CNN
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There was a time when only those who scored an invite to party with Sean “Diddy” Combs had the hottest ticket of the summer.
These days, people are in no rush to associate with the now disgraced and detained businessman and producer.
Combs is charged in the Southern District of New York with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation of prostitution, and could face life in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case has drawn attention to the kind of life Combs used to lead.
The indictment says the conduct also included “freak offs,” as Combs called elaborate sex acts, in which he allegedly drugged his victims and forced them to engage in extended sex acts with male prostitutes beginning in about 2009.
The indictment has sparked debate about the contrast between Combs’ period of cultural influence, including the massive white parties he hosted between 1998 and 2009, and his alleged behind-closed-doors conduct in the years that followed.
Combs reportedly began hosting annual parties in 1998 to assert his presence in New York’s upscale Hamptons neighborhood. His dream was to blend the hip-hop lifestyle with the East Coast elite and “strip everybody of their image and put everybody on the same color, on the same level,” Combs said in a 2006 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“It was a great mix of people: our Harlem bros, Leonardo DiCaprio, who’d just finished[the1997hitfilm]Titanic,” Combs says, “and socialites and Southern relatives. 200 people were sitting here having a country barbecue.”
Not everyone in the settlement was on board with the idea.
“People in the Hamptons thought the first party was the end of the world,” Stephen Gaines, author of Hedge Snob: Passion and Fortune in the Hamptons, told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “They were afraid of the rowdy entertainer crowds and thought it would be an invasion, but it wasn’t.”
Combs, meanwhile, clearly envisioned himself as a modern-day Jay Gatsby, the fictional Long Island millionaire in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby” and, ironically, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film adaptation.
“Have I ever read The Great Gatsby?,” Combs told The Independent in 2001. “I am The Great Gatsby!”
“That Gatsby’s life ended in ruin and his wealthy friends exposed as fickle and unfaithful seems to matter little to Combs,” the magazine noted at the time.
The soirée proved popular from the start, attracting showbiz talent and industry heavyweights.
According to THR, the original guest list was up to 1,000 people, all of whom were required to wear all white.
“It was an amazing sight to see everyone at the party wearing white,” household guru Martha Stewart, who attended Combs’ first party, told THR in 2018.
Socialite and businesswoman Paris Hilton described the inaugural event as “iconic and everyone was there.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for Stewart and Hilton for comment.
The parties expanded from Labor Day events to Independence Day celebrations and locations in Los Angeles and St. Tropez.
Combs used some of his parties as fundraisers for various causes he supported, demonstrating his social influence at the time.
“The party grew bigger and bigger as corporate sponsors got involved, and Combs used it as a platform to launch cologne, vodka and even charity drives,” GQ reported in 2016.
“The last official white party on record was held in Los Angeles in 2009,” the magazine reports, “but essentially, Puff Daddy’s (Combs) white party represented the height of backyard barbecue, capturing a slice of pop culture that’s hard to believe is intermingling today.”
Photographs over the years show guests from all generations in attendance.
As Combs faces legal charges, some are reexamining past reports about his partying to gain insight into his private life.
A clip from a 1999 “Entertainment Tonight” interview in which Combs spoke about the White Party resurfaced on social media this week.
“They don’t want me to throw parties anymore,” Combs said, “but we’re not going to stop. We’re going to keep having fun. We’re going to bring people from all walks of life together.”
He even makes predictions.
“People are going to hear about my parties,” Combs said. “They’re going to shut them down, they’re going to probably arrest me. I’m going to do all kinds of crazy things just because I want to have a good time.”
