Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Before yesterdayMain stream

With Diddy on trial, 50 Cent reignites their beef by poking fun at Jay-Z. Here's a timeline of the decadeslong feud.

This is a split image of two Black men. On the left, the man is wearing a gray New York Yankees cap. He has a black beard and is wearing a large gold chain around his neck with a diamond "50" pendant. He's wearing a gray T-shirt with a metallic pattern on it. On the right, the man has short black hair and a beard. He's wearing gold-tinted sunglasses and a brown fur coat with a black T-shirt underneath. There is a gold chain and large bejewelled pendant around his neck and hanging over his chest.
50 Cent and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP/Kathy Willens/AP

  • Sean "Diddy" Combs is on trial for racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
  • 50 Cent used the trail as an opportunity to reignite their decadeslong feud.
  • On Wednesday, 50 Cent made fun of Diddy and Jay-Z's friendship.

With Sean "Diddy" Combs on trial over charges including racketeering and sex trafficking, 50 Cent has been gleefully fanning the flames of their two decadeslong feud.

The trial is separate to a civil lawsuit filed by Diddy's ex partner Cassie in November 2023, accusing him of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking (which she said was settled for $20 million). Diddy has denied the allegations.

The beef between the two rappers kicked off publicly in 2006 when 50 Cent released a diss track called "The Bomb," which accused Diddy of knowing who shot and killed The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997.

Since then, the pair have taken numerous jabs at one another. In 2010, Diddy described 50 Cent as a "hating ass crap" after he became the manager of Rick Ross in 2009 — another rapper who 50 Cent had beef with.

Here are some key moments from the beef, and who else has become tangled up in it.

50 Cent joked about Diddy and Jay-Z's friendship

On Wednesday, 50 Cent shared an Instagram post showing photos of Jay-Z and Diddy over the years.

"Friends till the end, Jay you still there? We blew up Kid cudi's car to show him who's the BOSS! LOL," 50 Cent wrote in the caption speaking as Diddy.

Cassie's 2023 lawsuit against Diddy claimed that he was responsible for blowing up Kid Cudi's car. In her testimony during Diddy's ongoing trial, Cassie said she admitted to Diddy she cheated on him with Kid Cudi in 2011.

50 Cent commissioned a documentary about Diddy soon after Cassie filed her lawsuit

After Cassie filed her November 2023 lawsuit, by December 50 Cent's production company had started work on a documentary about the allegations.

50 Cent later posted a clip from the documentary featuring the Bad Boy Records rapper Mark Curry, alleging that Diddy spiked girls' drinks at parties.

🚨 G-Unit Film & Television proceeds from this Documentary will go to victims of Sexual Assault and Rape ! pic.twitter.com/nNqdFKHACp

— 50cent (@50cent) December 7, 2023

50 Cent confirmed to Variety in September 2024 that he's making the documentary for Netflix. It's unclear when it will be released.

A representative from Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the documentary.

50 Cent taunted Diddy when he was arrested

When the details of a federal indictment emerged, alleging that law enforcement seized narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant during raids on Diddy's mansions in March 2024, 50 Cent wasn't silent for long.

He wrote on X: "Here I am keeping good company with @DrewBarrymoreTV and I don't have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house."

Here I am keeping good company with @DrewBarrymoreTV and I don’t have 1,000 bottles of lube at the house • https://t.co/jnbpt4Vpb3 pic.twitter.com/JEo2zqRe4Q

— 50cent (@50cent) September 17, 2024

50 Cent made fun of Diddy after the authorities raided his mansions

50 Cent also taunted Diddy when federal officers raided his properties. In a since-deleted Instagram post from March 2024, he shared a screenshot of a TMZ article about the raids and wrote: "Now it's not Diddy do it, it's Diddy Done. They don't come like that unless they got a case."

50 cent is dragging Diddy on instagram 😂 he posted a lot more too pic.twitter.com/jUjEIYfg83

— Dustin Dailey (@ThreeDailey) March 26, 2024

Page Six reported at the time that 50 Cent also posted a screenshot of Diddy's two sons, Justin and King Combs, in handcuffs, but that post was also deleted.

In the caption, Page Six reported he wrote: "Shit just got real. The Fed's in all the cribs, damn they got the kids in cuffs."

In December 2024, Diddy posted a statement on X that read: "Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family, and for the truth."

Representatives for 50 Cent and Diddy did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The 8 biggest bombshells from the Diddy trial — including a 'death threat' described by Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard

A courtroom sketch of Sean Combs among other people.
A courtroom sketch from September of Sean Combs and his attorneys.

Elizabeth Williams via AP

  • Cassie Ventura testified for more than 20 hours at Sean "Diddy" Combs' criminal trial.
  • Her testimony revealed big settlements, "freak off" details, and a Playboy Mansion overdose.
  • Here are 8 of the biggest revelations to have come out of the trial so far.

The R&B singer Cassie VenturaSean "Diddy" Combs' ex-girlfriend and the catalyst for his public downfall — testified at his criminal trial last week about humiliating sexual violence she says she endured throughout their 11-year relationship.

Ventura spent more than 20 hours on the witness stand over the course of four days, at times giving tearful testimony, in a packed Manhattan federal courtroom as Combs sat opposite her at the defense table.

The singer, while eight months pregnant, played a central role in Combs' ongoing sex-trafficking and racketeering trial as the prosecution's star witness. During the trial's opening statements, a prosecutor told jurors that Combs used "lies, drugs, threats, and violence to force and coerce" Ventura and later an anonymous Jane Doe into dayslong sex performances that the hip-hop mogul called "freak offs."

Combs was arrested in September on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution — the culmination of months of lawsuits and public accusations of sexual assault and other misconduct.

It was Ventura's November 2023 lawsuit that began this avalanche of accusations. Filed about 10 months before the criminal charges, it accused Combs of rape, physical abuse, and controlling her during their relationship. The lawsuit was settled a day later for what Ventura testified was $20 million.

Combs has denied all wrongdoing. The music tycoon is arguing through his defense team that all sexual encounters were consensual, including the drug-fueled freak offs. The defense also argues that any violence fell far short of sex trafficking and that his accusers have a financial motive to implicate him.

Here are some of the most striking moments from the trial so far.

Dawn Richard's testimony highlighted a brutal beating, an alleged death threat, and flowers
Dawn Richard and Sean Combs.
Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard testified against Sean "Diddy" Combs at his trial.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for MTV

Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard was the fifth prosecution witness, and her testimony on May 16 alleged that in 2009, Combs brutally beat Ventura after she took too long to cook him dinner.

"Where's my fucking egg?" Richard recounted Combs shouting in 2009, as he stormed into the kitchen of his rented Los Angeles mansion.

"He took the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her in the head, and she fell to the ground," Richard testified.

Ventura cowered on the floor "in a fetal position" as Combs punched her and kicked her, she said. Then he dragged her upstairs by her hair, she said, adding that she then heard the sound of screaming and breaking glass from the third floor.

The next day, Combs called Ventura and Richard into the mansion's first-floor recording studio, she said.

"He said that what we saw was passion, and it was what lovers in a relationship do," Richard said.

She said Combs told the two women that "he was trying to take us to the top, and that, where he comes from, people go missing if they say things like that, like, if people talk. And then he gave us flowers."

While back on the stand on May 19, Richard re-emphasized that she felt this was a threat to her life.

The details in the testimony came as a surprise to Combs' lead defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, who called it prejudicial and "just a drop dead lie."

"It didn't happen," the lawyer complained to the judge. "And the reason we know it didn't happen is that Ms. Ventura didn't talk about it" during her four days on the witness stand.

On cross-examination on May 19, Richard agreed that she only recalled the alleged death threat in speaking with prosecutors earlier this month. It had gone unmentioned, she agreed, during a half-dozen prior interviews with prosecutors.

Combs attacked Ventura over bathroom use, prosecutor and ex-bestie say
Sean Diddy Combs and Cassie Ventura
Combs and Ventura had an on-and-off relationship for 11 years.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images; Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Ventura was beaten by Combs for the most minor of perceived infractions, including taking too long in the bathroom, prosecutor Emily Johnson said in her opening statement.

"He beat her when she didn't answer the phone when he called. He beat her when she left a freak off without his permission," Johnson said.

Ventura's ex-best friend, Kerry Morgan, was called to the witness stand on May 19 and told jurors about two attacks on Ventura she witnessed, including one while on vacation in Jamaica in 2013.

Morgan said Ventura at one point went to the bathroom at the residence where they were staying, and Combs said, "She's taking too long."

"A few minutes later, I heard her screaming — like guttural. Terrifying," Morgan said. "He was dragging her by her hair on the floor."

Morgan told jurors that she saw Combs push Ventura to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the paving bricks.

"She didn't move. She fell on her side," Morgan said, adding, "I thought she was knocked out."

Ventura, too, had testified that arguments with Combs would regularly result in physical abuse.

Ventura —who dated Combs on and off from 2007 to 2018 — described six separate times when Combs' attacks left her with injuries, with the most severe beating occurring in Los Angeles in 2009 following a party Combs had hosted at a club called Ace of Diamonds.

Ventura said she punched Combs in the face after he called her a "slut or a bitch" for talking to a record producer. Combs retaliated in the back seat of a chauffeured luxury vehicle by punching and kicking Ventura throughout a ten-minute ride to the rapper's rented mansion, she said.

She said she hid under the back seat to escape the attack. Combs demanded she stay hidden in a hotel for a week so her bruises could heal, she said.

The surprising things Combs kept in his luxury NYC hotel room while waiting to be arrested
Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested in September 2024.

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

The prosecution's fourth witness took the witness stand briefly on May 16 to detail what she and other Homeland Security investigators say they found inside Combs' suite at Manhattan's Park Hyatt New York after his September arrest.

Combs had checked into the luxury Midtown hotel, his lawyers have said, in case federal prosecutors in Manhattan had asked him to surrender voluntarily.

Special Agent Yasin Binda told the Combs jury she photographed what her colleagues found inside the room.

Those items included a clear plastic bag of baby oil bottles found inside a duffle bag. There were three more bottles of baby oil in his bathtub, alongside two bottles of personal lubricant.

Two more bottles of lubricant were recovered from a nightstand drawer, next to a prescription pill bottle she said held two small baggies containing a pink powder.

On the living room floor was a large blue party light of the kind Ventura testified were used to illuminate freak offs.

Similar bags of pink powder have previously been seized from Combs and tested positive for ecstasy and other drugs, a prosecutor had said in court the day after Combs was arrested.

Ventura's big settlements after her lawsuit and that infamous hallway-beatdown video
A court sketch depicts Sean "Diddy" Combs facing singer and ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, the star prosecution witness at his racketeering and sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan.
Cassie Ventura testified over the course of four days at Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial.

Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS

In some of her final moments on the witness stand, Ventura was asked by the defense about a legal settlement that she said she is on the verge of receiving from the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles.

"I think it was $10 million," Ventura said of the settlement, hesitating when asked for the total amount agreed to.

The InterContinental is where security cameras captured Combs beating Ventura in a hallway in 2016, as she tried to flee what prosecutors say was one of Combs' freak offs.

The jury was shown the infamous footage at the beginning of the trial.

Johnson, the prosecutor, said in her opening statements that at the time of the attack, Combs paid a security guard at the hotel $100,000 in a brown paper envelope in exchange for the footage.

Combs apologized for his actions in the video after CNN published the footage last year.

It was the second big-money settlement revealed in Ventura's testimony.

Earlier in her testimony, Ventura told jurors that Combs paid her $20 million to settle her civil suit against him in 2023.

Britney Spears and Michael B. Jordan became the biggest celebrity mentions of the trial
Britney Spears.
Britney Spears was among the celebrities mentioned at Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial.

Christopher Polk via Getty Images

Pop icon Britney Spears and actor Michael B. Jordan were both name-dropped on May 15, on Ventura's third day of testimony.

During a cross-examination, Ventura was asked to tell the jury about the 21st birthday party Combs threw for her in 2007, at a club in Las Vegas.

The party was a significant moment in the Combs-Ventura story. Ventura testified that Combs, who recently signed her to his record label, gave her an uninvited kiss in a bathroom, sparking their relationship.

"I believe there were other celebrities there in attendance?" defense attorney Anna Estevao asked Ventura, who answered yes, there were.

"Sean was there, and he brought Dallas Austin, he brought Britney Spears," Ventura said, referring to the "Oops!… I Did It Again" singer and the record producer. "I think those were the two people that stand out to me," Ventura added.

Asked how a 21-year-old of limited fame was able to attract such big names to her party, Ventura credited Combs, saying, "That was all him."

Jordan's name came up as the cross-examination focused on 2015, when Combs became suspicious that she was having an affair with the actor.

"Is Michael B. Jordan a celebrity?" Estevao asked.

"I would say so," Ventura answered, sounding surprised.

Combs overdosed on opioids at the Playboy Mansion, Ventura said
playboy mansion
Sean Combs went to a party at the Playboy Mansion and got sick on painkillers, Cassie Ventura testified.

Jeff Minton

Both Combs and Ventura were heavy opioid users, the R&B singer testified — and on one late night in February 2012, the pills he took made the rapper seriously ill, she said.

"Was that around the time that Whitney Houston died?" Estevao, Combs' defense attorney, asked about the timing.

"Yes," Ventura said.

That evening, the pair went to a sex club in San Bernardino, California, and then she went home, and Combs went to a party at the Playboy Mansion, Ventura told jurors.

"Well, from what he told me, he took a very strong opiate that night, but we didn't know what was happening, so we took him to the hospital," Ventura testified.

There, she said, she learned that he had overdosed on whatever painkillers he had taken, she said.

Combs was said to be enraged over Ventura's romance with Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi and Cassie Ventura dated in 2011.

Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images

Ventura told jurors that she briefly dated rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, in 2011 and that it sent Combs into a violent rage.

Combs discovered the relationship during a freak off in Los Angeles when he went through Ventura's phone, she testified.

"I just remember him putting like a wine bottle opener between his fingers and, like, lunging at me," Ventura said, adding that Combs' "eyes blacked out, super angry."

"And I just had to get out of there," she said. "It was actually another time I was able to get out of a freak off."

When Ventura saw Combs at his home later that day she said he was "irate" and threatened to release freak off videos of her and "hurt Scott and I."

On her way out, Ventura said Combs kicked her in the back so hard that she fell to the floor.

Ventura, whose lawsuit first suggested that Combs was responsible for blowing up a car that belonged to Kid Cudi in 2012, told jurors that Combs said Kid Cudi's car "would be blown up" when they were out of the country.

"Sean wanted Scott's friends to be there to see the car get blown up in the driveway," she testified.

Prosecutors alleged in court papers that Combs ordered his underlings to torch a vehicle "by slicing open the car's convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside the interior."

Ventura said she first joined Diddy's freak offs out of love
Cassie Ventura poses in a brown corset top and floor-length black skirt.
Ventura is the prosecution's key witness in the criminal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

Ventura testified on May 13 that she was initially nervous, but felt a sense of responsibility to participate in Combs' freak offs.

"I was just in love and wanted to make him happy," Ventura told the jury.

Ventura testified that in 2007, Combs first proposed "this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism, where he would watch me have a sexual encounter with a third man, specifically another man."

"I didn't want to upset him if I said it scared me or if I said anything aside from, 'OK, let's try it,'" she said.

Johnson said in her opening statements that Combs eventually made it Ventura's job to find and book escorts to participate in the sex encounters.

While on the stand, Ventura described in detail what went on during freak offs. Prosecutors say Combs arranged, directed, and often electronically recorded the sex performances.

Ventura testified that Combs would urinate and ask escorts to urinate on her during the freak offs.

"It was disgusting. It was too much. It was overwhelming," she said. "I choked."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Jay-Z accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in a civil case against Sean 'Diddy' Combs

Jay Z Diddy
Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter (left) was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in an amended complaint in a civil lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs (right).

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty

  • Jay-Z was named in a new filing stemming from a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs.
  • The alleged incident occurred in 2000 following MTV's Video Music Awards.
  • The victim, who is not named, said she was underage when she was drugged and raped by both men.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has been accused of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl in a new court filing stemming from a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs.

The amended complaint, filed Sunday, says Combs and Carter assaulted the girl at an after-party following the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.

"Another celebrity stood by and watched as Combs and Carter took turns assaulting the minor," the amended complaint, which modifies an original complaint filed in October against Combs, reads. "Many others were present at the afterparty, but did nothing to stop the assault."

Carter was identified in the original complaint as "Celebrity A," the suit reads.

Before the filing of the amended complaint, Tony Buzbee, an attorney for the plaintiff — who is unidentified in the filing — had sent a letter to Carter requesting he and the plaintiff engage in mediation, Buzbee told Business Insider.

"Jay-Z responded to said letter by not only filing an utterly frivolous lawsuit, but by also orchestrating a conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff's lawyers, their families, employees and former associates in an attempt to silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z herein," the complaint reads.

"This effort was meant to scare Plaintiff and to discredit her counsel. That effort failed. Indeed, Plaintiff chose to file this amendment as a result of the egregious conduct perpetuated by Carter."

Buzbee told BI, "The pleading speaks for itself. This is a very serious matter that will be litigated in court."

Carter has been a longtime friend of Combs. Combs faces a series of sexual assault allegations, civil lawsuits, and federal sex trafficking charges and has previously vehemently denied the allegations against him.

On Sunday, after the allegations became public, Carter, through the X account of Roc Nation, his entertainment company, said in a statement that his lawyer was sent "blackmail" to pressure him into settling out of court for an undisclosed amount. Carter said the move had the "opposite effect" and instead made him want to expose his accusor "in a VERY public fashion."

"So no, I will not give you ONE RED PENNY!!" Carter's statement reads. "These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!! Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case."

pic.twitter.com/jl8sgOllCM

— Roc Nation (@RocNation) December 9, 2024

Buzbee told Business Insider that the victim never demanded a penny from Carter.

"Instead, she only sought a confidential mediation," Buzbee said. "Since I sent the letter on her behalf, Mr. Carter has not only sued me, but he has tried to bully and harass me and this plaintiff. His conduct has had the opposite impact. She is emboldened. I'm very proud of her resolve."

The two hip-hop moguls, both 55, have created business empires, including Carter's label Roc-A-Fella Records and the streaming service Tidal, Combs' label Bad Boy Records, and partnerships with Cîroc vodka and DeLeón tequila.

Carter has an approximate net worth of $2.5 billion, Business Insider previously reported. Combs' business partnerships have dried up after the allegations against him, with Forbes estimating his net worth now to be about $90 million.

Attorneys for Carter and Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider
❌
❌