@bravojohnson
The documentary skirts the real event: the moment the music industry stopped pretending it was about music. The old system was vicious and racist, but it still required songs, scenes, friction. Even its predators needed talent to misbehave. By the late ’90s that requirement vanished. Music was replaced by brand-safe success theater. Sean Combs wasn’t a musician so much as a protocol: vibes instead of songs, access instead of craft, visibility instead of risk, sponsorship instead of patronage. A licensing stack wearing sunglasses. He is the proto–tech founder: not building tools, but owning pipelines. He doesn’t make the thing; he controls the access to attention. He’s not creative capital—he’s attention arbitrage. What matters isn’t the song, it’s the throughput.
This was sold as democratization. Anyone can make it. Anyone can be a mogul. Both are downward-shifted lies. When the system fails, it’s your fault for not branding harder and real power is proximity, not creation