John Legend’s Manager Writes About Diddy Yacht Party, ‘Toxic’ Music Biz

In the light allegations of sex trafficking against Sean”Diddy” Combs, John LegendLongtime manager Ty Stiklorius wrote a op-ed for The New York Times which details at length the “pervasive predatory culture” of the music industry, which “actively promoted sexually inappropriate behavior and exploited the lives and bodies of those hoping to make it in the business.”

The track, by Emmy Award-winning producer Stiklorius, founder of Friends at Work, a management company that works with Legend, among others, is titled “The Music Industry Is Toxic. After P. Diddy, we can clean up.”

Stiklorius begins by describing a yacht party in St. Barts he attended 27 years ago, hosted by Combs, where he says he was able to get an associate of the rapper to unlock the bedroom door and escape. (The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Diddy’s reps for comment.) At the time, she says she didn’t realize exactly what she had gotten her hands on. “It was a pointer,” Stiklorius said. “Power has been concentrated in the hands of kingmakers: wealthy, entitled, almost always male gatekeepers who control almost every door to success and who can use their power without consequence to abuse young women and men.”

Stiklorius reveals that women “were not safe in recording studios, tour buses, green rooms or offices” in the music industry. And it’s not the industry’s fault, she says. “It’s a major feature.”

“Following P. Diddy’s arrest, some observers wondered if the industry would finally face a ‘#MeToo’ reckoning,” Stiklorius writes. “But reducing the scourge of coercion, harassment, and sexual violence to a few notorious individuals — whether Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly — suggests they are outliers and obscures the more acute, more stubborn systemic rot that has infected the music industry.”

She argues that there is hope and these gatekeepers have less power than they used to: “They may still dangle the keys to success in front of young artists, but the locks are changing.”

Stiklorius refers to the Gen Z star Chappell Roanwho was forced to fight her house to release the hit “Pink Pony Club.” The label dropped her when marketing plans failed to produce hits, but Roan moved back to her hometown and released music independently, eventually building a social media fan base that she used to get new distribution and financial support. “In the process, she demonstrated a new truth: the watchmen’s days are numbered,” Stiklorius writes.

She continues, “My early experiences with predators and those who enabled them almost led me to quit the music business. A few years after the boating incident, while pursuing my MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, I attended a dinner where a senior music director slipped my key card under the table, a not-so-subtle invitation to his guest room. hotel. I refused. … I only stayed in the industry because, in 2005, an old college friend who was starting to have success as an artist reached out to me. That artist was John Legend and, 20 years later, I am still his manager and partner in several businesses. It seems that many artists, including John, want to be part of a different business model and culture.”

There is a way forward to turn the page on this culture of exploitation and abuse, Stiklorius concludes in an op-ed. She writes: “How many other women have had early experiences similar to mine and abandoned their ambition to be artists – let alone recording engineers, producers or executives? How many women have been coerced, abused, assaulted and silenced on their way to their dreams – trapped by men who controlled access and made us believe the key to the kingdom was a key card to their hotel room?”

The producer concludes by saying that the industry owes it to the countless survivors of sexual assault and misconduct, “who have suffered in silence to discover the truth… We owe it to the next generation of creators to transform the business into something worthy of the art they have.” create.”

Just this week, Combs was charged in one of two lawsuits filed Monday by drugging and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in a New York hotel room in 2005. The second lawsuit accuses the jailed hip-hop mogul of similarly assaulting a 17-year-old who was allegedly a contestant on the reality television series Making the band in 2008.

They were filed in the New York State Supreme Court and are the latest in a wave of 120 processes in which the accusers allege they were sexually assaulted by Combs at parties and meetings over the past two decades.

Lawyers for the musician said: “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone – male or female, adult or minor.”