Prison and more: What comes next for Sean 'Diddy' Combs?

At a Grammy party five years ago that now seems like the ancient past, American music stars like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Lana Del Rey and Cardi B listened in rapt attention as Sean Combs accepted an honorary award and demanded that the Recording Academy do more to recognise black talent.

- Ben Sisario and Julia Jacobs

American producer-musician Sean "Diddy" Combs in the press room at the MTV Video Music Awards in Newark, New Jersey, on Sept 12, 2023.

(PHOTO: AFP)

"It’s going to take all of us to get this done," the American rapper-producer declared at a podium to a standing ovation that swept through the Beverly Hills ballroom.

It is doubtful Combs, also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, will enjoy that level of adulation and prominence in the entertainment industry again.

On Oct 3, he was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for prostitution-related offences, following a federal trial this summer in which prosecutors accused him of coercing two former girlfriends into participating in drug-dazed sexual encounters that could last for days.

A jury acquitted Combs of the most serious charges against him: sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, which could have resulted in a life sentence. But the case still laid bare evidence of brutal domestic abuse.

Accounting for the year that Combs, 55, has already served since his arrest in September 2024, the onetime music mogul could be free by 2028.