In the Eye of a Storm

By David E. Thigpen

As a celebrated rapper, producer, philanthropist and party-giver-and-goer extraordinaire, Sean ("Puffy") Combs is used to being the center of attention. But the eyes of the music world will be on him for another reason this week: on Thursday the multimillionaire hip-hop mogul is scheduled to appear in a New York State criminal courtroom to face felony charges for assault. In April he and two bodyguards invaded the office of Interscope Records president of black music Steve Stoute and allegedly administered a street-style beat-down. Combs blamed Stoute for allowing MTV to air a music video with a scene of Puffy nailed to a cross--a scene Combs had ordered cut.

The charges can carry a penalty of up to seven years. But Combs is unlikely to do time. Instead, he will probably plead to a lesser charge and agree to a financial settlement. Such a deal would come with a hefty price tag: Stoute could pocket a payment of anywhere from $1 million on up in exchange for agreeing not to file a civil suit. But even if Combs' legal problems are disposed of, there will be lingering questions: Why would one of hip-hop's smartest executives attack a rival and risk jail? What lit his fuse?

Combs isn't talking, but conversations with his friends and associates suggest that an array of factors suddenly converged to push his sometimes volatile temper over the red line. After he filmed the mock crucifixion scene for the Nas video Hate Me Now, Combs had second thoughts that the imagery might be considered blasphemous. So as he often does, he consulted his religious adviser, the Rev. Hezekiah Walker of the Pentecostal Love Fellowship Tabernacle in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Combs worships. "I told him to cut the video," Walker told TIME. "Sean has a strong spiritual sense and a lot of faith, and I told him there were things that could damage him with the church." What's more, says Walker, "Sean is working on gospel-rap songs for his next album. He wants to awaken the spiritual side in hip-hop." Rap music and church doctrines coexist uneasily, and Combs realized that the crucifixion scene could harm his album by offending the audience he was trying to capture.

The release of the Nas video and the subsequent attack on Stoute came as yet more bad news in a year in which Combs had already been fighting to steer his company, Bad Boy Records, out of its current doldrums. The bounty of multiplatinum hits from Mase, the Notorious B.I.G. and Puffy himself has tapered off, and the label's new releases have yet to pick up the slack. Albums by Faith Evans, Total and 112 were all expected to be strong hits, but so far only 112's Room 112 is approaching platinum. "By Puffy standards, a gold record is considered a flop," says an observer. And last month Mase announced that he is retiring from recording to join a ministry. All of which increases pressure on Combs to make his August solo album, Forever, a big hit.

According to Combs' friend Russell Simmons, chairman of Def Jam Records, the attack on Stoute erupted from a moment of superheated passion. "Sean is an artist, and artists are about guts and instinct and emotions," Simmons says. "He's not a gangster." Says Strauss Zelnick, CEO of BMG Entertainment, Bad Boy's parent company: "It's unkind and unfair to judge Puffy on one incident."

Combs apologized for the beating--but, according to Stoute, he waited six weeks to do so. "Puffy reached out to me and said, 'Whatever happened happened, but as a man, I apologize to you.' I told him, 'I appreciate you calling.'" But apparently not enough. "When you get a lot of success, you feel invincible," insists Stoute. "When it's at its worst, you feel above the law."

Some in the hip-hop world say there is nothing better for record sales than bad publicity. Still, it's hard to see this saga as anything but a negative all around. "Whoever was with Sean that day should have helped him calm down and find another way," says the Rev. Walker. "I told him you don't need to have yes-persons around." Combs has said he was momentarily "out of my head" and vowed never to lapse again. "He's very upset at the perception that he let hip-hop down," says Simmons. And something else struck even closer to home. "One of his kids saw him in handcuffs on TV," Simmons adds. "That really upset him. He'll never let that happen again." Let's hope so. No one wants to see Combs joining Death Row Records executive Suge Knight behind bars.