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      Why Was Sean Combs Arrested? Read the Full Indictment.

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      commit at least two acts of racketeering activity in the conduct of the affairs of the Combs
      Enterprise.
      Notice of Special Sentencing Factor
      15. From at least in or about 2009, up to and including in or about 2018, in the Southern
      District of New York and elsewhere, as part of his agreement to conduct and participate in the
      conduct of the affairs of the Combs Enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity, SEAN
      COMBS, a/k/a “Puff Daddy,” a/k/a “P. Diddy,” a/k/a “Diddy,” a/k/a “PD,” a/k/a “Love,” the
      defendant, agreed to, in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, knowingly recruit, entice,
      harbor, transport, provide, obtain, advertise, maintain, patronize, and solicit by any means a person,
      knowing and in reckless disregard of the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, and
      coercion, as described in Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(e)(2), and any
      combination
      of such means, would be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, in violation
      of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a)(1) and (b)(1).
      (Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d).)
      COUNT TWO
      (Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud, or Coercion)
      (Victim-1)
      The Grand Jury further charges:
      16.
      From at least in or about 2009, up to and including in or about 2018, in the Southern
      District of New York and elsewhere, SEAN COMBS, a/k/a “Puff Daddy,” a/k/a “P. Diddy,” a/k/a
      “Diddy,” a/k/a “PD,” a/k/a “Love,” the defendant, in and affecting interstate and foreign
      commerce, knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised,
      maintained, patronized, and solicited by any means a person, knowing and in reckless disregard of
      the fact that means of force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion, as described in Title 18, United
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      A Shocking Country Song Is Dominating TikTok. Is Girly Girl for Real?

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      TikTok’s latest musical obsession is a country song. But not the kind that first comes to mind.Miles removed from the weather-beaten earnestness of Zach Bryan, or Bailey Zimmerman’s heart-on-sleeve crooning, the viral “10 Drunk Cigarettes” is plasticky, poppy, alien and seemingly A.I.-assisted. Its lyrics advocate for a carefree, resolutely American way of life, although they replace Nashville standards like beers and Bibles with cigarettes and copious amounts of cocaine, and find humor (and plenty of shock value) in their clash of saccharine femininity and unbridled nihilism. The result is like the cult comedy “Strangers With Candy” or the early web series “The Most Popular Girls in School” for the short-form video generation.“10 Drunk Cigarettes” is by Girly Girl Productions: a mysterious trio supposedly based in St. Louis that seem to have a preternatural ability to turn ironic, startlingly contemporary internet humor into music. Most Girly Girl songs follow a brutally effective structure: an intro verse about how empowered women are, followed by a chorus about using that power to do something horrifyingly self-destructive, in a tone that vaguely echoes the “God forbid women have hobbies” meme.Not every Girly Girl song is indebted to country, but its most ingratiating ones, like “Notes App Girls!” and “Coked Up Friend Adventure!” feel rooted in the genre. “10 Drunk Cigarettes,” which has gained the most traction on TikTok and streaming, combines the smiley feminized empowerment of RaeLynn’s “Bra Off” — which likens a breakup to “takin’ my bra off” — with the boozy escapism of Chase Rice and Florida Georgia Line’s “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.”“10 Drunk Cigarettes” is not dissimilar from that collaboration in structure and arrangement. It’s built around a rhythmic acoustic guitar line and surges to an anthemic chorus structured as a list. But it’s not the kind of song that will be getting played on country radio anytime soon. TikTok is filled with videos of people reacting, mouths agape, to its chorus: “I can name 10 things us girls need before we ever need a man/One new vape/Two lines of coke/Free drinks from the bar/Four more lines of coke” — and so on.The very first line of “Demure,” Girly Girl’s debut album, makes a statement: “Haters mad ’cause my music is A.I./Wish I cared, but I’m way too high.” While many vocals on the album are wobbly and lo-fi in a way that recalls the fake songs by Drake and the Weeknd that proliferated last year, it’s unclear how much of Girly Girl’s songs are A.I.-generated; it’s unlikely that tracks like these could be made without a high level of human involvement. (The company did not respond to a request for comment.)Girly Girl’s songs tap into a vein of humor that’s firmly of-the-moment. Their glib jokes about vaping, drinking, drug taking and trauma — and, specifically, how those things relate to, or form an essential part of, “girlhood” — are the kinds of jokes going viral on X, formerly Twitter, every day. “Demure” was released last month, and even its title (which refers to a TikTok trend about being “very demure, very mindful” that blew up and faded away within the last few weeks) points to a desire for immediate relevance at the expense of longevity.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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      The Lijadu Sisters, Nigeria’s Twin Musical Pioneers, Are Celebrated Anew

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      Taiwo and Kehinde were groundbreaking for their funky songs, as well as their feminism. Five years after Kehinde’s death, their albums will be reissued.High above Harlem in early August, Yeye Taiwo Lijadu sat surrounded by her collection of sacred objects. Shelves displaying statues and icons of some of the 401 deities associated with the Yoruba traditional religion Ifá — in which she’s an ordained priestess — stretched nearly to her apartment’s ceiling. Lijadu (pronounced Lee-JAH-doo), 75, called this room “a museum of the ancestors.”Less prominent were artifacts from her past as one of Nigeria’s biggest 1970s pop stars, when she was half of the vocal duo the Lijadu Sisters, with her identical twin, Kehinde. Beginning in 1963, when they were schoolgirls in a talent competition, the pair became fixtures on Nigerian television. They began releasing records in 1968, and by the mid-1970s they were larger than life; the cover illustration of their 1976 album “Danger” depicted them as superheroes, clad in matching red outfits with knee-high boots.In Nigeria’s male-dominated music scene, the Lijadu Sisters were among the first — and fiercest — popular female artists, groundbreaking not only for their music (a mélange that included folky apala, funky Afrobeat and slinky disco) but also their feminism. In Jeremy Marre’s 1979 documentary “Konkombe: The Nigerian Pop Music Scene” (which will screen at BAM next month), the sisters rehearse and record while taking turns feeding Taiwo’s infant daughter, trying to make their voices heard amid a studio full of male musicians and technicians. “Women suffered at the hands of men in Nigeria,” Lijadu recalled, alluding to an atmosphere of disrespect and sexual harassment.But yesterday’s struggles have yielded to today’s admiration, as the pair have finally been accorded the acclaim their trailblazing influence deserves. After being out of circulation for years, all five of the Lijadu Sisters’ 1970s albums will be remastered and reissued by the Numero Group, beginning with the release next week of perhaps their most fully realized record, “Horizon Unlimited” (1979). But what should be a moment for triumph is filled with grief: Kehinde died in 2019 of breast cancer. “She was my life,” Lijadu said, “she was my everything.”The Lijadu Sisters released their debut album, “Urede,” in 1974 on EMI Nigeria, then signed a four-album deal with the Decca imprint Afrodisia.Pade AladiThe Lijadu Sisters’ music was striking for its sisterly connection. Singing primarily in English or Yoruba, the pair showcased uncannily synchronized harmonies, conjuring a choir of two. Their songs have been sampled — without proper clearance — by artists including Nas and Ayra Starr and cited as inspirations by a new generation of female musicians like Tems and Hayley Williams.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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      Herbie Flowers, ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ Bassist, Dies at 86

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      A celebrated session musician who appeared on a host of classic rock albums, he made his most lasting mark with his contribution to Lou Reed’s most famous song.Herbie Flowers, a prolific British session musician who rode a handful of notes to rock immortality with his indelible bass line on Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” — just one of the many landmark recordings on which he supported a constellation of rock stars — died on Sept. 5. He was 86.Family members announced his death on social media. The family did not say where he died or cite a cause.Mr. Flowers, a bassist who also occasionally played tuba, began his career as a session musician in the late 1960s. He carved out his sliver of rock glory by playing on more than 500 hit albums by the end of the 1970s, according to the BBC.The classic albums Mr. Flowers played on could have filled a dorm room shelf in the 1970s and ’80s. Among them were Elton John’s “Madman Across the Water” and Harry Nilsson’s “Nilsson Schmilsson,” both from 1971; Cat Stevens’s “Foreigner” (1973); and David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs” (1974).He joined forces with three-quarters of rock’s equivalent of the royal family, recording with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. He also recorded with Dusty Springfield, Serge Gainsbourg and David Essex, whom he joined on the sinewy 1973 hit “Rock On.”Despite his proximity to fame, Mr. Flowers described himself as little more than a hired hand.As a studio musician, he once told Bass Player magazine, “they play you the song or sling you a chord chart, and you come up with what you think are fancy bass lines.” You “get your job done as quickly as you can,” he added, “and as soon as they say ‘Thanks very much,’ get the hell out of there.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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      5 of My Most Anticipated Albums of the Fall

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      A new indie-rock supergroup, a fruitful (if unexpected) partnership, an alt-rock icon going solo and more.Kim Deal has been a one-of-a-kind mainstay in underground rock, first with Pixies and then the Breeders, but she’s never released a full solo album until now.Alex Da CorteDear listeners,Fall is a perennially busy season for new music releases, and the deluge can be a bit overwhelming. Fear not: Today I’m here to help.For the Times’s annual Fall Preview, out in print on Sunday, I listened to a bunch of upcoming releases, and this playlist is a brief collection of my recommendations — five albums that, I can now confirm, are worth getting excited about. Some of these LPs showcase familiar names pushing themselves in new directions (Kim Deal is finally releasing her first solo album!) while others (from the English folk singer Laura Marling and the New York post-hardcore group Drug Church) find artists finally coming into the peaks of their powers, perfecting unique sounds they’ve established across previous albums.We’ve also got a power duo (the R&B auteur Dawn Richard and the experimental composer Spencer Zahn) and a power quartet (a new coalition of indie-rock lifers who have named themselves, fittingly, the Hard Quartet). There’s a little something for everyone on this playlist. Check it out and spring forward into fall.You call it superstitions, I call it traditions,LindsayListen along while you read.1. Kim Deal: “Crystal Breath”Since her earliest days in Pixies and her long-running alt-rock group the Breeders, Kim Deal’s hazy, cotton-candy voice has been a one-of-a-kind mainstay in underground rock, but she’s never released a full solo album until now. At turns abrasive and achingly sweet, “Nobody Loves You More” is pure Deal, whether she’s offering her own off-kilter version of yacht rock on the lead single “Coast” (which I shared in a previous Amplifier) or turning more experimental on the angular, staticky “Crystal Breath.” Even at its most infectious, a misty melancholy hangs over the album; it marks Deal’s last collaboration with her friend and longtime engineer Steve Albini, who died suddenly in May. The lilting, pedal-steel-kissed standout “Are You Mine” sounds like a simple, doo-wop-inspired love song but turns out to be an ode to Deal’s late mother, who struggled with dementia. Even in the midst of all that loss, “Nobody Loves You More” heralds, for the 63-year-old Deal, a fruitful new beginning. (Nov. 22; 4AD)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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      The Weeknd, FKA twigs, Soccer Mommy and More New Music

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      Hear tracks by Soccer Mommy, FKA twigs, Reyna Tropical and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.The Weeknd, ‘Dancing in the Flames’It’s back to the mid-1980s synth-pop of Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson and Eurythmics in the new song by the Weeknd, abetted by the symmetry-loving production of two more producers, Max Martin and Oscar Holter. Pointillistic keyboard notes bounce in stereo over programmed drums, full of major-key optimism, as the Weeknd sings about a romance that’s like fast, reckless driving: “I can’t wait to see your face/crash when we’re switching lanes,” he sings in his sweetest falsetto. A tolling keyboard coda suggests an unfortunate outcome — made explicit in the video — no matter how catchy things were. JON PARELESSoccer Mommy, ‘Driver’The grungy chug of Sophie Allison’s guitar brushes up against a lilting vocal melody on “Driver,” the third single from “Evergreen,” the upcoming album from the singer-songwriter who records as Soccer Mommy. “I’m a test of his patience with all that I do,” Allison sings of a lover who calms her clanging neuroses. “’Cause I’m hot and he stays cool, I don’t know why.” LINDSAY ZOLADZFKA twigs, ‘Eusexua’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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      Oasis Reunion Brings Back Spotlight on the Gallagher Hairstyle

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      News of a new tour put the band — and the rough-hewed hairstyles popularized by its sibling frontmen, Liam and Noel Gallagher — back in the spotlight.For the legions of Oasis fans who thought a reunion would never happen after the band broke up 15 years ago and vowed to regroup only when hell froze over, the recent announcement of a 2025 tour came as something almost life-altering. The news was also a boon for a smaller, though no less passionate, group of rock exegetes: those who tracks the history of music and culture through hair.That hair is foundational to pop identity is beyond dispute. Think, at random, of Little Richard’s lacquered pompadour; James Brown’s conk; the Beatles’ mop tops; Sinead O’Connor’s shaved head; Johnny Rotten’s mohawk; Boy George’s plaits; the jet-black nimbus — part bouffant, part rat’s nest — of the Cure’s lead singer, Robert Smith. Think Billie Eilish’s slime-green roots.“Hair is essential to rock ’n’ roll as a music and to rock stars as idols,” said Joe Levy, a former executive editor at Rolling Stone and the curator of a forthcoming photographic history of rocker hair and style for the Illuminarium theater in Atlanta. “It’s a flag of freedom.”From left, Liam and Noel Gallagher in August. Simon Emmet/EPA, via ShutterstockSurely it was that for the brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher in the long-ago 1990s, when they formed Oasis in Manchester, England. They wore hairstyles that could be described as tough, northern-English versions of the ’60s mod cuts popularized by the Beatles (a band Oasis plundered from liberally and without compunction.)“It’s this very English kind of look that morphed from ’60s Stones and Beatles, the mods, into this Gallagher version with bangs, side burns and a short crop at the top,” said Guido Palau, a go-to hairstylist for designers like Kim Jones and Marc Jacobs and a man Vogue once deemed to be among the most in-demand coiffeurs in the world.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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      Screamin’ Scott Simon, Longtime Sha Na Na Keyboardist, Dies at 75

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      A mainstay of the rock ’n’ roll nostalgia band, he also wrote the lyrics to “Sandy,” a song heard in the hit film “Grease.”Screamin’ Scott Simon, who as the dynamic keyboardist for the rock ’n’ roll revival act Sha Na Na regularly paid homage to Jerry Lee Lewis with electrifying versions of “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” — and who also played a vital behind-the-scenes role as the band’s managing partner — died on Sept. 5 in Ojai, Calif. He was 75.His daughter Nina Simon said he died of sinus cancer while in hospice care.Mr. Simon joined Sha Na Na in 1970, a year after the group was formed, and stayed until the group’s final performance, shortly before the coronavirus lockdown in 2020.As both a pianist and a singer, he brought his own theatricality to a group dedicated to turning doo-wop and early rock ’n’ roll songs into dramatic versions of the originals.Wearing brightly colored shirts festooned with images of piano keys and musical notes, he played the piano on “Great Balls of Fire” partly from his knees, sometimes from his bench and occasionally with his feet. He sang the Bobby Darin hit “Splish Splash” in a bathtub, wearing a sleeveless T-shirt, boxer shorts and a towel while plinking a toy piano.Mr. Simon (standing, second from left) with the other members of Sha Na Na in an undated publicity photo. He joined the band in 1970 and remained for 50 years.via PhotofestDuring the group’s accelerated version of Danny and the Juniors’ “At the Hop,” he never stopped jumping or doing the twist as he sang.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