what's inside. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I'm excited.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie looked radiant in a white mini dress and gold strappy heels. Her image had changed from the Me and you debut single days. Now she was in her early 20s. She'd recently shaved one side of her head, giving her an edgy look that made her seem older and kind of punk rock. This was a daring hairstyle that got Cassie a lot of attention. But years later, stories start emerging to suggest that bold look wasn't Cassie's Choice. In 2022, rapper Young Jock told YouTuber and music journalist DJ Vlad about the time he says he was hanging out with Cassie and Diddy in Miami. He says they were partying at a club when Diddy saw a woman with one side of her head shaved. The way Young Jock recalled it, Diddy rushed Over to Cassie, came on and said, yo, yo, Cassie, tomorrow I want you to shave the side of your head. I'm like, what the kind of request is that? So I was looking at Cass. I was like, well, I was like, you're not about to do that, are you? She said, well, I mean, whatever Sean wants, I'm gonna do. We searched, but it doesn't appear Diddy or Cassie have responded publicly to young Jock's account. But back in 2009, Cassie said in interviews that she'd been thinking about shaving her head for a while. It would be several more years before Cassie and Combs hard launched their relationship in a public way. In 2012, they started appearing together at glitzy events like Paris Fashion Week. They were both always dressed to the nines, but it was clear who the bigger star was. At the 2017 Met Gala, the couple was photographed wearing couture. Diddy talked to Vogue's Andre Leon Talley about what he was wearing.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Buckmire]

This is it. This is fearlessness. Cassie waited a few steps behind until Andre motioned her to come over. And you got a little bit of drama. Wait a minute. Come up here, Darlene. Here's ABC News entertainment contributor Kelly Carter talking about Cassie's shift from musician to girlfriend.

[Debra Roberts]

She was his artist, and everyone was obviously aware of that. But I don't know that all of us also thought about how that power dynamic played out as being his lover and also, you know, him being her boss, too. I don't think we thought about that at the time.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie's new role as Combs official girlfriend starts to redefine how she was treated and also perceived. And Combs had a hand in shaping that perception. Like in 2015, he came out with a new fragrance called 3am he produced a risque video starring him and Cassie to promote it. The scenes of them embracing and kissing are intercut with the suggestion of violence. Cassie slaps and shoves Combs. His hands encircle her neck. The minute long ad was so explicit that some television networks reportedly refused to air it. This was the same year the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey came out. And this ad was compared to that. Combs went on Andy Cohen's Bravo talk show Watch what Happens Live to show him the video. Now that's your real girlfriend. Oh, she is fully naked. In the video, Cassie is straddling Combs, her body naked and exposed. Combs doesn't say anything in this interview with Andy Cohen about Cassie being a recording artist on his label. For the purposes of this Conversation. She's his girlfriend and a model. Remember, Cassie had been modeling on and off since she was 12. Now let me ask you this. Did Cassie object at all to any of the nudity or. She was totally cool with Cassie. She's from Europe. Yeah. So she's open. No, no, it's not that. It's just like when you've been a model and you know you're doing it for the art, it really wasn't done for the commerce. It was done more for the art side of it. Side note, Cassie's not from Europe. She grew up in Connecticut. Anyways, what stands out to me here is that Cassie the recording artist, she's no longer in the frame. It's like she's become more of an accessory, an extension of Combs and his brand. In 2015, Bad Boy Records celebrated its 20th anniversary. The next year, Diddy organized a 24 city family reunion tour to celebrate. He was the headliner and he invited legacy Bad Boy artists like Lil Kim Mace and Faith Evans to share the stage. Some of the shows included special guest appearances from artists like Jay Z, Usher, Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige. Cassie performed at some of these concerts, but she wasn't a headliner and she doesn't show up in the press release. And if you look for her, you can find her. She's there, at least at some of the shows, but she's not out front and she's not being promoted. She's clearly part of the supporting cast, so maybe that makes sense. After all, she hasn't had another hit song in 10 years. She's sort of a one hit wonder at this point. At least that's one interpretation. But maybe she's not up front because she's being stifled. People like DJ and culture critic Megan Wright began to wonder if Cassie's career was being held back intentionally.

[Debra Roberts]

I think being in the music industry, you would hear these rumors and then you have these questions about whether or not Diddy was controlling Cassie and whether or not he was controlling her music. Because you look at her debut in 2006 and then her music career after that, you know, nothing that she did really hit the same marks as they do in 2006, which is common and can happen to other artists. But we began to see her more in the public as Diddy's girlfriend and less as the artist Cassie, but she.

[Brian Buckmire]

Was still recording music. Back in 2012, an anonymous fan posted 66 unreleased Cassie tracks on a social media site called Tumblr that was popular at the time. It isn't clear how the fan got these songs or why some of them had never been released by Bad Boy. The collection was titled the Cassie Trilogy, and if you search around the Internet, you can still find a link with all of the leaked recordings, including this track titled Sound of Love. We don't know if this collection of leaked songs put pressure on Bad Boy, but a year later, in 2013, the label released a Cassie mixtape called Rock a Bye Baby. A mixtape isn't the same as a commercial studio album. It might be less formally produced with songs meant to please the fans or offer tracks that don't make the cut for an album. A lot of times you can download it for free, and that was the case for Cassie's mixtape. Even so, the online music magazine Pitchfork gave Cassie's mixtape a glowing review, saying that now Cassie is more than a singer. Now she's got flow and a remarkable range. Here's one of the singles from Cassie's mixtape. It's called Numb New Young Love.

[Debra Roberts]

The beat in the vox breezy tonic fresh like rain My beat man's cool he's the freakiest box Singing on my coke Rock singing on my chin When.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie's mixtape dropped, she did interviews on television and local radio shows to promote it. And she was asked the same question people have been asking her for years. When is her actual album coming out? Here's Cassie in an interview with a radio host named DJ Ski in May of 2013. How long has it been since the last album? Was it like six years now?

[Debra Roberts]

Seven years.

[Brian Buckmire]

Seven years.

[Debra Roberts]

Seven years.

[Brian Buckmire]

Why the long break for you in your mind? How would you break it down for the fans that are like, oh, Cassie.

[Debra Roberts]

We got the real Al what that I think the most real thing that I can say, and I actually have never said in an interview before, it has a lot to do with your presence at a label. You know how well you're respected with the people that you're working with.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie explains that over the years she put out some songs here and there, but they didn't really take off. And the reason she never released a new album was because she needed to prove herself more. She needs her earn the respect of her label. Remember this label she needed to prove herself to? It was controlled by her boyfriend, Sean Combs. Coming up, Cassie starts working with a new and talented producer who tells us what she glimpsed of Cassie's troubled relationship with Diddy.

[Debra Roberts]

The Stanley cup playoffs.

[Brian Buckmire]

Man, your nerves might be shot and.

[Debra Roberts]

You might be screaming your lungs out.

[Brian Buckmire]

And you might be clinging to hope.

[Debra Roberts]

And it might be tarp's off time and the guy next to you might be your new best friend and you might be dreaming about the cup and.

[Brian Buckmire]

You might be completely lost for words, but that's what it's all about.

[Debra Roberts]

That's hockey. The Stanley cup playoffs, presented by Geico.

[Brian Buckmire]

Begin April 20th on ESPN.

[Debra Roberts]

Hey, I'm Brad Milke. You may know me as the host.

[Brian Buckmire]

Of ABC Audio's daily news podcast. Start here. But I'd like to add aspiring true crime expert to my resume and here's how I'm gonna make it happen.

[Debra Roberts]

Every week I'm gonna unpack the biggest.

[Brian Buckmire]

True crime story that everyone is talking about. ABC's got some unique access here, so I'll talk to the reporters and producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years.

[Debra Roberts]

We'll bring you the latest developments and the larger context on the true crime.

[Brian Buckmire]

Stories you've been hearing about. Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best. This Friday, the Amateur arrives in imax.

[Debra Roberts]

I want to find and kill the.

[Brian Buckmire]

People who murdered my wife. Critics rave. The Amateur is a 10 unpredictable ride. You're just not a killer. Charlie train me. That constantly finds new and inventive ways to up the stakes. The first one you kill, you let the other ones know you're coming.

[Debra Roberts]

Got one of them all.

[Brian Buckmire]

Academy Award winner Rami Malek and Academy Award nominee Laurence Fishburne. The Amateur Baby. PG13 may be inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters and MX Friday. Get tickets now. In 2015, Cassie started working with a Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter named Tiffany Reddit. She and Cassie are around the same age. As they collaborated in the studio, they became friends. Tiffany was one of the first people with access to Cassie and Diddy's world who spoke out publicly about the alleged abuse. After Cassie settled her lawsuit, Tiffany remembers this one night she was out with Cassie in Miami. They were celebrating Cassie's birthday at a club and then they decided to go to McDonald's. As they were driving, she says, Cassie's phone lit up. It was Diddy.

[Debra Roberts]

I remember her being like, you want to see something crazy? And I was like, what? And she answered the phone and as soon as he answered, where the are you? Like, just. I had never heard, like he was so upset that she was out. He was just like, I remember him screaming and saying, is somebody in the car with you? I know someone's in the car with you. And I'm just sitting there like, you know, and he just is scolding her for Going out for her birthday, us being out, you know, y'all know what time it is. Like, we was kids, you know.

[Brian Buckmire]

Tiffany says it was the first time she witnessed this kind of dynamic firsthand. She found it shocking and disturbing.

[Debra Roberts]

When we got back to her house from McDonald's, he called her again, called her on FaceTime, and he made her show him the house. Like, who all was there? It was so weird. That was like, my first time where I was, like, with my own eyes. And that was before she had even told me anything. So that was like my first time being like, something is wrong.

[Brian Buckmire]

When asked to comment on Tiffany Redd's account, Combs, attorney, in a statement to ABC News, said, Mr. Combs cannot comment on settled litigation, will not comment on pending litigation, and cannot address every allegation picked up by the press from any source, no matter how unreliable. Tiffany says there was one night, actually another of Cassie's birthdays, where she saw a particularly menacing and controlling side of Combs that alarmed her. Cassie also described this incident in her lawsuit. It was her 29th birthday, and Diddy was throwing her a surprise party. As the party was winding down, Cassie told Tiffany and some other friends that she wanted to leave to go do karaoke soon. Tiffany says people from Diddy's team circled.

[Debra Roberts]

Around them, and there were people from Puff's team that were trying to discourage her from leaving. And I thought that was weird. Like, why are these people, like, hovering around us?

[Brian Buckmire]

Despite the pressure to stay, Cassie and Tiffany made their way to the karaoke club. Later, Diddy showed up with his security detail, and Tiffany says they zeroed in on Cassie again. She says all of a sudden, things got really tense when Diddy showed up.

[Debra Roberts]

His security is around him. They have her in the corner, and he's in her face, and he's cussing her out. And I couldn't really, like, hear what he was saying, but, you know, he was really mad. He was really close to her face, and she just had her head down. And when I was, like, standing over to the side, she just was kind of, like, looking up at me. So then it was decided. Cassie's leaving.

[Brian Buckmire]

She's leaving with Puff at around three or four in the morning. Tiffany says Cassie and Diddy returned to Cassie's house. Tiffany was sleeping over that night, and she says Cassie seems sluggish and sedated.

[Debra Roberts]

She didn't look the way she looked when she left, you know, and she didn't look like she was able to say, yes, I would like this, or no, I would not like that. And so I said to him, I was just like, puff, she doesn't have to have sex with you. She doesn't want to, you know. And he's like, I flew all the way from Miami. She gonna get this birthday D. And yeah, he was like yelling at us, cussing us out. Cause she didn't want to have sex with him. And then he whisked her away again.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie's lawsuit includes allegations that Combs supplied her with excessive amounts of drugs and coerced her into sexual encounters that he orchestrated, directed, and also allegedly filmed. These encounters are described in the lawsuit as freak offs or fos. And they often involved one or more male sex workers. Sex workers he allegedly instructed Cassie to hire. The lawsuit describes how Combs treated these forced encounters as a kind of personal art project. He controlled the lighting and the camera shots in the videos he took. He allegedly told Cassie what to say and what to wear, even down to the shade of her nail polish sometimes. These events allegedly lasted for multiple days at a time. Cassie allegedly often got IV fluids afterwards so she could recover. Combs defense attorneys claim in a court filing that videos depicting sexual activity between the rapper Cassie and male sex workers confirm Mr. Combs innocence because they show sexual activity among consenting adults. To Cassie, the videos had another purpose. She alleges that Combs used them to remind her that he was the one in control. According to the lawsuit, there was one time when they were on a flight and he showed her a video of a freak off she thought had been deleted. Seeing that video, it underscored how trapped she was. He had this collateral, something that he could use to enforce his power and keep her compliant. Here's Tiffany Redd again.

[Debra Roberts]

The night of the party was a freak off. The night when he was saying, tell your girl she wants some birthday, that was a freak off that night. That's where he was taking her when he was cussing her out and she didn't want to go. That was what's going on.

[Brian Buckmire]

For Tiffany, allegedly being a witness to all of this was upsetting and confusing. She says it was like she was in this alternate reality, a kind of Twilight Zone where something that seemed so weird and wrong to her was being treated by everyone else like it was normal.

[Debra Roberts]

It's so crazy because it's like that moment happened and it was like no one talked about it. I felt like everyone was used to it but me.

[Brian Buckmire]

Tiffany says as she witnessed things that concerned her. She started asking Cassie questions and Cassie confided in her up to a point.

[Debra Roberts]

She Would tell me, like small stuff. She would never say, like everything that was going on. But it didn't take long because I witnessed stuff because I started asking questions like, are you okay? Like, what the hell was that? You know, and then, you know, she's sitting there trying to explain it away and it doesn't make sense.

[Brian Buckmire]

Tiffany told ABC News that Cassie tried to leave Combs, but it was hard to escape his hold.

[Debra Roberts]

There's been so many times that girl tried to leave and try to get out of there. And it is a well oiled machine. It's not just him doing all the things that he's doing, it's other people. It's, you know, he wants to talk to you or, you know, your record won't come out if you. Da da da da da. You know, it was like, it wasn't that simple.

[Brian Buckmire]

We asked Tiffany Redd the question so many people had been asking Cassie for over a decade. Why didn't Cassie ever come out with a second album?

[Debra Roberts]

Because he was using the music to control Cassie. Cause it was never, at least from what it seems like, it was never gonna come out. It was never supposed to come out. And the only, she told me the only time he was willing to like really talk about the plans for her music was during the freak offs. So he tied that to that.

[Brian Buckmire]

So now if we zoom all the way out and look at Cassie's career trajectory through the lens of a relationship that was allegedly coercive and abusive, a new picture comes into focus. Here's journalist Toure. He's been covering hip hop culture since the 1990s. She was working on an album for 10 years. There were singles in 2012 and then in 2017. This is not really an album. This was never intended to come out. This was a pacifier just to keep her happy in between what we do at night.

[Debra Roberts]

And it's a method of control.

[Brian Buckmire]

This is how he controls people. That if you want to be in.

[Debra Roberts]

To be a singer, a rapper, producer.

[Brian Buckmire]

In my circle, whatever, a songwriter, then.

[Debra Roberts]

You got to participate in this when I want you to.

[Brian Buckmire]

If you don't, then you're out. So Combs wielded power, including the power to catapult someone's career or shut them down. Tiffany says that everyone around him seemed to be afraid of him. And according to Cassie's lawsuit, people had legitimate reasons to feel that way. For example, the lawsuit states that Combs once threatened to blow up the car of a musician named Kid Cudi. Cassie briefly dated him in 2011 when she and diddy were going through a rough patch. According to Cassie's lawsuit, Diddy was using her phone when he discovered emails from Kid Cudi. Cassie alleges Diddy erupted into a rage when he saw the messages and then lunged at her with a corkscrew. She managed to get away and went to Kid Cudi's home to escape. But someone who worked for Combs told Cassie that Combs wanted to talk and so she went back only to be attacked by Combs a second time. According to her lawsuit, after this incident, Cassie claims she went back to her parents house in Connecticut where her mom photographed her bruises. Fast forward to 2012. Cassie and Combs were attending Fashion Week in Paris. This was the trip when they first went public as a couple. It was on this trip Combs allegedly told Cassie that he was going to blow up Kid Cudi's car and that he wanted to make sure that Kid Cudi was home when it happened and that his friends were there too. And then Kid Cudi's car reportedly did blow up in his driveway around this time. He confirmed it to the New York Times after Cassie's lawsuit came out. Here's how Charlamagne Tha God and his co host from the Breakfast Club radio show reacted to the news of Diddy's alleged involvement.

[Debra Roberts]

Kid Cudi confirmed it that the car blew up.

[Brian Buckmire]

That. That really happens in real life. You'll be blowing up cars.

[Debra Roberts]

I don't.

[Brian Buckmire]

I mean, Kid Cudi did happen in movies.

[Debra Roberts]

Diddy did it. He just said it blew up.

[Brian Buckmire]

Yeah, he said the car blew up in his driveway. Well, that's a hell of a coincidence.

[Debra Roberts]

Yeah, it is definitely coincidental.

[Brian Buckmire]

Cassie's lawsuit says she was terrified after this incident because now she claims she could see what Combs was capable of and the systems he allegedly had in place to make good on his threats. Local authorities never charge Combs for anything related to Kid Cudi's car explosion. And his lawyers have stood firm in response to these claims, denying Combs had any involvement. The public didn't know about Diddy's alleged involvement with this Kid Cudi incident at the time, but there was a moment during his relationship with Cassie when Diddy was publicly violent. Not towards her, but a coach who was working with one of his sons. This was in 2015 when Combs allegedly assaulted his son's UCLA football coach with a kettlebell. Combs reportedly didn't like how this coach was treating his son Justin during football practice. He is said to have confronted the coach in his office and things escalated. UCLA called the police. But the 45 year old rapper known to fans as Diddy, seen here in the back of a police car and then in handcuffs being walked into the jail, now facing three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of battery. The footage of Combs being handcuffed and taken to jail, it definitely made headlines. But soon Combs was released on bail. No charges were ever filed, and everyone seemed to move on. Here's author and journalist Justin Tinsley. Again, it was a big news story.

[Debra Roberts]

When it first happened because this is.

[Brian Buckmire]

Diddy and a big time college football program and he's fighting people on behalf of his son. That was a big case and that was one where I thought would lead to more legal ramifications than it did. But it was a headline for a moment, but then it eventually, like most everything else, eventually just faded away. Writer and cultural critic Jamilah Lemieux says being a strong dad who takes pride in his children is an image Diddy has cultivated for a long time. Diddy has seven children with four different women. His youngest is a toddler named Love, born in 2022, who has her own Instagram.

[Debra Roberts]

And I think that that helps to sanitize him. I think that helped to, you know, further detract from some of the negative things that have been said about him over the years. I think the Diddy's family man image did a lot for him in terms of, you know, perhaps protecting him from scrutiny over certain things.

[Brian Buckmire]

In 2016, less than a year after the UCLA kettlebell incident, Diddy walked the red carpet at a Hollywood movie premiere with Cassie. She was co starring in a rom com called the Perfect Match. That day, Cassie was dressed apart in a fitted glittery dress. Did he look sharp in a three piece suit with diamond studs shining in both ears? He clutched her hand as they posed for photos. Lots of people have re examined this red carpet footage looking for signs of bruises that might have been covered up with makeup because now we know the premiere was just too. After Combs attacked Cassie in a hotel in Los Angeles, hotel surveillance cameras caught Diddy shoving and kicking Cassie. But as cameras flashed on the red carpet in 2016, that abusive attack was still a secret. And for years it stayed that way. Here's Jamiela Lemieux again.

[Debra Roberts]

You know, it's really tough to think about what may have been going through Cassie's in some of those, you know, somewhat famous pictures we've seen of her and Diddy, you know, walking red carpets together, hugged up in bars and restaurants. You know, she very well may have felt that she was trying to keep him pleased, keep him calm, keep him, you know, steady so he doesn't attack her.

[Brian Buckmire]

It would be two more years before Cassie extracted herself from her relationship with Coach Combs in 2018. Her lawsuit alleges that Combs raped her in her home after she tried to break up with him. This marked a turning point. Cassie took deliberate steps to cut Combs out of her life, including moving out of her home that he paid for and taking legal action to end her record deal, a deal that never led to the breakout success she'd hoped for all those years ago when she was just 19 years old. By the time she ended her relationship with Combs, Cassie was in her early 30s. Her lawsuit says she sought inpatient rehabilitation treatment for trauma and struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. By 2019, Kim Cassie was in a new relationship. She married a fitness coach, and the couple has two young daughters. She recently announced on Instagram they're expecting a third child, a boy, she seems to have moved on with her life. Although her lawsuit says that she, quote, continues to suffer from intense emotional distress and that she will forever live with the physical and psychological repercussions of the over a decade of violence, fear and exploitation she endured, Cassie's story could have stayed shrouded in silence. That appeared to be the playbook from the beginning. Combs was the big celebrity. She was the protege, the sidekick, the girlfriend, the plus one for fancy events and red carpets. He was at the center of the story. She was the accessory. But four years after she cut Combs out of her life, something happened that made Cassie take action. Most people didn't see it coming. Now, instead of being silent in the background, Cassie decided to speak up, and she used her lawsuit as a megaphone. Ventura speaking up now.

[Debra Roberts]

With the expiration of New York's Adult.

[Brian Buckmire]

Survivors act fast approaching, saying in a statement, after. After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other.

[Debra Roberts]

Women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.

[Brian Buckmire]

And Cassie coming forward, that inspired lots of other people to come forward, too. That's next time. If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence violence, please call the Domestic violence hotline at 1-800-942-6906 or go to www.thehotline.org. the case against Diddy is a production of ABC Audio. I'm Brian Buckmire. This podcast was written and produced by Nancy Rose Rosenbaum. Vika Aronson and Camille Peterson. Tracy Samuelson is our Story editor. Associate Producer Amira Williams Production help from Shane McKeon and Meg Fierro Fact checker Audrey Mostek Story Consultant Sweeney St Ville Supervising Producer Sasha Aslanian Original music by Evan Viola Mixing by Rick Kwan. Ariel Chester is our Social Media producer. This podcast was powered by the journalists at impact by Nightline 2020, GMA and the ABC News Investigative Unit. Thanks to those teams and special thanks to Stephanie Maurice, Liz Alessi and Katie Dendas. Josh Cohan is ABC Audio Director of Podcast Programming. Laura Mayer is the Executive Producer with T Mobile. No trendspotter has to deal with trendspotty service because T Mobile helps keep you.

[Debra Roberts]

Connected from big cities to your hometown.

[Brian Buckmire]

On America's largest 5G network. Switch now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off at the $800 per line via prepaid cart. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com backslash keepandswitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device, credit service port in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption. Required card is no cash access and expires in six months. Hello, it's Robin Roberts here. Hey guys, it's George Stephanopoulos here. Hey everybody, it's Michael Strahan here. Wake up with Good Morning America. Robin George Michael, gma, America's favorite number one morning show, the morning's first breaking news, exclusive interviews, what everyone will be talking about that day.

[Debra Roberts]

Put some good in your morning and.

[Brian Buckmire]

Start your day with GMA. Good Morning America. Put the good in your morning. GMA 7A on ABC.