While Diddy was found not guilty of the more serious crimes he was facing in a federal court, some of his peers are still questioning whether or not his image can bounce back from the damage done.
Radio host Charlamagne Tha God is among the many voices speaking on the matter of Diddy coming back from the public smear of his image in hip-hop as a result of his criminal trial.
A jury found the billionaire hip-hop mogul not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering, but guilty on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. While the two guilty verdicts are far lesser crimes than racketeering and sex trafficking, he is still facing months, maybe years, in prison and is still being held without bond.
You can recall his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and a woman named Jane, who testified against him and shared some damning allegations in court. Some of the allegations include details about alleged assaults, drug use, and the numerous freak off parties involving sex workers.
The government also shared exhibits of baby oils and other items taken from Diddy’s mansion during a raid last year. Nevertheless, the not-guilty verdict marks a significant win for the Bad Boy Records founder in court. But is that legal win enough to save his public image?
According to Charlamagne Tha God, there is still a conversation to be had about accountability and discipline.
“I fear people aren’t going to learn a damn thing from this Diddy situation,” The Breakfast Club co-host said. “All the conversations I’m having sound so ass-backwards. You can blame the system, we can say the feds overcharged him, we can say he was railroaded, we can say it was a shakedown. But at what point are we gonna have conversations about how he gave this system something to shake? Where’s the conversations about accountability? Where’s the conversations about discipline?”
“Diddy made all this money, gave all these opportunities to people, created all these jobs, and it all burned down because of poor habits and lack of discipline,” Charlamagne continues. “Drug use, violence towards women, sleeping with prostitutes– you can’t move like that when you are a Black man in the position of power that Diddy was in. And, I hate when people say things like, ‘Well, white men get to do this all the time.’ Well, guess what? We not white. We are Black and we should not want to move like corrupt white men do but nobody wants to have that conversation about accountability and discipline.”
Diddy was back in court this week as his sentencing hearing began. Judge Arun Subramanian set his sentencing date for October 3, 2025, but his defense lawyer filed a motion asking the judge to move his sentencing to an earlier date in September. The rap mogul is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, MDC, in Brooklyn, without bond pending his sentencing.
Diddy is facing up to 10 years in prison per count he was found guilty on.