'He would bash me on my head': Cassie Ventura testifies Diddy beat her, details 'freak-offs' with 'dozens' of prostitutes



Singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura hurled damning accusations against Sean "Diddy" Combs during the trial of the rapper turned fashion icon.

Ventura took the witness stand Tuesday in Manhattan federal court in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial against Combs.

Ventura claimed that Combs often videotaped these sexual encounters with 'dozens and dozens' of prostitutes, and she feared that he could 'blackmail' her by releasing the footage online.

Ventura — who dated the 55-year-old Combs from 2007 to 2018 — testified in court that she “only ever saw handguns” at his residences in Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, and Alpine, New Jersey.

When prosecutors asked whether she ever handled any of Combs’ firearms, the 38-year-old Ventura responded, “I was handed one. We were going to a club [gig] in downtown L.A."

“I just remember we took mushrooms, and I was, like, really high. I was handed the gun just to hold in my bag, but I was freaking out the whole time [that] it was going to go off," Ventura said in court, according to Page Six.

She allegedly admitted that she did not know how to operate the gun. She added that the firearm stayed in her bag for up to an hour and a half while they were at the nightclub.

Ventura — the prosecution's star witness — recalled feeling “terrified.”

Diddy's former girlfriend alleged that she later gave the firearm back to security.

"I have no idea why I had a loaded gun," she told prosecutors.

Ventura said, “The guns were taken out here and there. I always felt like it was a little bit of a scare tactic. I didn’t know for what purpose."

RELATED: Blaze News exclusive: 'I've attended these parties': Former Diddy protégé recalls 'dark hours' with 'extra activities'

Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs

Ventura accused Diddy of physically assaulting her.

The singer alleged, "He would bash me on my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me on the head if I was down. … [I would] make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face."

She claimed the “violent” assaults became so severe that she would “get knots” on her forehead.

Ventura told the courtroom that she suffered daily “psychological abuse” during her relationship with Combs. She claimed Combs said he wanted “control” over every aspect of her life and career.

Ventura was asked about the infamous "freak-offs" — the reportedly drug-fueled, multiday marathons of sex with prostitutes.

Ventura replied, "It basically entails the hiring of an escort and setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean."

The singer said on the stand that she was given drugs so she could “perform” for Combs for hours during the alleged "freak-offs."

"The ‘freak-offs' became a job, where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and feel normal again," Ventura alleged.

Cassie testified that the "freak-offs" quickly made her feel “disgusting,” “humiliated,” and "worthless" but that Combs was allegedly not concerned about her feelings.

RELATED: Sean 'Diddy' Combs sexually assaulted 10-year-old boy after drugging him during 'audition,' shocking new lawsuit claims

Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean 'Diddy' Combs

Ventura said she was a 19-year-old singer and model when she met the then-38-year-old Combs in Manhattan.

“There was a 17-year age difference," Ventura stated. "I was really confused at the time, you know, new artist. I was pretty naive.”

Combs' music label, Bad Boy Records, gave Cassie a 10-album deal. However, only one album was released.

Ventura said in court that she was initially drawn to Combs because he was “entertaining,” “fun,” and “larger than life," Variety reported.

She added that Combs "happened to have my career in his hands.”

Prosecutor Elizabeth Johnson said in her opening argument, "This case is not about a celebrity's private sexual preferences. It's about coercive crimes."

Combs' defense attorney, Teny Geragos, admitted in her opening statement that Combs was "a jerk" and "mean." Geragos also said Diddy has "a bad temper" and has issues with drug use, according to NPR.

On Monday, a security guard who allegedly witnessed Combs assaulting Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 gave testimony.

RELATED: Sean 'Diddy' Combs accused of raping 13-year-old girl with another celebrity as female star watched, new lawsuit claims

Another Monday witness was an alleged male escort who claimed to have been paid on several occasions over two years to have sex with Ventura while Combs watched.

Ventura allegedly told the court that she didn’t want to have “sex with strangers” for Combs’ enjoyment, but she "didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. I didn’t know what ‘no’ could be, or what ‘no’ could turn into.”

Ventura claimed that Combs often videotaped these sexual encounters with "dozens and dozens" of prostitutes, and she feared that he could “blackmail” her by releasing the footage online.

As Blaze News reported last May, a disturbing video surfaced allegedly showing an "extremely intoxicated" Diddy brutally assaulting Ventura in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

If convicted, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison.

'They’ve normalized a behavior that’s demonic.'

"Fearless" host Jason Whitlock delved into some of the salacious accusations from the Diddy trial.

“My first and initial takeaway is that this society that we’ve built, where entertainers — and particularly in the rap music world, but in the music industry in general — we shower millions upon millions of dollars on entertainers, and there’s a level of power that comes along with showering that much money on entertainers," Whitlock declared.

He continued, "And when you build a particular form of music that’s based off of prison culture and prison values, what do you think they’re going to do with all this money and power you’ve handed over to them?"

The "Fearless with Jason Whitlock" host added that rappers use their money to "buy gold chains, to buy sex slaves, and to host lavish drug-filled drunken parties."

“Anybody that wants to deny the wickedness, the evilness, the debauchery, the depravity, the nihilism of this music and the people that they’re putting up as, ‘Hey, take these people seriously. These are your leaders,’” Whitlock stated. “These are criminals, unrepentant criminals, and they’re degenerates.”

“They’ve normalized a behavior that’s demonic, and just following the early parts of this trial and what comes out of it, it just reconfirms in my mind, these people need to be called demons. That’s what they are,” Whitlock added.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up!

Donald Trump Settles Music Lawsuit
play icon

Donald Trump Settles Music Lawsuit

The terms of the settlement remain confidential at this time

M.I.A. explains why artists like Cardi B are destroying the music industry: 'What is cool is Satan’s playground'



British rapper and record producer M.I.A. recently made an appearance on James Poulos’ “Zero Hour.” The duo broached a number of subjects, including the “Paper Planes” singer’s anti-Big Tech clothing line OHMNI, therapy addiction in the West, tyranny in the U.K., and, of course, the music industry.

On the latter subject, M.I.A. was candid about the decline of music due to the influence of Satanism and the AI programming that paves the path for it.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

“Where do you see music going? And do you think music is doing what it needs to be doing for us as human beings?” Poulos asked.

“Music is healing, and it can change a lot of people’s mood or vibe ... and I think it’s been hijacked because it became a business,” M.I.A. explained, adding that as an artist, “You have to put [your music] through the channel of an industry [where] it gets corrupted.”

“This is the image that has to be put with this song, and a girl has to look like this, and she has to do this dance,” she said, regurgitating what artists are told by producers and marketing personnel.

As a newer Christian, M.I.A. pointed to Satan as the root cause of the music industry’s degeneracy.

“Satan was the director of music, you know? It is a great tool to get to people because music directly accesses your spirit, so you bypass the mind and your soul and your logic,” she told Poulos. “There's a level of responsibility to practice when you make music and a level of knowledge you have to have.”

She explained that “what is cool” in our modern culture “is never that.”

“What is cool is Satan’s playground,” she remarked.

Unfortunately, artificial intelligence has also become integral to the music industry. While M.I.A. says that AI in and of itself is basically “a fun toy,” the programmers of AI are what’s problematic. Being keenly aware of what sells, these people design AI to essentially do Satan’s bidding.

She points to popular musicians Cardi B and Ice Spice – who are likely popular because they’re “skirting very close to porn” – as examples.

“It’s like merging Only Fans and the music industry is where we’re at,” she said, adding that this is why she’s “taking a time out.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above.

Want more from James Poulos?

To enjoy more of James's visionary commentary on politics, tech, ideas, and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Why Hollywood should be 'VERY NERVOUS' about the Diddy scandal



Last week on September 17, Sean "Diddy" Combs, commonly known in the music industry as P. Diddy or Puff Daddy, was arrested and charged with a slew of crimes, including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The rapper and producer is widely being referred to as the Epstein of Hollywood because, like Epstein, Diddy threw massive sex parties during which he forced guests to engage in sexual activities with prostitutes while being filmed.

Now that Diddy has been denied bail, other Hollywood stars are making suspicious moves, many of them going on a “social media scrubbing spree.”

“Blaze News Tonight’s” Jill Savage and “Fearless” host Jason Whitlock discuss the situation.

Currently, Diddy is “locked up in a Brooklyn penitentiary where he reportedly was put on suicide watch,” says Jill.

Naturally, many are wondering whether or not Diddy will “wind up being Epsteined.”

The other big question is: Who are his co-conspirators? Like the mysterious Epstein list, certainly there are a number of elites on the list of those complicit in Diddy’s crimes, but who are they?

While no others have been arrested yet, “there are Hollywood heavyweights who are apparently spooked.”

One of those people is singer, rapper, and producer Usher, whose “posts vanished off X, only for him to make the excuse later that he was hacked.”

Another Hollywood star who scrubbed her social media accounts is punk singer P!nk. Apparently, several of her posts “were 86ed,” says Jill.

However, “one of the creepiest moments in the saga” actually occurred back in 2016 when Usher was on “The Howard Stern Show” and recounted his wild days living at Diddy’s.

When Usher was just 14, he was apparently sent off to “Puffy Flavor Camp” to “see the lifestyle.”

“There were very curious things taking place,” Usher said in the interview before listing specific celebrities he saw at Diddy’s infamous parties, including Biggie Smalls, Lil’ Kim, Craig Mack, Faith Evans, the band Jodeci, and Mary J. Blige, among others.

Jason has known that the rap music industry is corrupt to the core for decades now.

“It's been my argument for many years — and it's all come to fruition — that the music industry is satanic; it's a sex cult, and as it relates to hip-hop, its role is to instill, impart, make the culture more nihilistic, and Diddy is at the head of that,” he explains.

Now that Diddy has been officially arrested and charged, Jason says that “a lot of people should be nervous — a lot of Hollywood people, a lot of athletes, a lot of the A-list celebrities.”

Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson can’t help but be suspicious about the timing, however.

“Why is he getting in trouble now?” he asks, noting that illegal things happen at debaucherous celebrity parties all the time.

According to Jason, Diddy’s downfall is a result of his cockiness.

“Diddy started suing people and started challenging the establishment that put him in place,” says Jason, adding that Diddy mistakenly assumed that he was equal to the people who installed him at the top of the music industry.

“[He] thought, ‘Hey, I'm a billionaire; I'm the equal of these other people that installed me,’ and the people that installed Diddy are saying, ‘No, you're not; you have a role and a place to stay in; you've gone outside of that, and we will put you down like a sick dog,'” he explains.

“Diddy was a tool to bait people to come to his house and participate in things that they would put on camera, and now you have blackmail information on politicians, other celebrities, influencers,” says Jason.

“You wonder why all the Hollywood influencer celebrity people think the exact same thing — Kamala Harris is the greatest person in the world … she should be president of the United States, and Donald Trump is racist. You can't convince me that everybody in Hollywood thinks that. They think that because they have no other choice but to think that,” he says.

“What’s the next phase? Where do we go from here?” asks Jill.

To hear Jason’s answer, watch the clip above.

Want more from 'Blaze News Tonight'?

To enjoy more provocative opinions, expert analysis, and breaking stories you won’t see anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Lizzo’s response to 'I QUIT' Instagram post has Blaze hosts LOLing (don’t read if you’re offended by fat jokes)



American rapper and singer Lizzo is apparently not quitting the music industry after all.

On March 29, the musician ragefully took to social media to declare that she had had it up to here with the haters and would be quitting.

Perhaps she was just having a moment, because a few days later, she returned to Instagram to announce that she didn’t mean "quit" in the literal sense.

“I want to make this video because I just need to clarify, when I say ‘I quit,’ I mean I quit giving any negative energy attention. What I’m not going to quit is the joy of my life, which is making music, which is connecting to people.”

“Why is she doing this in this outfit?” laughs Sara, referencing the star’s provocative blue swimsuit she chose to don while giving her “never mind, I don’t quit” speech.

“They make these statements, and they've just not got the courage of their conviction,” says Matthew Marsden. “They go, ‘Oh you know what, actually I'm making millions of dollars out of this, so I'm not going to quit.”’

“She did it all along for attention. Everyone knew she wasn’t gonna quit,” says Sara, adding that it’s frightening that “this is one of [Gen Z’s] role models.”

“I don't know about role model, but she's certainly a model that rolls,” giggles Marsden.

“When you said it was big news, I didn't know how ginormous the news was,” adds Jason Buttrill.

“To be fair, I don’t fat shame people who are not flaunting their fatness in my face,” acknowledges Sara. “As a former fatty, I appreciate someone who is like, ‘I know I’m overweight, and I'm trying to work on it.’ What I don't appreciate is someone who is like, ‘Look at me, look at all the rolls; you should be proud to look like this.'”

To hear more of the conversation (i.e., fat jokes), watch the clip below.


Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Streaming services pull AI-generated Drake-inspired song, but it's not clear the musician has a legitimate copyright claim



The steel-driving man John Henry of American legend attempted to beat the machine and lost. Today, new technologies are steaming past America's top musicians and up the charts, but instead of railway ties, they are dropping beats.

Multiple streaming platforms have taken down a new viral AI-generated song featuring vocals reminiscent of both Drake's and the Weeknd's respective styles.

Although the musicians and their parent label Universal Music Group appear to have gotten their way in silencing the track, it's not clear whether they have a legitimate copyright claim or the right to do so. There are other recently released songs incorporating AI-generated celebrity sound-alikes that have been easy targets for complaints and removal since they contained borrowed instrumentation, lyrics, or other components that were copyright-protected.

For instance, Rihanna's voice was mimicked in a transmogrified version of the Beyoncé hit "Cuff It." Even if Rihanna proved incapable of taking legal action, Beyoncé and her label certainly were in a position to do so.

The 2-minute, 14-second song that made waves this week is, however, an original composition.
"Heart on My Sleeve" was created by an artist who goes by Ghostwriter977 and has over 2.5 million likes on TikTok.
Music Business Worldwide reported that the song is novel in composition and lyrics, but incorporates AI-generated vocals reminiscent of the voices of Drake and the Weeknd, whose real names are Aubrey Drake Graham and Abel Makkonen Tesfaye.
Michael Inouye, an analyst at ABI Research, told CNN that "AI could also have generated most of the song, lyrics and replicated the artists again based on the training data set and any prompts given to direct the AI model."
Roberto Nickson, the entrepreneur and designer behind Eluna AI, evidenced how easy it was to emulate a celebrity's voice with AI in a recent Twitter video:
\u201cAnd just like that. The music industry is forever changed.\n\nI recorded a verse, and had a trained AI model of Kanye replace my vocals.\n\nThe results will blow your mind. Utterly incredible.\u201d
— Roberto Nickson (@Roberto Nickson) 1679796877
UMG complained and successfully had Ghostwriter977's song all but scrubbed from the internet.
It was removed this week from the streaming platforms Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, SoundCloud, Tidal, Deezer, and TikTok. According to Axios, the tune had over 600,000 plays on Spotify and 275,000 views on YouTube before it was taken down on the respective platforms. Altogether, it was reportedly streamed over 15 million times.
\u201cAI Drake + The Weeknd banger \u201cheart on my sleeve\u201d at over 250k streams on Spotify already\u201d
— Jenny AI (@Jenny AI) 1681675257
The lyrics for the song have even been deleted from websites like Genius.
UMG said in a statement that its "success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists–as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already."
"With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation," added the corporate giant.
Axios has stressed that generative AI, whether the product be sonic or visual, is a "legal minefield," particularly in this case where Drake and the Weeknd neither wrote nor sang the song.
There are presently lawsuits tackling the issue of AI systems using copyrighted works as inputs.
For instance, Getty Images filed a lawsuit in January against AI art generator Stable Diffusion, alleging that the company copied 12 million images to train its AI model "without permission ... or compensation," reported the Verge.
Getty said in a statement, "It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators."
The results of such legal actions may set a precedent applicable to the release of songs like Ghostwriter977's, where potentially copyrighted content served to train AI models to create a novel product.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Lana Del Rey Defies Modern Blandness With New Album

Lana Del Rey has an eclectic combination of influences that keeps her isolated by mainstream standards despite her clear talent.

Listen As ‘Hi Ren’ Gives Countercultural Rebuttal To Godless Mental Health Industry

While Ren Gill claims he doesn’t identify with any particular religion, deep and ancient Christian themes take center stage in 'Hi Ren.'

Self-Appointed ‘Hall Monitor’ Maren Morris Goes On ‘Drag Race’ To Apologize For Bigoted Country Fans

If she finds the industry that put her on the map so repulsive, perhaps Morris should do country music a favor by packing up her ‘’80s Mercedes' and hitting the road.

Kanye’s Stem Player Is About Paying Artists, But Also About Engaging With The Music

The Stem Player is not a streaming service. It’s not another Alexa, Siri, or Hey, Google. It’s a physical device.