Now that Sean “Diddy” Combs has become persona non grata, his hometown is officially locking him out.
Last fall Eric Adams presented the hip-hop impresario with an honorary key to New York City in a splashy Times Square ceremony that doubled as a showcase for each man’s unbidden bravado. “The bad boy of entertainment is getting the key to the city from the bad boy of politics,” declared the New York mayor, who could be observed making a heart hand with Combs while posing the commemorative placard.
Curiously, New York wasn’t the only city to present Diddy with keys: Chicago, Miami and Miami Beach also recognized him. Among rappers, known for boasting about such commendations, Diddy’s all-American key ring was the lyrical equivalent of the infinity stone gauntlet. Bragging rights don’t get much bigger.
But earlier this month Adams made an about-face, demanding his key back from Combs in the wake of a narrowing federal investigation into drugs and sex trafficking and a raft of sexual assault and domestic violence allegations against the 54-year-old music mogul.
The kickoff was a bombshell lawsuit from Cassie, aka Cassandra Ventura, a former recording artist under Combs’s Bad Boy label who dated Combs for nearly a decade, that was settled out of court roughly a day after its filing in November. In May, CNN obtained evidence of one of her claims: leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Combs assaulting Ventura in a hotel hallway.
Shortly thereafter, Adams wrote to Combs: “After internal deliberations, the Key of the City of New York committee recommended nullifying and rescinding Mr Combs’ key,” he wrote. “I have accepted their recommendation.” The municipal repo play, a risky breakup move given Combs’s possessive streak and above-the-law posture, would appear to leave the self-styled King of New York more insecure than ever. But now comes news that Miami Beach revoked a proclamation recognizing 13 October 2016 as “Sean Diddy Combs” day – then, an acknowledgement of his high-profile parties, nightclub appearances and the music conference Combs launched there with his Revolt TV network.
No music genre celebrates city pride as seriously as hip-hop – the proverbial rose that grew from concrete, to borrow a Tupac line. Throughout the eras, emcees have taken the concept of a key to the city, a ceremonial award meant to honor locals whose community contributions proved deserving of a rarified degree of trust, and flipped it into one of the genre’s enduring clichés. “Got the key to the city, the streets on lock,” Kanye crowed on Famous, nodding at his deep Chicago ties. “You got the key to the city, but the latch is on?” Method Man snipes on How High Part II, picking at his rivals’ supposed access. “I might get a key to the city and give it to Wayne / Or give it to one of the young boys to carry the wave,” Drake snarls on Summer Sixteen, in a shot at Philadelphia rival Meek Mill.
Few hip-hop artists are louder about representing where they’re from than Combs – perhaps because 1 he started out in the music business as an executive; and 2 the Harlem native did most of his growing up on the city outskirts in Mount Vernon, an important distinction in a city and music genre that does not take kindly to outside gentrifiers. (Imagine Michael Jordan claiming Brooklyn.)
On the 1999 Faith Evans hit song All Night Long, Combs wastes no time marking his territory. “Whether hip-hop or R&B / Featuring Faith Evans, co-starring me / P Diddy / You know I got the key to your city.”
In fact, you could argue that Combs changed his stage name from Puff Daddy to P Diddy expressly to keep flogging this rhyme. In 2003, Combs signed up for the New York Marathon and committed to raising $1m for children’s charities and metro public schools; he dubbed the campaign “Diddy Runs the City.”
J Cole (Fayetteville, North Carolina), Nicki Minaj (Queens) and Eminem (Detroit) are among the legends who have rapped their city VIP status into existence. Seemingly, Diddy had such a knack for collecting keys from all over, he could’ve gotten away with calling himself The Super. Combs’s name has even come up in connection with keys to other cities – BET list Las Vegas as another, for example, which is crazy given Combs’s connection to Tupac’s killing off the Strip; one really questioned it. But even as he collected these ceremonial placards (for his philanthropic endeavors, they said) and raised them high for the cameras, the New York script tattooed on his forearms never failed to remind which city held the key to his heart.
When Combs was finally awarded a key to the city of New York in September 2023, he was feted in a Times Square ceremony that overlapped with release of his fifth studio album, hip-hop’s 50th anniversary and 30 years since he started his record label. “You can do anything you put your mind to,” Adams said. “Don’t let nobody stop you! Nothing can stop you.”
“I’m looking for the next era in my life, and that’s the love era,” Combs said then, “and making some beautiful music for people to feel good to.” Two months later, before this latest attempt at a soft rebrand had taken root, the Ventura lawsuit dropped.
While it figured that Combs’s many industry friends and associates would step back from him as the allegations against him mounted and Homeland Security agents executed raids on his Los Angeles and Miami residences, the idea that any city, especially the one he calls home, would ask for the key back was unfathomable. But there is some precedent. After R Kelly’s 2021 federal conviction on sex trafficking and charges in New York, the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rescinded its honorary key.
As yet it’s not quite clear whether Combs could see more of his special keys revoked. Representatives for the cities of Chicago, Miami and Miami Beach have yet to respond to the Guardian’s request. The Miami Beach Commission rescinded Diddy Day, stating in resolution on Wednesday that it “is no longer in harmony with the City’s values of safety, community well-being, and respect.” On the other hand, representatives for Clark County which includes the city of Las Vegas replied immediately. “I don’t believe we at Clark county, which has jurisdiction over the Strip, ever awarded Diddy with a key,” one spokesman said before sharing a list of celebrities who had keys (Mark Wahlberg, Morgan Freeman).
Suffice to say, a city asking for its key back is the kind of prompt that might make for a killer song. Unfortunately for Combs, no one will feel especially inclined to listen even if he’s the one to unlock it.
