Chris Brown, R Kelly and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs point to hardcore crime beneath what is presented to us as entertainment

Lights, camera, assault! This is an increasingly familiar theme emerging via performers – celebrities – notably in the US. And it points to something totally unsettling, that what is fed to us en masse as entertainment can be the products of anything but.

It shows that, in some cases, globally popular commercial music and films, despite garnering widespread scrutiny and attention, can conceal criminals.

Beneath public personas

Take, for example, the case(s) against former film producer Harvey Weinstein, whose name is linked to successful films including The English Patient and Kill Bill.

In 2024 it emerged that a rape conviction against Weinstein from 2020 had been scrapped. But he remained jailed because he was convicted in another rape case. Last month it was reported that Weinstein had been indicted on new charges.

Read more: Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to criminal sexual act

Then there is the case of Lou Pearlman, the businessman and brains behind pop groups including the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. He was also the brains behind a Ponzi scheme.

A Forbes article summed up what happened to Pearlman: “Investigators unravelled Pearlman’s long-running Ponzi scheme in 2006 and discovered that he had defrauded investors of at least $300-million.

“In 2007, he was charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and making false claims in a bankruptcy.”

He was convicted and jailed for 25 years, and died while detained in 2016.

And then there are several other stories – realities – of child stars who have battled through showbiz into adulthood, some becoming fallen, broken stars.

Crimes and toxic environments can indeed sink careers, but this is not always the case.

Harvey Weinstein arrives at the Manhattan criminal courthouse as a jury continues with deliberations on 21 February 2020. The film producer whose alleged sexual misconduct helped spark the Me Too movement pleaded not guilty on five counts of rape and sexual assault against two unnamed women. (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

Apology and another assault

R&B singer and assault convict Chris Brown is set to perform in Joburg in December.

A “Chris Brown official” Instagram account has 144 million followers.

He has before owned up to crime. In 2009 he apologised for assaulting fellow singer Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at the time of that abuse.

Fast-forward about five years to 2014 and Brown pleaded guilty to a charge of simple assault – this was for another incident aside from the Rihanna one.

In this incident, in October 2013 in downtown Washington, a man tried to take a photograph with two of his women friends who were posing with Brown.

‘Unprovoked punch’

“A verbal altercation ensued, and Brown punched the victim in the face with a closed fist,” a 2014 statement from the US State Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said.

“As stated in the proffer of facts, Brown’s actions were not justified by self-defence.

“At no point did Brown observe the victim act as the initial aggressor against anyone on the scene.”

Brown has been accused of various other things, and US entertainment publication Billboard ran an article headed “Chris Brown’s Legal Problems: A Timeline of Trouble”. The timeline stretches from 2009 to this year.

Accusations from July are about Brown, an entourage and an alleged assault. A lawyer, Tony Buzbee, who was involved in that matter, claimed in an Instagram post that a group “attacked and brutally beat several men who had just attended [Brown’s] concert”.

It is not clear what Brown’s response to that is.

Sean Combs before the start of the final day of the 2004 Democratic National Convention at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, on 29 July 2004. (Photo: EPA / Matt Campbell)

‘I’m disgusted’

Rapper and producer Sean Combs recently became the focus of some of the most horrific criminal accusations aimed at the US entertainment industry.

Combs, who has also gone by names such as Diddy, Puff Daddy and Love, has more than 19 million followers on Instagram.

Earlier this year CNN published a video of him assaulting his then girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, in a hotel in 2o16.

Combs subsequently apologised, saying: “My behaviour on that video is inexcusable…

“I was disgusted then when I did it and I’m disgusted now… I’m truly sorry.”

Combs was arrested in mid-September.

Read more: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ properties in LA and Miami raided by federal agents

The case against him points to a highly organised criminal enterprise.

‘Sex trafficking, kidnapping, arson’

An indictment against Combs says: “[He] abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.

“To do so, Combs relied on the employees, resources, and influence of the multifaceted business empire that he led and controlled – creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”

Another section of the indictment refers to “Freak Offs” – “elaborate and produced sex performances” that involved sex workers being transported internationally.

“During Freak Offs, Combs distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant,” it said.

“After Freak Offs, Combs and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use.”

Combs pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking charges.

R Kelly is escorted by his attorney, Steve Greenberg, out of the Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, on 25 February 2019. Kelly turned himself in 22 February and was arrested after being charged with 10 counts of class two felony criminal sexual abuse involving four victims. Bail was set at $1-million. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Tannen Maury)

Underage girls

Another US celebrity crime accused, now a convict, is R&B singer Robert Kelly, better known as R Kelly.

In 2023, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois announced he had been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

A statement said: “Kelly enticed multiple underage girls to engage in sexual activity, and… he continued to abuse his victims for years, at times recording some of the abuse on videotape.”

The 20-year sentence was to run concurrently with another handed down in 2022.

That year the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that Kelly had been sentenced to 30 years in jail. It said: “For nearly three decades, Kelly was the leader of a criminal enterprise... consisting of himself and an entourage of individuals who served as managers, bodyguards, accountants, drivers, personal assistants and runners for the defendant.

“As the leader of the enterprise, Kelly used his fame to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with him.”

The show goes on

Regardless of whether you appreciate their work, box them into genres or consider them representatives of superficiality, Brown, Combs and Kelly are Grammy winners.

Marketing, promoting and, in a sense, packaging obviously play a critical role in an artist’s reach and commercial success.

Famed and shamed performers, such as convicts Brown and Kelly, and crime-accused Combs, along with the Weinsteins and Pearlmans of entertainment circles, should spark broader thought about what we view as success, and what and whose standards we aspire to.

They should have us looking deeper into what is presented to us as entertainment.

This could have us flagging empty-calorie money-churning spin and make us more mindful of our audiovisual consumption.

Meanwhile, a quick online search proves that the music and movies linked to the criminals and crime accused named in this piece remain largely available for us to consume. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.