Puff Daddy on the stand, but he won’t be the only one, trust me. The New York Times has already made it clear: it’s a new MeToo, it will be a new avalanche that will hit the star system, its protagonists and their unspeakable vices. The authorities confiscated tons of videos and audio files, to which they added testimonies about a world of prostitution, violence, abuse, all to the greater glory of the record company but also of the guests who animated his “white parties”. Now everyone is afraid, Hollywood is shaking, LA is shaking, New York is shaking, the record industry and whoever ended up in there, in the company of a man who now has to account for such a quantity of accusations that life imprisonment becomes not more of a chimera.

A showdown that is expanding visibly

That of Puff Daddy had long seemed like the historical classic of the American dream. Born in the poorest Harlem, since the first half of the 90s he has established himself as one of the key figures in the world of hip hop, which he contributed to revolutionizing with his Bad Boy Records, launching as a producer, beatmaker, a quantity incredible number of singers, rappers and stars. More than thirty years have passed since he was alongside Notorious BIG, to whom he dedicated that “I’ll Be Missing You” which has become legendary. He had become one of the pillars of rap that conquered the world from the ghettos, a God for many African Americans. He was cool, he was sexy, he was a smart and charming playboy, he was tacky but in his own way as they like it. But now it’s time for a showdown. Trafficking in human beings, sexual abuse, aiding and abetting prostitution, violence, but it is likely that other things will also emerge, because as in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, as with Harvey Weinstein, here too the feeling is that we are faced with an avalanche, yet another , which overwhelms the Stars and Stripes star system. In recent days the names of many singers, actors, NBA stars, celebrities who have been at his side for years and years have been mentioned and one wonders how much they knew and how much they were involved in parties where sex workers were forced to suffer of everything, carried on by dint of drugs, medicines and IV drips, where ordinary girls and boys, often with high hopes, became cannon fodder.

In these hours, it is a race to distance oneself from Puff Daddy, to pretend that one has never worked there or even established any human relationship. Everything about his parties had been known in the industry for years, they were events to which everyone, absolutely everyone, hoped to be invited. Even invited, let’s not kid ourselves, “virgins who offer themselves to the Dragon” said Veronica Lario at the time when talking about her husband Silvio Berlusconi, the scandals, the girls who offered themselves to him. It’s the same here. Puff Daddy could change your life, he was an absolute powerhouse, but for many this hope took on a terrifying meaning. In recent decades many shootings, lawyers’ fees, accusations of harassment for Puff Daddy, all of which, however, ended up forgotten. The portrait that emerges now is that of a highly disturbed, violent, sexually ill, manipulative and sadistic individual, not all that different from Suge Knight, who he was contrasted with at the time of the war between the East and West Coast. And indeed Knight, the late Boss of Death Row, in prison for years, in recent hours has accused him of being guilty of many rapes and violence, has called into question Jay-Z, Snoop Dog, Usher and Rick Ross as reticent . “Puff Daddy did things to Cassie Ventura and others that you can’t imagine, but it’s always happened like this in the industry” he ruled “he didn’t invent it”. In hindsight, the many jokes and dissings that Eminem, 50 Cent and others had dedicated to Puff Diddy take on a completely different meaning.

A scandal reflecting a congenital situation?

In his parties Puff Daddy allegedly abused and caused many women to be abused, but also boys. His relationship with Justin Bieber in these hours has become difficult to read, as well as with his most famous ex: Jennifer Lopez. It is unlikely that these earthquakes will save any collateral damage, this is what happens in these cases. Anyone who went to his parties, made records or TV programs or parades together, anyone who boasted of knowing him for a long time now knows they have a crosshairs on them. Even Leonardo DiCaprio, one of those who changes girlfriends like we change shoes, known for loving parties and women, is now in a cold sweat. How many celebrities let themselves go at those parties? What makes this any different from that island of depravity, where Jeffrey Epstein offered every wish possible to powerful friends and guests? Sex as a bargaining chip, as hard cash for relationships and bonds, for blackmail and favors. But the scandal that now engulfs Puff Daddy, who ended up in one of the most terrifying prisons in America in Brooklyn, watched closely due to the risk of suicide, is in a more specific sense also the reckoning for a certain community, the African-American one. There is still a lot to do there in terms of chauvinism, objectification of women, vision of life and society. Memory can only go to Will Smith’s famous slap to Chris Rock. A lot of celebrities, including many women, initially took the actor’s side and praised him as a virile husband and partner.

But then there was the isolated voice of a pillar like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The former Lakers star and long-time political activist was the first to say that among black Americans, a vision of man as violent, prevaricating, patriarchal and of woman as a mere extension of his ego and his possession. The ideal African American man still today is an absolute individualist, exhibitionist, powerful, women are like cars or jewels to wear. This also concerns the music scene in particular, with the world of black music having not done much to evolve culturally and as a representation since the 90s. Puff Daddy, the satrap to whom we objectively owe some of the most important musical moments in the hip hop world of the last decades, going deeper will bring many with him, like not even Epstein and Weinstein, trust me. It will not be the first or the last time, because even today in America, especially if you are a man, being successful means seeing yourself as Sean Combs has probably seen himself all these years: a sultan with a harem of bodies at his disposal and guaranteed impunity. Puff Daddy, a repressed bisexual, with hundreds of lubricants at home, is yet another totem of this bigoted and hypocritical, moralistic and materialistic American society. Certainly, in the coming months we will be forced to revise our opinion on many, many celebrities , unless of course the “system” finds a way to protect itself with oblivion. But this time it’s really difficult.