Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs will reportedly miss the 2024 Grammys after facing sex assault allegations. The billionaire rapper and business mogul, 54, is nominated in the Best Progressive R and B Album category for his latest project ‘The Love Album: Off the Grid’, but sources say he won’t be turning up at the awards after claims he sexually assaulted several women.

Page Six said it is standard policy for the Recording Academy to invite all nominees, and stressed Diddy hadn’t been “disinvited” from the event, but reported he won’t be going. The Academy told Rolling Stone in December about the accusations against Diddy: “We are taking this matter very seriously and we are in the process of evaluating it with the time and care that it deserves.”

This year’s Grammys is scheduled to take place at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on 4 February. Diddy’s ‘Off the Grid’ record featured a star-studded line-up of appearances from artists including Busta Rhymes, Mary J. Blige, Summer Walker, Fabolous, Jazmine Sullivan, and Babyface.

Diddy faced accusations in 2023 from multiple women that he subjected them to rape and abuse. In November, the Bad Boy Records founder’s ex and former artist Cassie filed a lawsuit against the rapper, alleging that he raped and abused her during their 10-year relationship. In the suit, the ‘Me and U’ singer, 37, born Casandra Ventura, claimed her ex “was prone to uncontrollable rage, and frequently beat Ms Ventura savagely.”

It added: “Over the years that Mr. Combs abused Ms. Ventura physically and sexually, she again and again tried to escape his tight hold over her life. “Every time she hid, Mr Combs’s vast network of corporations and affiliated entities found her, and those who worked for Mr Combs’s companies implored her to return to him. “Many went as far as to explicitly state that her failure to return to Mr Combs would hinder her success in the entertainment industry.”

Combs vehemently denied Cassie’s claims, saying via his attorney at the time he had been “subjected to” Cassie’s “persistent demand of $ 30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail”.

Diddy and Cassie have settled her lawsuit, but after it was made public he faced three additional lawsuits from women who claimed he sexually assaulted them. In the most recent suit, a woman claimed she was 17 years old when Diddy allegedly drugged and gang-raped her in 2003. The hip-hop mogul has denied all of the allegations against him.

In other news – Seven gunned down in Cape Town over the weekend

Police in Cape Town had their hands full as several shooting incidents resulted in the death of seven people in different areas across the city. A total of seven murders and 12 attempted murders have been recorded by police on Saturday, January 13. Just after 7 pm in Wesbank, a woman was gunned down in Bethel Street. Police said the motive for the shooting was gang-related.

“Mfuleni police are investigating a murder case following a shooting incident on January 13, at 7.25 pm in Bethel Street, Wesbank, where an adult female was shot and fatally wounded,” police spokesperson, Captain Frederick van Wyk said. Read More