April 1, 2024

"Sean 'Diddy' Combs aggressively marketed himself to the ultra-rich as he turned his edgy rap glamor into a billion-dollar fortune."

"Billionaires told The Post he would cold email with business proposals, while other Wall Streeters acclaimed him as a 'genius' and one CEO of the New York Stock Exchange called him an 'inspiration' on a par with the Founding Fathers.... [H]e partnered with billionaire investor Ron Burkle; was 'mentored' by hedge fund guru Ray Dalio; had his fashion line sold in Macy’s and Dillards; went into business with alcohol giant Diageo; opened the New York Stock Exchange with Estée Lauder heir William Lauder; struck deals with Zac Posen and Liz Claiborne; 50% owned his own TV channel Revolt; launched a water range with Mark Wahlberg; and teamed up with Salesforce’s Marc Benioff to launch a black business marketplace.... 'He was a master entrepreneur,' one music business insider... told The Post. 'He was a super intelligent hardworking guy and a genius at brands… he turned Cîroc into a billion dollar business.'"

From "Secrets of Diddy’s billionaire boys club: Rapper wooed Wall Street elite — who praised him as ‘genius’ before sex trafficking probe" (NY Post).

The article touts what it calls his "cache": "Diddy also used his own cache — the promise of entry into a world of celebrity — to attract investment for his projects.... [One] move gave him instant social cache. It let him rub shoulders, lucratively, with a New York social dynasty and in turn gave their decades-old brand a fresh, contemporary glamor...."

A "cache" is a hidden store of goods or ammo. Pronounced, some may be surprised to learn, "kash."

The word the NY Post author undoubtedly meant is spelled "cachet" and pronounced "ka-shay" (that is, the way some people, perhaps hallucinating an acute accent on the "e," think is the way to pronounce "cache").

"Cachet" is the word that means "Prestige, high status; the quality of being respected or admired."

I'm quoting the OED, where I found this quote from Herman Wouk's "Caine Mutiny": "[I]n Willie’s world familiarity with opera was a mark of high breeding—unless you were an Italian. Then it became a mere racial quirk of a lower social group, and lost its cachet."

44 comments:

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That's a weird typo for a major newspaper to make. Repeatedly. WTF. Did they fire all the editors?

Kate said...

You have hit upon one of my grammatical pet peeves. I hate when cache/cachet is swapped.

Achilles said...

Things have been coming out for a while about Diddy and the operation he ran for a while. Just not in anything respectable that Ann reads because of course. Diddy and Epstein were basically running concurrent pedo/rape groups and blackmailing other participants.

The FBI raid of his properties had the same purpose as the Epstein raids: to keep a lid on it.

Diddy and the CEO/President of Universal Records were heavily involved together in a lot of things.

Also if you start talking about the origins or the porn industry you will get some very interesting attention.

Butkus51 said...

The Who has it covered.

https://youtu.be/FvqhJskzj2U

Yancey Ward said...

As I wrote in another forum a few days ago- there are two possibilities here- Diddy is a really, really bad guy and the investigations are warranted, or he has made the wrong enemy somewhere in the government and is now paying the price.

Dave Begley said...

I see him as a no talent sex criminal.

Has anyone listened to his so-called music?

The fact that this guy made a fortune in the music business is a sign of how low our culture has sunk.

He's no Lionel Richey, Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson.

Rich said...

Diddy is one of the few Americans who can truly claim he was better off four years ago than he is today.

gilbar said...

but.. don't the Real Dogs keep a cache of cachet?
i mean, you HAVE to keep it somewhere!

Static Ping said...

Being a genius does not make someone a good person.

If a genius is not a good person, it typically only makes the genius better at whatever despicable acts they prefer. It can make them more effective, able to impact more victims, and/or able to cover up their sins more effectively.

Also, being a genius does not make a person good at everything. Genius is often limited to certain skill sets, and even for general geniuses they typically have to do at least some work to get a general understanding. Actually, many geniuses are really bad at some things, a sort of giveth/taketh away mechanic.

Dr Weevil said...

I'm surprised you don't mention the most notorious use of the word 'Cachet'. That's what 'Mayflower Madam' Sidney Biddle Barrows called her 'high-class' 'escort service'. As I recall, she didn't want to serve (service?) customers who couldn't pronounce the word, even if they had the money, since it was a sure sign that they were insufficiently classy. Her receptionist used the name to screen callers: "Catch-It Escort Service? No, sir, you have a wrong number."

The best paragraph in the Wikipedia article is the last one under 'Career':

"In late 2008, Barrows finished Uncensored Sales Strategies: A Radical New Approach to Selling Your Customers What They Really Want—No Matter What Business You're In, co-authored with marketing expert Dan Kennedy. Since the mid-late 1990s, Barrows has run a consulting business with a focus on customer service and experience."

RideSpaceMountain said...

@Achilles

They don't call him the "Epstein of Rap" for nothing.

Rocco said...

Ann said…
“The word the NY Post author undoubtedly meant is spelled "cachet" and pronounced "ka-shay" (that is, the way some people, perhaps hallucinating an acute accent on the "e," think is the way to pronounce "cache").”

Spelling the word with the silent “t” on the end lost its cache some years ago.

mezzrow said...

This is a problem. They need someone to catch it next time.

Tom T. said...

He may have deleted his cache before the feds busted in.

Iman said...

Diddy’s Doody.

Christopher B said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
That's a weird typo for a major newspaper to make. Repeatedly. WTF. Did they fire all the editors?


Too much reliance on spellcheck. Unless it's a widely recognized grammatical error or misspelling, spellcheck doesn't know that a correctly spelled word is not the one you should have used.

Iman said...

Oh, oh… major escalation in Damascus.

Achilles said...

RideSpaceMountain said...

@Achilles

They don't call him the "Epstein of Rap" for nothing.


They have pictures of a man that was shot and killed by Diddy inside a business. Witnesses and everything. These are in the court docs.

Blood all over the place.

The police report and all of the media reported it outside the establishment and Diddy wasn't there at the time. The witnesses said they told the police what they saw and the police covered it up.

Many reports like this. They named fixers that took care of "issues."

The media is running from this story in a way they didn't run from Epstein. Hollywood and particularly the Music industry are shitting bricks right now. A lot of people are running for the hills.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

So considering this and the Theranos debacle I guess it's safe to say that billionaire investors ain't is smart as they (and the media) pretend they are.

(Thanks for quoting my favorite novel Althouse!)

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Butkus51 said...

The Who has it covered.

Nice! I was expecting "Eminence Front".

Readering said...

Had that Epstein cachet.

Ann Althouse said...

"Things have been coming out for a while about Diddy and the operation he ran for a while. Just not in anything respectable that Ann reads because of course...."

Oh, bullshit.

You misunderstand how I choose what to blog.

But answer this question: What is "sex trafficking"? And what do you think the government is trying to put into that category? What's the federal crime?

And do you remember when Sean Combs declined to demonstrate against Trump and said “I think that to be honest, we don’t really give a fuck about Trump, because [black people are] in the same fucked-up position. So that’s not what we’re on. The tomfoolery that’s going on in D.C., that’s just regular everyday business to black folks"?

Joe Smith said...

I couldn't name a Diddy song if you put a gun to my head.

There are people in the country who live in a bubble...me included.

But my bubble is sanity, so I've got that going for me...

Dr Weevil said...

I'm surprised you don't mention the most notorious use of the word 'Cachet'. That's what 'Mayflower Madam' Sidney Biddle Barrows called her 'high-class' 'escort service'. As I recall, she didn't want to serve (service?) customers who couldn't pronounce the word, even if they had the money, since it was a sure sign that they were insufficiently classy. Her receptionist used the name to screen callers: "Catch-It Escort Service? No, sir, you have a wrong number." Bonus implication: "Catch-It" sounds like a reference to an STD.

The best paragraph in the Wikipedia article on SBB is the last one under 'Career':

"In late 2008, Barrows finished Uncensored Sales Strategies: A Radical New Approach to Selling Your Customers What They Really Want—No Matter What Business You're In, co-authored with marketing expert Dan Kennedy. Since the mid-late 1990s, Barrows has run a consulting business with a focus on customer service and experience."

Rusty said...

Dave Begley said...
"I see him as a no talent sex criminal.

Has anyone listened to his so-called music?

The fact that this guy made a fortune in the music business is a sign of how low our culture has sunk.

He's no Lionel Richey, Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson."

LOL! OK boomer. You sound so old. And I'm pretty sure I'm older than you and I like emanm. Whether you intended to or not you made my day.

William said...

A lot of heavyweights in the music industry had Weinstein moves, but is he the only one to combine the open bathrobe of a Weinstein with the hidden cameras of an Epstein. Some people really do look evil. Whatever he is, he's definitely not a good guy. You wonder how a guy so self indulgent and violent could thrive and prosper for so many years. Whatever his flaws and vices, he must have had a lot of skills and cunning to get away with it for so long....You've got to admire the way that after a lifetime of perks and privileges, he remains steadfast in his belief that he's downtrodden and oppressed. I wonder if Black people will take up his cause.

John henry said...

On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, the NY Post (I think, can't find it now) had an article where Diddy announced he was supporting President Emeritus Trump for re-election.

5 days later the raid happened. By feds, not state, though I am unclear on what federal law he is alleged to have violated. The various offenses seem state offenses. And why Homeland Security and not FBI is not clear either.

I've heard shady things about him over the years and perhaps he is up to evil stuff. Perhaps the raid is legitimate.

Perhaps just a coincidence the two things happened so close in time.

It doesn't feel like it.

If he were vocal in his support for PEDJT, he would probably move a lot of black votes. As well as more than a few white ones.

Fascism in action?

John Henry

Aggie said...

I don't know anything about the PDiddy controversy, other than that his 2 homes were raided and he took his jet to Antigua. My instinct is that this is yet another act of political hostility using the LE cudgel against a citizen perceived as too big for his britches, and with the wrong friends, and a big mouth.

When the FBI raided Epstein, many believe it was to make sure the evidence treasure was preserved in-house, to keep those on the list, on the leash - and guarding against any tabloid dissolution of the Intelligence Service's blackmailing leverage.

P Diddy's case seems to have a different feel to it entirely, on the face of it. If there was really sex trafficking involved, I would have thought he'd already be getting extradited.

Howard said...

File under stuff to shitcan yesterday. Don't eat the bread and don't watch the circuses.

mikee said...

In some versions of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, the hero dies while retaining his panache, in others he dies retaining the white plume on his hat. Can one cache cachet and cash it out later?

D.D. Driver said...

Diddy and Trump were very tight in the Nineties. Lol at "Trump Daddy" being the first one to show up at Diddy's bday party.

http://www.nancyjosales.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DonaldTrump2.pdf

Tight with Diddy, VIP attendee at the Clinton wedding, passenger on Lolita Express. Birds of a feather.

PM said...

Puffy to Diddy to 78402631SJC.

retail lawyer said...

I have a fairly high standard of living yet somehow managed to completely miss all the goods and services made available by snoop puffy puff or whatever his current alias his. I did find the masses of Salesforce nitwits annoying when I worked in SF, but thats as close I came.

Dave Begley said...

Rusty:

Diddy's lyrics are trash.

The music lacks in musicality.

Just because it is new, modern and popular doesn't make it good.

All rap sounds the same to me: Plain old shitty.

Country music is where it is at now. Get with the times!!

PigHelmet said...

Me: Please use the words “cache” and “cachet” in a sentence.

ChatGPT: Sure! “The artist discovered a hidden cache of old paintings in the attic, which significantly added to her cachet in the art world.”

mccullough said...

Puffy started running with the crowd 20 years ago.

Billionaires will only bring you down to their level.

Joe Bar said...

That's probably my most hated word jumble. I was in the military, and the word "cache" is used a lot. Way too many people pronounce it "cachet."

On the subject of Sean Combs, how do these rich and powerful people get mixed up in this stuff? I can only presume they see themselves as godlike, and above the law.

Rusty said...

Me: Please use the words “cache” and “cachet” in a sentence.

There's a certain cachet to telling people your cache is hidden in the mounted moose head.

Don B. said...

Also see forte.

Mikey NTH said...

I was reading the excerpt, saw they used "cache" and thought "Wrong word, they mean "cachet", and then found that was why the post was made. Wow. I was actually on point with Althouse for once.

Mikey NTH said...

D.D. Driver: The 1990s were a quarter century ago.
Feel old yet?

Alu Toloa said...

Your midwestern roots are showing. Those of us in the West, where the Cache La Poudre river drains the Rockies and debauches just north of Ft. Collins, are well familiar with the correct pronounciation, since the French fur trappers sprinkled the mountains with iterations of locales where they cached their catch.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

DDD knows Trump didn’t go to Epstein Island. He just drops in to remind us how dishonest lefties are de rigueur.

D.D. Driver said...

I never said he went to Epstein Island. i said he flew around on Lolita Express. This is a fact.