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As Sean “Diddy” Combs continues to face fallout over four different sexual abuse lawsuits filed against him in the past month, whether or not he’ll be welcome at 2024 Grammy Awards ceremony could now be in flux, according to a statement from the Recording Academy.
“We are taking this matter very seriously and we are in the process of evaluating it with the time and care that it deserves,” the organization said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Combs is currently a nominee in the Best Progressive R&B Album category for his 2023 project The Love Album: Off the Grid. A rep for the Academy specified that the discussion referenced in the organization’s statement is focused around the invite itself, and there isn’t any information regarding if Combs’ nomination would be scrapped or not. Still, the Academy’s statement on the invite is the first acknowledgement of the situation the organization has given so far, and whether he is invited to the show or not is becoming a major question leading up to Grammy Night.
Invites typically go out to Grammy nominees shortly after the nominations are announced. (The nominations were announced this year on Nov. 10, but it’s unclear if Combs actually received his invite yet. The first allegation against him surfaced on Nov. 16.) A rep for Combs didn’t immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Aside from attendance, pulling the nomination itself might not be a likely scenario — if recent history is any indication. In 2021, Marilyn Manson and Louis C.K., who were both previously accused of sexual misconduct, received Grammy nominations. Manson was nominated for his contributions on Kanye West’s Donda — which earned a nomination for Album of the Year — while C.K. went on to win for Best Comedy Album.
Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. told The Wrap at the time that the Academy “won’t restrict the people who can submit their material for consideration. We won’t look back at people’s history, we won’t look at their criminal record, we won’t look at anything other than the legality within our rules of, is this recording for this work eligible based on date and other criteria.”
Four different women sued Combs over sexual abuse claims in the past several weeks. Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her suit against Combs at the end of November and reached a private settlement with Combs a day later. (Songwriter advocate Tiffany Red, a friend of Ventura’s, penned an open letter last week to corroborate some of Ventura’s claims) Three more women came forward since Ventura’s suit, including one last week who alleged that Combs gang-raped her when she was 17 years old. Combs has denied the allegations from all the women.
“Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation, and my legacy,” Combs said in a statement. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. 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.”
Outside of the Grammys, Combs stepped down as chairman of Revolt TV in November amid the allegations. And as Rolling Stone reported on Sunday, more than a dozen brands have distanced themselves from his recently launched e-commerce platform Empower Global over the claims.
“We take the allegations against Mr. Combs very seriously and find such behavior abhorrent and intolerable,” Annette Njau, the founder of one of the companies previously on Empower’s site, told Rolling Stone. “We believe in victims’ rights, and support victims in speaking their truth, even against the most powerful of people.”
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