If you’re trying to get a handle on the whole Sean “Puffy” Combs situation, F.D Signifier put together a great explainer. Just a heads up—it covers some serious topics, including sexual assaults (not graphic, but still).
There’s a lot to process here. The part about Diddy and the collapse of hip-hop in the 90s? That hit close to home. That era is when I started checking out of hip-hop because so much of it started feeling hollow. And the backstabbing and shady practices in the entertainment world? As a filmmaker, I’ve seen more than my share of that. Indie films, music videos, even among supposed “comrades” in the scene—it can bring out the worst in people.
But the key section, about an hour in, dives into the sexualization of women in hip-hop videos. If you watch nothing else, go to that part. This is a conversation that’s way overdue, and it’s infuriating that it took so many women being hurt for it to come up.
Hip-hop is such an incredible cultural movement, but it needs to grow, and part of that means confronting this stuff head-on. If this is hip-hop’s #MeToo moment, I hope it leads to real change.
