Updated May 8, 2025 at 6:44 PM CDT
Jury selection for musician and businessman Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial concluded on May 7. The judge questioned almost 100 possible jurors based on their own personal biases related to abuse and sexual assault, as well as their perception of Combs.
Combs has been in custody since September 2024 on the charges of sex trafficking, transporting to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Ty Stiklorious, CEO and founder of Friends at work management firm, told Morning Edition that women have for decades had to face the challenges of a toxic music industry culture. She says there are times when she believes she is attending a job interview but instead she is taken to a restaurant — not an office and they would hand a hotel key. Inferring that they would offer her a job position in exchange for sex.
Stiklorious believes the issue is not singular to one rapper or music executive. Instead, she says the industry has enabled a system that has "allowed certain men to operate with total impunity."
"This is a story and a case about how power has operated in the music industry," she said. "And I think we need to be careful not to isolate this to one man or one case, because those of us who've worked in the business, sadly, don't find this all that surprising."
Stiklorious wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in October 2024, The Music Industry Is Toxic. After P. Diddy, We Can Clean It Up, in which the article relieves an alarming situation she says she encountered in her early 20s at a party Comb's hosted on a yacht.
She explains how she was lured to a room on the yacht by an associate of Comb's. He then locked the door behind him in an attempt to keep Stiklorious in the room. She was able to convince him to let out by shouting and explaining that her brother was also in attendance at the party and would be looking for her.
Since the release of her article, several women within the music industry have come to her sharing similar experiences. Many of them were either scared to come forward due to fear of retaliation or they were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements.
"These are women in positions of power. I think part of it is we have to talk about NDA's, nondisclosure agreements. I think they play a huge role. I know many men and women who've been threatened with the end of their careers that they spoke up. NDA's have been signed. They're signing away their truth in exchange for basic rights like song ownership or fair pay. That silence wasn't consent. It was survival," Stiklorious said.
Stiklorious spoke with NPR's Michel Martin to discuss how the music industry often operates in ways that exploit women, profiting from their talent, image, and hard work, while enabling a culture of manipulation and sexual abuse behind the scenes.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
Michel Martin: You actually wrote about your experience at a party thrown by Combs when you were just out of college. Now, I know this was a long time ago, and I know it's not easy to talk about, but would you just briefly say what happened?
Ty Stiklorious: Yes, I was in my early twenties and I went to a party thrown by Sean Combs. It was on a very large yacht. I had heard that there was a dance party down somewhere in the yacht. And this man, who was a colleague of Sean's, told me that he could take me there and he led me into a bedroom and then locked the door behind me. And I just remember being terrified. But I want to be clear, that wasn't just one bad night. That was the culture.
Martin: First of all, I just want to let people know, as you reported in your piece in The New York Times., you were able to talk your way out of that situation. So I'm very glad of that. But you also wrote, you do now know after 20 years as a music industry executive that what happened that night was no aberration. It was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry that actively fostered sexual misconduct and exploited the lives and bodies of those hoping to make it in the business. It's a pretty damning thing to say that this isn't actually an isolated thing.
Stiklorious: Well, I mean, if you think about the tagline for music, for a long time it's been sex, drugs and rock and roll. This is a story and a case about how power has operated in the music industry. And I think we need to be careful not to isolate this to one man or one case, because those of us who've worked in the business, sadly, don't find this all that surprising. It's about a system that for decades allowed certain men to operate with total impunity.
Martin: Why does this persist? Is it because so much business is done in nontraditional places like meetings in hotel rooms and places like that? Why do a lot of people who don't work in these fields just think what's going on here?
Stiklorious: Well, you're right to talk about the casting couch in the music business. That's the recording studio. Unfortunately, I think many of the people who controlled who was in those spaces used it as a way to exploit. When I was first trying to get a job in the music business, every interview which ended up being some kind of dinner was a key card in my hand at the end of the night.
Martin: What do you mean, a key card? You mean somebody's putting their hotel card in? Basically implying you're supposed to go and have sex with them?
Stiklorious: Exactly. And after that happened, three separate times, I actually gave up on the music business. I thought, this isn't where I want to be.
Martin: As I mentioned, we started with talking about the essay that you wrote for The New York Times back in October when Sean Combs was first arrested. You got a lot of comments. And, a number of women wrote and said they gave up on the music industry because they just could not take all of the harassment. I was curious how you felt when you saw that.
Stiklorious: I was surprised how many women who are actually still in the music business reached out to me and said, I've never told my story. I'm afraid if I do, I'll be fired. And these are women in positions of power. I think part of it is we have to talk about NDA's, nondisclosure agreements. I think they play a huge role. I know many men and women who've been threatened with the end of their careers that they spoke up. NDA's have been signed. They're signing away their truth in exchange for basic rights like song ownership or fair pay. That silence wasn't consent. It was survival.
Martin: Do you think that record labels are really willing to let somebody who's talented because they're abusive?
Stiklorious: I unfortunately have not seen proof of that. I've reported abuses and it's a very polite thank you. And then they hung up the phone and I see very few consequences come from it. You look at how long it took R. Kelly and P. Diddy to be held accountable. That's the part that bothers me, is that people have not stood up for something better. And I think we need to change that.
The broadcast version of this interview was produced by Taylor Haney and edited by Reena Advani. Treye Green edited it for web.
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