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There has been more fallout from the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs charges, and as the Bad Boy founder sits in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre, more people are speaking up about the charges that he will face next year.

Most recently, the manager of soul singer John Legend decided to pen an opinion piece for The New York Times, explaining his position on the allegations, and providing an insight into the music industry’s pitfalls.

Ty Stiklorius, a 20-year-old music industry figure, explained how she had a close call with Combs and expressed her disappointment in the music business for allowing things like this to happen.

In the piece for the New York Times, Stiklorius vividly recalled a trip to the Caribbean with her family when she was a college graduate, recounting how she oddly ended up at a boat party with Combs and some of his affiliates. More specifically, she detailed a situation where she was guided to a bedroom by “a man who seemed to be an associate of the party’s host” and locked in.

Recalling how she managed to remove herself from the situation, she wrote, “Perhaps my nervous babbling — ‘My brother’s on this boat, and he’s probably looking for me!’ — convinced [Combs’ affiliate] to unlock the bedroom door and let me go.” 

Although Stiklorius was relatively sure that the man was associated with the Ciroc businessman, she wrote, “I still don’t know who he was or if he had any connection to Mr. Combs, as it seemed. But I do now know, after 20 years as a music industry executive, that what happened that night was no aberration.”

She then proceeded to explain how her experience was the symptom of a wider problem, writing, “It was an indicator of a pervasive culture in the music industry that actively fostered sexual misconduct and exploited the lives and bodies of those hoping to make it in the business.”

Stiklorius continued, “This toxic situation has been allowed to fester because power has been concentrated in the hands of kingmakers: wealthy, entitled, nearly always male gatekeepers who control nearly every door that leads to success and who can, without consequence, use their power to abuse young women and young men.”

The lengthy opinion piece explained what many have come to understand — that a few head honchos control the many. Although this has allegedly been going on for some time, Stiklorius feels that streaming will contribute to the downfall of an old hierarchical system where labels and executives hold immense power.

Explaining this, she added, “The business model is flailing. All of this means we have an opportunity to turn the page on an archaic, sometimes predatory model of doing business in which it was all too common to ignore, protect or elevate predators and their enablers.”