in the light sex trafficking allegations vs SeanDiddy“Combs, Legend of JohnTy Stiklorius, the team’s longtime manager, wrote: opinion piece for New York Times It comprehensively details the music industry’s “pervasive predatory culture” that “actively promotes sexual exploitation and exploits the lives and bodies of those who hope to succeed in the business.”

Written by Emmy-winning producer Stiklorius, founder of Friends at Work, a management company that works with Legend, among others, the piece is titled “The Music Industry Is Toxic. We Can Clean Up After P. Diddy.

Stiklorius, 27 years ago in St. He begins by describing a yacht party he attended at St. Barts hosted by Combs, where he says the rapper was able to persuade a co-worker to unlock his bedroom door and escape. (Hollywood Reporter He contacted Diddy’s representatives for comment.) At the time, he says, he didn’t quite understand what he was getting away with. “This was an indicator,” Stiklorius said. “Power is concentrated in the hands of those who set the rules: rich, empowered, almost always male gatekeepers who control every door to success and can use their power to exploit young women and young men.”

Stiklorius reveals that women in the music industry “are not safe in recording studios, on tour buses, in green rooms or in the office.” And he says it’s not the industry’s fault. “This is an important feature.”

“Following P. Diddy’s arrest, some observers wondered whether the industry would eventually face a ‘#MeToo’ reckoning,” Stiklorius writes. “But reducing the scourge of sexual coercion, harassment and violence to a few notorious individuals—Harvey Weinstein or R. Kelly—suggests they are outliers and obscures the more damning, persistent, systemic rot that has infected the music industry.”

He argues that there is hope, and that these gatekeepers have less power than before: “They may still be dangling the keys to success in front of young artists, but the locks are changing.”

Stiklorius references Gen Z star Chappell RoanShe had to fight her record company to release the smash hit “Pink Pony Club.” When marketing plans were not successful, the label dropped him, but Roan returned to his hometown and released music independently, eventually building a social media fan base that he used to leverage new distribution and financial support. “In the process, he revealed a new truth: The days of the watchmen are numbered,” Stiklorius writes.

He continues: “My early experiences with predators and their enablers almost caused me to give up on the music business. A few years after the boat incident, while I was pursuing my MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, I attended a dinner party where a senior music executive handed me his key card to his hotel room invitingly under the table. I refused. … The only reason I persisted in the industry was when an old college friend of mine reached out to me in 2005, as he was starting to find success as an artist. He was an artist Legend of John and 20 years later I am still its manager and partner in many business ventures. “It became clear that many artists, including John, wanted to be part of a different business and cultural model.”

In his column, Stiklorius concludes that there is a way forward to turn a new page in this culture of exploitation and abuse. She writes: “How many other women had early experiences similar to mine and gave up on their ambitions to be artists, let alone recording engineers, producers, or managers? How many women were coerced, abused, attacked, and silenced on the way to their dreams, forced, abused, assaulted, and silenced on the way to their dreams by those who controlled access and kept us from the keys to their hotel rooms?” “She was trapped by men who made her believe that she had a card?”

The filmmaker concludes by saying the industry owes a debt to countless survivors of sexual assault and abuse: “those who suffer in silence to reveal the truth… We owe it to a new generation of creators to transform the work into something worthy of the art they make.” create.”

Combs was only charged in one of two cases filed on Monday this week. Drugged and sexually assaulted 10-year-old boy In a hotel room in New York in 2005. The second lawsuit accuses the jailed hip-hop mogul of similarly assaulting a 17-year-old potential contestant on the reality television series. The Making of the Band In 2008.

The lawsuits, filed in the state Supreme Court in New York, are the latest in a wave. 120 cases The accusers allege they were sexually assaulted by Combs at parties and gatherings over the past two decades.

The musician’s lawyers said: “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts and integrity of the judicial process. “The truth will prevail in court: Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone, male or female, adult or minor.”