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      What We Know About Sean Combs Lawsuits, Raids and Federal Investigation

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      Federal agents executed search warrants at his homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, and he faces several civil lawsuits accusing him of rape and sexual assault.Since federal agents raided two of Sean Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and the Miami area this week, the investigation into the hip-hop mogul has become the subject of intense public interest and speculation.The raids were conducted by Homeland Security Investigations, which has said very little about the focus of its inquiry. No criminal charges have been filed against Mr. Combs in relation to the case.But the footage of federal officers brandishing weapons while entering Mr. Combs’s sprawling Los Angeles mansion, where they confiscated computers and other devices, has raised questions about the nature of the investigation and how it might relate to a series of civil sexual assault lawsuits filed against Mr. Combs in recent months.Mr. Combs — a high-profile music producer and artist for decades who has been lauded as one of the architects of hip-hop’s commercial rise — has vehemently denied all the accusations, and his lawyer called the raids a “witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”As details about the federal investigation gradually emerge, here is what we know about Mr. Combs’s legal troubles.Homeland Security Investigation agents putting boxes into a van after searching Mr. Combs’s home in Miami Beach.Giorgio Viera/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stephen Adams, Who Made Yale Music School Tuition-Free, Dies at 86

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      A billionaire businessman and a late-blooming piano aficionado, he set a record with the anonymous $100 million gift that he and his wife gave the school.Stephen Adams, a billionaire whose anonymous $100 million gift to the Yale School of Music granted a tuition-free education to talented students embarking on careers in a capricious profession, died on March 14 at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 86.His death was confirmed by his wife, Denise (Rhea) Adams.Mr. Adams, who graduated from Yale College in 1959, was not a musician himself. But after he turned 55 and was already a prosperous business executive and wine collector, he became an amateur piano player.In 1999, he marked his class’s 40th-anniversary reunion by donating $10 million to the music school — the largest contribution it had ever received. Six years later, he and his wife surpassed that record when they made their $100 million gift, anonymously.They did not publicly reveal their identity as the donors until 2008, when Mr. Adams was asked to confirm their contribution by an interviewer from Wine Spectator magazine. He agreed to do so then, he said, to spur other contributors as his 50th-anniversary class reunion approached.“My wife and I are Christians, and the Bible speaks of giving in secret,” Mr. Adams told The Yale Daily News in 2009.In that same article, Michael Friedmann, a professor of theory and chamber music, said, “Musicians, as opposed to doctors or lawyers, are not in a position to repay educational loans easily, and the profession has a capricious opportunity structure.” He added, “The new financial conditions at the school, however, put musicians in a very different position in relation to their post-Yale careers.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jim White, Your Favorite Songwriter’s Favorite Drummer

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      During the last 30 years, the musician has emerged as one of indie-rock’s most distinctive drummers on other people’s records. At last, he’s made his own.In the early 1990s, Jim White was a drumming journeyman, having pounded out rhythms in a string of loud and rabid bands with snotty names, like Feral Dinosaurs or Venom P. Stinger. On the cusp of 30, he started Dirty Three, along with two other idiosyncratic Australian instrumentalists, the violinist Warren Ellis and the guitarist Mick Turner. Their lambent jams found unexpected enthusiasm inside Melbourne bars.One afternoon during the group’s early days, Eddie Midnight, the jocular brother of a friend, shouted out to White, calling him by the nickname he hated: “Hey, Skins! You got a minute? I found something good for ya.” Back at his house, Midnight pulled out an ash-caked snare — its heads busted and one rim missing — that he’d spotted in a shed. White said thanks and took what he suspected was trash to a music shop. The employees were flummoxed: Where had White found this treasure, a Ludwig Black Beauty from the 1920s? It was a holy grail everywhere but a near-impossible score in Australia.And then, White played it.“It just sounds amazing, irrefutably beautiful — very dynamic, always warm, got a great crack,” White said, smiling in the spartan kitchen of the Brooklyn walk-up where he’s lived since 2010, on a sunny February afternoon. He extended the snare, its nickel frame mottled like an ancient mountainside. “People hear it, and they say, ‘Do you mind if I go buy one just like it?’”But ask the singers with whom White has played during the last 30 years — Cat Power or Nick Cave, PJ Harvey or Bill Callahan — and they might agree no one else makes that battered snare (or, really, the drums) sound quite like White. Intuitive but measured, propulsive but patient, White’s drumming has become an instantly identifiable instrumental voice, anchored by Midnight’s gift.White’s new solo album is the first in a triptych of new releases that includes a duo with the guitarist Marisa Anderson and the return of his band Dirty Three.Peter Fisher for The New York Times“You can hear the rainbow of his emotion in the swells, the dropouts, the attacks,” Chan Marshall, who records as Cat Power, said in an interview. “He’s able to master the set at any time, in any situation, and it’s always going to be Jim White. I don’t know anyone else who can do that.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Patrick Carfizzi Is ‘the Heart and Soul’ of the Met Opera

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      Patrick Carfizzi, a vibrant performer in supporting roles, has grabbed attention in a new production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino.”Many boxes of pizza had been delivered to the Metropolitan Opera on Sunday afternoon, and were stacked on a table in the hallway between some dressing rooms and the stage.They were a gift from one of the singers appearing in the matinee performance that day: the bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi, who is having attention-grabbing success in the modest but meaty role of Fra Melitone in a new production of Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino,” which concludes its run on Friday.That performance, remarkably, will be Carfizzi’s 459th with the Met. “It’s a huge gift to be here as often as I’ve been here,” he said on Sunday as he put on his makeup and costume, and warmed up. “You just keep working. It’s step by step by step.”Melitone doesn’t appear until the second act. So, as the opera began, Carfizzi was getting ready in a dressing room next to the one he lovingly calls the Charlie Anthony Suite, after its longtime inhabitant, the tenor Charles Anthony, a Met lifer who sang mostly supporting roles in 2,928 performances from 1954 to 2010.Heath Bryant-Huppert applying Carfizzi’s makeup before a performance of “Forza.”Ali Cherkis for The New York TimesCarfizzi, who turns 50 next month and is celebrating his 25th anniversary with the company later this year, has, in the skill and relish he brings to smaller parts, become something of a latter-day Anthony — or Paul Plishka, Bernard Fitch, James Courtney or John Del Carlo. (It was from this group that Carfizzi inherited the morale-building tradition of ordering pizza for the cast and crew.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lizzo Embraces ‘Body Neutrality’ With New Yitty Swimwear Line

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      The singer Lizzo, who just released a new swim line, has moved on from “body positivity.”On the surface, Lizzo’s new shapewear-influenced swimwear line seems all about control.“These suits have a power to hold,” Lizzo, the Grammy-Award-winning singer and fashion entrepreneur, said in a video interview. “Let me tell you something: I have broken into a sweat trying to get some of these on.”That Lizzo, a trailblazer of fat acceptance, has had to squeeze into bathing suits she developed for her brand Yitty was a striking confession. But she has tailored the concept of body positivity — that popular movement that urges self-love no matter your shape or size — to fit the times.“The idea of body positivity, it’s moved away from the antiquated mainstream conception,” she said. “It’s evolved into body neutrality.”Yet to hear her tell it, she is anything but neutral. “I’m not going to lie and say I love my body every day,” Lizzo, 35, said. “The bottom line is, the way you feel about your body changes every single day.”She continued, “There are some days I adore my body, and others when I don’t feel completely positive.”“The idea of body positivity,” Lizzo said, has “evolved into body neutrality.” YittyWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs’ Cassie Lawsuit Settlement Was Only the Beginning of His Troubles

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      The hip-hop mogul denied sexual assault accusations in a bombshell suit in November. As more allegations piled up, his business empire, and reputation, faltered.It took just one day for Sean Combs to settle a bombshell lawsuit in November that accused him of rape and physical abuse. For a moment, it may have seemed that the hip-hop mogul’s lawyers had managed to quickly contain the reputational damage he faced.But it turns out that Mr. Combs’s problems were only beginning.For years, accusations of violence trailed Mr. Combs, who since the 1990s has been known as Puff Daddy and Diddy. The accusations had little impact, however, on his public persona as a raffish celebrity who was a fixture in gossip columns, a personal brand crystallized by the name of his music label: Bad Boy. But the suit in November, filed by his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura — who makes music as the singer Cassie — seemed to open the floodgates.A string of other lawsuits followed, accusing him of various forms of sexual assault and misconduct. Mr. Combs, 54, has vehemently denied all the allegations, but the graphic and detailed complaint by Ms. Ventura — and the headlines that followed — changed that narrative to a degree that now imperils Mr. Combs’s business empire and has made him a pariah in the music industry. And a raid by federal authorities at two of his homes on Monday suggested that authorities are considering possible criminal charges.Police officers blocked off the road during a raid of a home in Los Angeles tied to Mr. Combs on Monday.Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York TimesAs the allegations against Mr. Combs have accumulated, his lucrative business dealings — which, besides music, have included fashion, two liquor brands, a cable television channel and an e-commerce platform — have been threatened. And the employee ranks at Combs Global, his company, are now a fraction of what they were less than a year ago.A deal with the spirits giant Diageo was the source of much of Combs Global’s income and Mr. Combs’s wealth. But even before the recent accusations, there were signs that the collaboration was fraying. Mr. Combs sued Diageo last May, accusing the company of racism and failing to support a tequila brand they were partners in — allegations that Diageo denied in court papers. The suit was settled in January, after multiple sexual assault suits had been filed, with Diageo saying it had severed all ties with him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Does Country Radio’s Treehouse Have Room for Beyoncé?

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      The pop superstar’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” could be a litmus test for a format that’s long been inhospitable to women and Black artists.When Beyoncé dropped two songs during the Super Bowl in February, it was almost pointless to ask whether they would become pop-culture phenomena. She’s Beyoncé; of course they would scale the charts and inspire a thousand memes.But another, trickier question soon took shape, highlighting music’s complex genre and racial fault lines: Would country radio stations support Beyoncé’s new direction, with its plucked banjos, foot stomps and lyrics rhyming Texas and Lexus? Or would one of the world’s most influential stars languish in the margins of a format so inhospitable to female artists that, as one radio consultant advised in 2015, songs by women should be minimized on country playlists to ensure that “the tomatoes of our salad are the females”? (Even now, Nashville progressives seethe in remembrance of “Tomato-gate.”)In the wider pop music world, radio has largely ceded its former star-making mojo to streaming and social media. But country stations still retain a significant gatekeeping power, elevating favored performers and mediating the genre’s metes and bounds for audiences and the industry at large.With her latest album, “Cowboy Carter” — its cover depicts the star on a horse’s saddle, holding an American flag and decked out in a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue rodeo gear — Beyoncé could be a litmus test for the format’s openness and adaptability. As many commentators see it, that goes for Beyoncé’s own music as well as for Black female country performers like Mickey Guyton and Rissi Palmer, who have found solid fan bases but barely cracked radio playlists.“This could be a major turning point,” said Leslie Fram, the senior vice president of music and talent for Country Music Television and a former radio programmer and D.J.Yet a month and a half after the debut of those two first singles, “Texas Hold ’Em” and “16 Carriages,” and on the eve of the release of “Cowboy Carter” on Friday, the results of that test are still murky.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sean Combs’s Lawyer Calls Home Raids an ‘Unprecedented Ambush’

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      A day after two of the entertainment executive’s homes were raided by federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, his lawyer said his client is innocent.A lawyer for Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul whose homes were raided by federal agents on Monday, called the searches “a gross overuse of military-level force” and criticized them as “nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”“There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated,” the lawyer, Aaron Dyer, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities. Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been restricted in any way.”On Monday, armed agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched two of Mr. Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Fla. The authorities did not say whether Mr. Combs was a target or what criminal charges they were investigating. Video taken by a local television station in Los Angeles, Fox 11, showed armed officers entering a home in the exclusive Holmby Hills area of the city.“This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs,” Mr. Dyer said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”On the same day as those searches, federal agents also stopped Mr. Combs at an airport in the Miami area as he was preparing to leave with family members for the Bahamas, and took a number of electronic devices from Mr. Combs, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Mr. Combs was not arrested, and remained in the United States, according to that person.The raid was a striking development for Mr. Combs, who has been one of the highest-profile figures in the music industry for decades, credited with transforming hip-hop and R&B in the 1990s into a global business. He worked with stars like Mary J. Blige and the Notorious B.I.G., and as recently as last fall was being showered with industry accolades.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More