(Los Angeles – July 3, 2025) – Appearing on CBS’s “Sean Diddy Combs: The Verdict” and NBC’s “Top Story With Tom Llamas,” author Darryl James draws from decades of experience in the hip-hop industry to give his perspective on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal issues. James is the author of “Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster.”
“There are still pending charges from several states,” said James. Also, the current charges can land him in prison for up to five years.”
James is providing the media with perspective on Combs’ career, and his progression from an industry executive to monster and sexual predator, as outlined in his book on the disgraced mogul.
“Even before the charges, Diddy was kind of a pariah anyway because of how he ran his business and how he treated his artists, going as far back as (the mid-90’s with) The Notorious Biggie Smalls.” NBC News anchor Tom Llamas asked James about Combs’ ability to still enjoy a career in the music industry after the legal complications are over, to which James responded: “It’s hard to say if he’s done (in the entertainment industry, because we have other people throughout the industry who have been unscrupulous who were still able to do business. He can still get back in and do business whenever his legal issues are complete.”
Darryl James, author, publisher, journalist, and filmmaker, released “Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster” a book on Sean John “Diddy” Combs. The book is available on Amazon.com.
“Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster” is more than a tell-all book filled with salacious stories of the disgraced and imprisoned mogul. The book, through veteran journalist Darryl James, traces Sean John “Diddy” Comb’s rise to music industry mogul and urban cultural impresario through the development of liquor and clothing brands, and to his fall from grace, analyzing the points of darkness along his way to becoming a monster, and examining his business moves, as well as his ugly side that was obfuscated from the public until everything in the darkness was pulled into the light.
James collected facts, conducted research and interviewed sources inside and outside of the music industry to answer questions the public has been asking: What was Diddy’s true relationship with Biggie? When did Diddy and Biggie’s relationship with Tupac Shakur (Biggie’s former friend) go sour and eventually build up into an all-out war between Death Row and Bad Boy? How did Diddy end up being “given” the underaged Usher Raymond and Justin Bieber? How did Diddy end up in a love triangle with Kim Porter that ended with him adopting Albert Brown (Al B Sure)’s son and raising him? Is Diddy’s son Justin the son of Diddy’s first bodyguard who was killed over Kim Porter in an altercation between that bodyguard and BMF?
For “Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster,” James worked with a psychologist to understand how a sexual predator/abuser’s mind works; an attorney to summarize and give understanding to the charges Diddy faces; a theologian to understand how Combs operated as a sexual abuser while promoting God as a part of his lifestyle; and some of the people who viewed him closely over the years to understand his transition from mogul to monster.
“Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster” is not a tabloid in book form. It is investigative journalism in book form, developed by Darryl James, editor and publisher of Rap Sheet, the second largest rap music publication in the 1990s.
James was present during the nineties when Diddy was becoming a music industry success, observing the ups that were public and the downs that were hidden. James had his own interactions (broader word) with Sean Combs, following him across the nation attempting to interview him and then to confront him, until they ran into each other in a private club in Atlanta. (Chronicled in Rap Sheet Magazine in December, 1997, volume 6, issue 1)
Earlier this year, James curated his collection of Rap Sheet covers, cover stories and photos of ephemera and events from the 1990’s to publish an art book The Rap Sheet Magazine Legacy Collection, Vol 1, commemorating the most cutting-edge magazine from the 1990’s, an era viewed as the Golden Era of Hip Hop.
James co-founded Rap Sheet in 1992, along with Jeffrey Stern, who had just sold Details Magazine, with the goal of servicing the hip hop underground across the nation as well as the hottest artists on the cutting-edge of the art form.
James is also producing a documentary on rap music from the 1990s for release in 2025.
For more information on “Becoming Diddy: The Making of Sean John Combs, From Mogul to Monster,” to arrange an interview of James, and/or obtain a sample of the book, contact Billy Johnson, Jr. at billy@mediaandrepertoire.com or (661) 607-2610.
Connect with Darryl James:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Diddy-Making-Combs-Monster/dp/B0DR2Y6RSL
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomingdiddybook
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@becomingdiddybook
