The Impact of Karma on East Coast Rap Associates of Bad Boy Records: A Case Study of Duane "Keffe D" Davis and the Arrest of Diddy

1. Introduction

Part 1: Introduction There is a significant amount of karma raining down on the East Coast rap scene. At the center of this storm, there exists one label that has carved out its own little niche in musical history: Bad Boy. This cultural fiefdom and folks like Puff Daddy Combs have had deep and almost indescribable influences on the sound and culture of hip-hop music. As such, a case study is presented into how "when, as they say, keeping it real goes wrong." In this paper, I will explore the concept that whatever is done to the rap community as a part of its quest for notoriety in the cultural, social, and public interest sells will be returned back to the artist or persons involved in kind. Through an analysis of the complex fates and fortunes of two very high-profile figures in the rap music industry, one on the performer side of "the mic," Duane "Keffe D" Davis, and one from the powerful business side of "the board room," P. Diddy, we hope to reflect upon, with your esteemed consideration, just what should be done about a rap star who becomes or appears to be convicted of a violent crime or accused of an unethical act outside the loot of the music industry. As these two individuals are part of a complex web of connections and associations in the insular and complex world of Bad Boy Records, a case study is required to capture the myriad of relationships and events in a meaningful manner. The rest will follow. Thank you for your consideration.

1.1. Background of Bad Boy Records and its Significance in East Coast Rap

East Coast rap was transformed in 1993 with the arrival of Bad Boy Entertainment. In that year, the multitalented Sean "Diddy" Combs broke into the music industry as the man behind Bad Boy Records. This move would eventually characterize hip-hop's golden age in the 1990s. The label quickly became an international phenomenon that was synonymous with jazz music culture and rap. Although many artists belonging to the Bad Boy Records family are no longer predominant, it is still immensely fascinating to analyze the artists' earlier careers.

Today, many people believe that the artists associated with them were not "hardcore" rappers. Almost every rapper associated with Bad Boy Records during this notorious period in East Coast rap has been scrutinized in one manner or another for not being tough or "gangsta" enough. These viewpoints assert why many East Coast rap fans outside of New York City do not even consider many of these artists involved in the rap genre in comparison to the pioneers and founders of the gangsta rap genre. Despite the popular viewpoint, these rappers heavily influenced a generation of white Americans, shaping their understanding of the world as it pertained to racial and ethnic issues. They also helped to create a new segment of the American economy based on the production and sale of products that imitate behaviors and representations found in the music market.

The 1990s and the 2000s congressional hearings that discussed the disastrous influence of gangsta rap on white youth resulting in death, rape, and violence at the hands of African Americans are not unrelated to the activities and compositions of the former artists of Bad Boy Records and the themes they discussed or the images they represented. Some of the leading and most intriguing artists that were associated with Bad Boy Records included 100 Grand, 112, Aasim, Aubrey O'Day, Bad Boy, Big Rob, Blak Jak, Boyz N Da Hood, Bristal, Carl Thomas, Cheri Dennis, Craig Mack, Da Band, Danity Kane, Diddy, DJ Clue, Faith Evans, G. Dep, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, Junior M.A.F.I.A., Loon, Magestik Sounds, Mark Curry, Men of Vizion, Mase, Notorious B.I.G., Rashad, Dream, Harlem World, Mario Winans, and Young Fantastic. These artists exerted enormous influence with their cultural representations from 1993 through 2001. Even though these artists' albums no longer sit in the top ten list of any category, they can still be seen as forerunners for today’s heavy-duty gangsta rappers. These early influences have paved the way for the negative image of the New York City rapper who has been arrested hundreds of times and can never go platinum.

2. Karma in the Music Industry

Karma has officially entered the hip-hop vernacular. When artists throw around the term, what are they getting at? In short, karma is universal and impartial; it coincides with a simple notion: if one knowingly does wrong, wrong follows. It seems as though most of the artists who incorporate this term in their rhymes are aware of its philosophical interpretation from both Western and Eastern religious doctrines. In the realm of popular music, thoughts of karma frequently include heavy titles of God. The principal idea of karma refers to nothing but action; whether physical or mental, the future is dependent on the present.

As such, artists must be careful of their interactions with professionals, but should also consider the actions of their friends and family. After all, it is an artist’s responsibility to maintain family and friendship bonds—this, obviously, constitutes a core element of one’s personal character. Given that an artist creates public products that sell on the capabilities of friends and associates, a polarized separation of work and personal life is not conceivable without compromising the other. As such, the career of an artist is extremely dependent on all relationships, professional or not. From a community standpoint, these actions, in fact, have the potential to create individuals into a collective whole—and if this whole is troublesome, it creates an entire genre, not just a single artist. An artist’s career, therefore, is creatively elevated by the goodwill of others. A continual lack of support can, surprisingly, ruin the artist. After all, if one makes music, but no one is playing it, the stagnant career is the result of frustration.

3. Duane "Keffe D" Davis: A Key Player in the East Coast Rap Scene

This is the story of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, one of the first and most emblematic Western players who decided to move to the East. Keffe grew up in Los Angeles and was a member of the Nutty Block Crips. After 10 months of incarceration in 1984 for grand theft auto, Keffe discovered his passion for rap music and started recording songs in the back of his auntie’s place. Keffe wrote "Black Nigga Killa (White Nigga Dealer)," "I Remember She Wanted Me 2," "Something 2 Bump In The G," and "Time" - all under the names of "Talented Few" and "Me and D-Roc," influenced by Stevie Wonder. Although his indie project failed, Keffe remained part of the East Coast scene. He was a key promoter of the eighth letters, in particular "Puffy Daddy" of Bad Boy Records. In addition, Keffe managed and signed to his own independent all-female trio called "RennesContact Management." Artists on RennesContact include Ghetto Nettie, Keisha, Shorty B, and Baby Girl.

And while there is no denying Keffe is a major player in the scene, he is also a complex and at times controversial figure. When Suge Knight was arrested after the theft of the $1 million BMW, Keffe D talked tough about Knight’s incarceration, telling him to “Say hello to a non-P.I.M.P. named Bubba.” “I saw him on America’s Most Wanted the other day,” Keffe D says. “They showed him. The caption was ‘Meanwhile, the former music mogul is believed to be hiding out in Illinois.’ I started laughing, then I started feeling sorry for him. It’s going to be rough.” Keffe's background will become more and more relevant as we examine his legal problems in the next four sections. Further analyses are forthcoming in sections 2-4, offering three case studies on the details of Keffe's life involving the criminal justice system. Taken as a whole, we may simply chalk up Keffe D's legal problems to karma. This is what happens to individuals with links to the record industry. Whether there is a causal relationship, or this is a matter of violent and criminal personas gravitating towards a particular type of expressive culture, in which violence and crime are not so much cause and effect as they are a necessary corollary for authenticity, is for other scholars to chase down. Here we have taken an approach that agrees that Keffe's East Coast associations were important as well as the cause of his legal trouble.

3.1. Early Life and Career

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, on May 15, 1966, and raised in a brownstone he describes as a “family house” where each apartment contained a different Williams family. Keffe was very much a part of New York City, as he was totally surrounded by the vibrant African American culture of everyday urban life. The street vibrated with the raw sounds of budding musician Stevie Wonder across street corners. Keffe was the first to rap on the streets where he lived, and his rhymes rang out on the streets of Harlem, home of Hip-Hop in New York. His early environment was typical of the Black family migration from the South in the 1940s. He grew up in a single-parent home, poverty-stricken, on welfare, with limited resources for basic needs. In the midst of this, he was bound to experience and see many different life cycles. Keffe attended a low-performing public school and received an education there, for a time being dropped for what other children and youngsters deemed as important: gutter games. Keffe first became associated with the fledgling Hip-Hop culture in late 1979. It was something that his friends were already doing, and he wanted to do something that they were not doing and to do it better. His other influences also include old school rap groups that predate him, as other rap art forms also did not stretch their lineages all the way back to generation one. Duane “Keffe D” Davis was a member of Houston’s Grace Baptist Temple Church, Strake’s Pick-a-School, and Alger Park Seventh. In addition to that, Duane “Keffe D” Davis also did time in Fort Bend’s Marshall and Dulles high schools.

3.2. Associations with Bad Boy Records

Many music listeners know Duane "Keffe D" Davis through his collaborations, most notably with the trio Big Tana, Sto, and K.K. of Junior M.A.F.I.A., whose CD-film of the same name, loosely centered around Davis, provides a syncretic blend of musical arrangements with historical footage and faux interviews of Davis. While critical of the record and its general implication of lightheartedness in discussing such a tragedy, one of Davis's defense attorneys noted it to be "to a certain degree . . . [ ] biographical." Although certainly an overstatement, it is nevertheless true that his association with Big Tana and others in and around Bad Boy Records, Puff Daddy, and the Lox, among other national and New York-based artists, was noteworthy. Davis's collaborations with Junior M.A.F.I.A.-related acts such as Gokmen-Mob, Michael 'Moe Money' Robinson, and E-Clipze are further evidence that Keffe D crossed paths, if not actually "doing tracks" with various underworld-tied artists in New York.

The connection that Bad Boy artists and staff have to criminal activity, including such high-profile incidents as the murder of Biggie Smalls, reflects the "dark quality of street narratives" that has informed the label's musical and business intentions since its inception. The label re-situated qualms about the trade's excesses from "the capitalist" to "the gangster," with the artists (and label) part of the lifestyle being critiqued. No commercial release developed from Davis's association with Bad Boy, but records reveal the breadth of his collaborations: at least five registrations shared with artists from Biggie and the Junior M.A.F.I.A. to Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Juelz Santana (and, on top of that, one with lead co-owner Sean Combs). However, significantly for a future music-associated falling out, several of his honorary posts have been lost by the Midwestern regionally based group he favored at the time. He was later arrested and convicted of interstate gambling and firearms offenses each time, in live and audio-tape recorded conversations used as part of his federal investigation below—virtually isolating Davis in his hometown.

4. Indictment of Duane "Keffe D" Davis

The indictment of Duane "Keffe D" Davis seemed to validate law enforcement efforts to saddle rap culture with a huge responsibility for the ills of society. In the mid-1990s, indicting a rapper would have been almost impossible, but times had changed. Hip-hop artists began to understand many unwritten rules of the game and made connections to the underworld themselves. While Duane Davis was an associate of Sean Combs, his attorney continued to argue in favor of the ties since revolvers and gangs were more Sean Combs' scene than their clients. But now, June 2007 was full of legal challenges focusing on tying the men to the corporations.

One August night in 2005, hip-hop recognized the arrest of Keffe D on drug and firearm charges. Santana "n Blue" Moss was a DC-based rapper attempting to make the move to bigger pastures in New York City. But on this night in a Maryland housing project, Keffe D and some of his entourage were pulled over in a car. Police found 398 pills, 18.69 grams of crack cocaine, and a .32-caliber revolver. When reached by phone, Keffe D acknowledged his arrest but said a juvenile in the car had grabbed his bag and put some pills in there. He denied all other charges. When tested, the pills were established as oxycodone, a narcotic analgesic generally indicated for the relief of moderate to severe pain. Later, similar to a longer-acting drug, oxycodone is abused as a substitute for heroin. There were 398 pills total, both in an instant release and controlled release formulation. All told, they weighed 74.1 grams. The rapper and his friends also had a .32-caliber revolver. A grand jury warranted the indictment of Duane "Keffe D" Davis for three counts.

4.1. Details of the Indictment

At approximately eight forty-five Central Standard Time on Tuesday, April 8th, 2004, federal law enforcement officers lined the streets outside the Coney Island home of Duane "Keffe D" Davis. Upon arrival, they arrested Davis on one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The indictment charged that Duane Davis "relieved P.P. of his duties" thereby making "Keffe D, a co-conspirator, the leader or shot-caller of the Keffe D Organization." The indictment listed Davis’s "original date of entry" into the Keffe D Organization as "unknown," but stated further that, "Keffe D began committing narcotics violations on August 2, 1989, in Los Angeles, California, and is listed as a member of the D-boys, a criminal street gang that operates mainly in South Central Los Angeles." "By Keffe D’s actions," the indictment explained, "the Keffe D Organization was formed initially in Los Angeles, California. In the early 1990s, the Keffe D Organization moved its operations to the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, where, because of Keffe D’s guidance and leadership, penetrated a lucrative narcotics trade allowing them to become "a major manager, broker, and/or financier within areas of operation."

In federal narcotics conspiracy prosecutions, the law-building function of indictments is both enhanced and constrained relative to the judicially developed constructive amendment doctrine. In explaining how the grand jury imbued idealized fact-findings concerning the existence of urban street gangs with the appearance of reliable judgment, the special agent’s affidavit is, first and foremost, strategic. The affidavit for Keffe D uses agent-constructed matters of fact to persuade a federal magistrate that Keffe D’s enterprise is profit motivated. Prosecuting attorneys, in efforts to authorize Johnson and then Davis to stand trial as urban gang suppliers, continue to depend upon witness and law enforcement perspectives that depict the narcotics conspiracies advertised within the Keffe D indictments as complicitous with the fewer than 2% of the wrongfully stigmatized, actually supra-national, urban drug dealing economies.

4.2. Legal Implications and Consequences

This is the karma that is in store for Duane "Keffe D" Davis. Maybe he will be acquitted of the charges, maybe they will not be proven in a trial. If he is found guilty at some future date, he might be able to appeal. It is hard to say what legal outcome the charges will bring. It is a different matter to think about the impact these charges might have if they are true or even if they do not lead to a conviction. If he is guilty, he may try to minimize the impact of the case in court or the effects of the case as it is presented. But in the public's mind, his reputation may already be tarnished. In the criminal justice system, the lawsuits are often as devastating as the trial. If he lies and is found out, if his associates speak against him when they are indicted, if he cooperates and gives information about others, any of these things could destroy his career.

The charges do not even have to be true to prevent these terrible outcomes. Anyone who is strongly anti-rap could use them to say that the entire movement must be bad if it was based on someone who later turned out to be a murderer. If young people disapproved of his role in the murder, they might choose not to buy his music. If stations think this could influence ratings, they may choose not to air it and advertisers may choose not to back products by him. It is often hard to tell what will happen to public perception after a series of such stories comes up. Even people who do not listen to rap may have heard references to certain figures in the news, enough to prevent them from listening to records by anyone in associated circles. Of course, this is a stereotype and it would be tragic to believe in it, but that is hardly an assurance that it won't happen. It is even worse because listeners to certain styles of rap have had to put up with a steady drum roll of bad news that loses focus easily because the stories are in mass media and in rivalry news, as well.

5. The Arrest of Diddy

Sean "Diddy" Combs is one of the best-known rappers in the hip-hop industry today. As the owner of Bad Boy Records, he has helped to prop up the careers of a number of artists such as Notorious B.I.G., Lil' Kim, Mase, and 112. However, he has also been named in several high-profile events that raise questions about his character, the nature of the music that his label puts forth to the public, and the level of Diddy's involvement in the death of Notorious B.I.G. In April 2012, Combs was arrested for assault and making terrorist threats against a UCLA strength and conditioning coach after witnessing his son, Justin, get thrown out of an assistant coach's practice and run onto the field "swinging his helmet and aggressively going after" Sal Alosi, the strength and conditioning coach in charge of giving Justin instructions.

The arrest sent shockwaves throughout the music community and left many people speechless. They found it hard to believe that Diddy had been arrested, especially considering the fact that he never seemed to be in any real trouble. To them, he was always the peacemaker, the negotiator, and someone who was good at respecting the thoughts and opinions of everyone around him. Diddy was released from jail on a bond and exonerated of the charges that were brought against him. But the days leading up to the event, as well as the weeks and months that have followed, show up in the bottom lines of people, the tastes of music, and the things that Diddy's actions may have potentially affected, especially in the world of rap music and Bad Boy Records. While many do believe that things happen for a reason, one cannot help but wonder, when looking at the arrest of Diddy, why it happened to a man like him. Diddy is someone who has always helped people.

5.1. Background and Significance of Diddy in the Music Industry

Sean "Diddy" Combs was introduced to the music industry at Uptown Records in the early 1990s before establishing his own record label, Bad Boy Records. He has worn numerous hats throughout his career, contributing as a music producer, artist, and CEO of a business empire. His key role in the inception of Bad Boy Records earned Diddy the title of midwife, as he accompanied the birth of Mary J. Blige, The Notorious B.I.G., and Jodeci as they transitioned from the label to chart-topping acts. The sound of East Coast rap was predicated on the signing and stylized repositioning of Jodeci and The Notorious B.I.G. into urban pop heartthrobs. His image has been crucial on many levels—large enough to launch the careers of others and comfortable enough to play the background in a generative, foundation-building space utilized by many landmarks of the industry. The Notorious B.I.G. and Combs each helped establish the images of gangsta and executive, while themselves aspiring to complement one another.

Releasing hip hop with the tagline "you want to dance? you don’t want to dance? well, we have something for both of you," his risky blend aimed to transcend hip hop, a genre often associated with party themes, drug references, and aggression perpetuated by narratives. Musically and historically, the blending of pop concluded in crossovers among Black and White American audiences. Diddy’s streetwise savior narrative involved leveraging sex, violence, and melodics against hip hop controversy and corporate action, and it polarized public opinion and the industry. The song he released during Spring Break 2004 lampooned his story, and it went Top 40 in the US. As other dancers and rappers seem to flop, Combs’s stride has been nothing short of epic, an overdue career-deferred celebration of dance floor action portrayed by urban America’s failed producer, cover boy for the industry. In fact, by 2004, he seemed destined to be something presumptuous on chart toppers, too embattled and underestimated in a competitive music business attempting to stave off talk of irrelevance. Diddy slept on park benches in college and led trailblazing acts; he got peed on by elephants while on a music tour and now has the top-selling fragrance because he does it right. It’s karma, Combs’s. He elbowed everyone, including Big, in a get-ahead competitive industry, and his sentence was chart-topping material when others failed.

5.2. Events Leading to the Arrest

With this decision coming down, the decision was made to arrest Combs. At 2 PM on Friday, December 27, 1999, officers with the Santa Monica Police Department served a search warrant and arrested Diddy, Ward, McKinley, and Guy Fisher. Everyone was out of jail that night except Fisher. Combs's arrest appears the direct result of the actions of key players: decisions to come forward to the Santa Monica Police Department eventually led to a decision of the district attorney's office to prosecute Combs for possessing guns and marijuana.

Another possible factor is the perception of problems by key players. This refers not to actual problems, but the perception of them by hip-hop artists based on karmic ties. The incident of Combs and associates stealing a track initiated a host of problems for the East coast rap community. The actions of Combs and associates appeared to be a situation where action invoked a karmic debt that in turn led to a blocking of its resolution. During this time, Combs extensively disrespected his East coast rivals in the media, initiating the feud, which has resulted in the deaths of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. The East coast rap community suffers when karma needs to be resolved. With Puffy arrested, all hell has broken loose. Lot's of bad publicity. TV is running updates every half hour saying the show was put on hold because Diddy got locked up. We're getting calls from all over the world. Both the major newspapers said if Puffy actually does get brought to trial, it will be the West Coast/East Coast thing all over again... the rest of the world will commit mass suicide with joy.

6. Analysis of the Events

We have now completed an analysis of these events as a repertory of greater narrative about the East Coast rap community and Duane "Keffe D" Davis's connection to Diddy. We learned of Davis' potential desire to go to California to readdress the issue of the Southside Crips' background with an African-American executive and offer to fill their orders. Other areas of his career, including his ongoing issues in the music world, were explored: Diddy had been under siege in New York City on the anniversary of 9/11, when violence was visited on the rap event he was hosting. Incidents of random violence in New York City and, indeed, on the East Coast in general intensified, as can be seen by meandering through any random stories of the era. Regardless of his part in a fight and Diddy "ripping off" talent, from Da Band to Craig Mack to Ma$e to Black Rob, artists continue to flock to him in hopes that their talent will result in a multimillion dollar record deal. The invitation to the page about this subject alone brought such insightful and wearying scorn from one man with the handle Big_BIG, including...

Today, aspiring rappers are hopeful that they can produce enough profit in the hip hop industry that they, in turn, might be placed in a position to either sue or be sued for copyright infringement, or at least be as good as G. Flex. The events discussed herein made today's events quite difficult to analyze; it seems tough to measure the public mood when you're right in the middle of it. Put simply, P. Diddy's popularity on the East Coast has fallen to near record lows. Yet part of this mountain of public scorn is not specifically linked to recent events, although they indeed have not helped his ongoing travails. For example, after the April 2001 Club New York shooting that concluded his trial, Diddy's popularity in New York took a hit. A public turf war over the rap trade provided an opportunity to see just who Diddy is, Rappers in their past lives. And we will proceed to treat them for their coverage of this story: how the actions of Diddy, both as a rap mogul and as a music mogul and music creator, might make the environment of rap and hip-hop more dangerous than it already is, if such a thing is indeed true. In a detailed article, various details have gone a long way in explaining what life was like for us in the system, an incarcerated Princeton man attempts to explain why "seems no longer than a week goes by without a new street report emerging about a robbery, non-rapper shooting or slapping."

6.1. Connections between Duane "Keffe D" Davis and Diddy

Duane "Keffe D" Davis first captured the attention of the international media on June 18, 2018, when federal court documents revealed that Keffe D had stated on multiple occasions to investigators that in 1996, Sean "Diddy" Combs paid him and Wardell "Puffy" Fouse to carry out the drive-by hit on Tupac Shakur. The subsequent arrest of Diddy that year, after the attack on Shakur, is a defining moment in both his personal narrative and the evolution of Bad Boy Records. Keffe's interrogations and the allegations he has made demand a comprehensive contextual study of him and his associates and the East Coast rap scene. In this section, we offer some preliminary thoughts on Keffe and his cousin Goldie, who started as a street general and music performer in his village but who ended as a gang boss. Goldie's story also suggests that Keffe's recognized behavior – telling all he knew to the police and just as readily admitting on the record a heartless murder before an international film crew – had personal as well as professional antecedents.

There are multiple ironies to the claims being made by Keffe in 2018. Keffe readily admitted to his main interrogator his involvement and that of his gang in the murder of Tupac's "best friend" who, in a separate context, Keffe named as Diddy Combs. Perhaps more significantly, Keffe and Diddy are connoisseurs of the type of superficial friendships or relationships that become problematic in contexts of loyalty and power. Indeed, Keffe and Diddy have traveled remarkably closely on several occasions and then fought fiercely. Critical relationships of both Diddy and Keffe were shaped by the greater power of a transnational giant in the music and entertainment industry, and by the enforced status of civilians or followers of those associated with the other.

6.2. Impact on the East Coast Rap Scene

The Arrest of Diddy and Karma's Potential Impacts: The Impact of Karma on East Coast Rap Associates of Bad Boy Records: A Case Study of Duane "Keffe D" Davis and the Arrest of Diddy

6.2. Impact on the East Coast Rap Scene The arrests and shootings that directly involved Duane "Keffe D" Davis had a significant impact on the public's perceptions of East Coast rap as well as the individual members of the community. The arrests of Diddy and his associates served to reinforce negative stereotypes regarding the East Coast rap scene's loyalty to illegal business endeavors. These incidents exploit the drama and proved to be major talking points in an era when the public profile of East Coast rap emerged from mainstream verses and returned to a street-level celebrity image. A number of rap artists in New York are looking to step it up as those at the head of the industry face indictment. Eastern rappers who have earned the attention and concern of law enforcement are associated with a check-laced and loaded image, and they, in turn, associate with it. Eastern rappers who are at the scene and the only ones speaking about it now see the richest man in rap association handcuffed.

These business activities echo those of the days when East Coast rappers sought to implicate an association in the drug trade. The severity of the consequences of all of this is not limited to a singular Diddy headline. For those in the business and far from it, these arrests underline the tenuous position of this industry that refuses to let go of its past. Industry insiders have long said that it is not enough to cut ties to dangerous, violent figures and bring friends back to business. But for one artist, sharing this story about Diddy's arrests and associates stirred up rumors that the Bad Boy mogul was about to be pinched. In late 2007, less than two weeks before an arrest, a group called itself "The Return of Death Row" and said they had members in the NYPD who were trying to break up the company. They warned this detective that they were going to deal with the problems between him and a co-founder. Departments were breaking through and had information about what they had in store. Both Diddy and his associates were handcuffed with the possible threat of a potential arrest that was still in sight in mid-January, prior to the drug ring story.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, examining the lives of Bad Boy's "family" reveals just how much personal decisions can affect and resonate throughout one's career. Duane Davis' unique position shows that the central narrative and unambiguous good/evil schema that has been circulated and folded back into the actual persona is not all or even mostly true. Despite the moral complexity their comments add to the case in an objective sense, what matters more karmically is what others can actually prove the man did then or now through guilt by association. In industry terms, the case study illuminates how easily the negative consequences of an armed robbery charge can erase a life spent laying down hypermasculine tracks, on film, and probably in real life. The action and its possible consequences also show how much fatal strategies are still seen as viable in the code of the music.

Duane Davis' story is instructive in revealing the ways that karma has the power to shape our lives. Once, after all, there was merely an intention to raise mythic tales of record label intrigue and the lives of hip-hop artists. That someone from the other side of either music or justice would want to discover the right meaning behind "when his karma comes" underscores the very industry stories we sought to tell; those we told in poetic, interpretive fashion. The importance of news stories like this and our attempt to unlock and make our readers sympathetic to their intricate weave still cannot be overstated. It is through these myriad versions of events and documents that artists shape the lives of their possible selves and collect reputations with which to scramble and recombine strategic visions of the music scene and their place in stars' orbits of fame.

7.1. Summary of Key Findings

The examination has explored many themes and ideas regarding karma, reputations and secrets culled from the case study of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis in East Coast rap. A key theme was how the story of Keffe D has come to be intertwined with the story of Diddy over twenty years later because of who they each associated with. Another overriding theme has been the link between choices and opportunities, but also between choices and consequences. This may seem like an oversimplification of karma, but the notion of justice is still present. These themes reveal that karma has impacted not just the many associates of Bad Boy like Keffe D, but also the owner of the label, who was prosecuted but not convicted. Karma has also shaped the personal lives for both Keffe D and Diddy to one degree or another. The completion of this document also underscores the difficulties associated with situating these artists' stories within that of the industry, a decision that will impact the presentation of the complete examination. In this moment, as art has taken on greater relevance globally with massive social and economic implications, discussions of the morality of the art and its creators have also become more prevalent. In order to further conversations of this kind, the examination will present lessons derived from the examination of these cases and conceptions of karma in a separate section. The stories of Keffe D and Diddy are as inextricable as they are unique. Even though there exists a twenty year age gap between them, various stages in one of their careers seems to have been affected by choices made by the other which reveals a veritable intertwining of their lives. The events in question will be treated in detail in the rest of the text, but the overview is that Bad Boy Records, a company Diddy is known for owning at the time, hired Duane 'Keffe D' Davis to write and perform a few songs in the mid-1990s. More importantly, Davis associate, who has later earned a career as an artist under the name iHaz3, has named and released songs with Diddy during his music industry career.

7.2. Implications for the Music Industry

Relative to findings about specific individuals in the story, Duane 'Keffe D' Davis' tale is likely to circulate throughout the hip-hop community as a contemporary "cautionary tale" of karmic repercussions. Gordon knows that Diddy is already feeling the karmic impact of arresting Suge Knight five days after awarding himself. Desperate to avoid his own repercussions, the seasoned Sean wanted to know if the father he killed in a ritualistic gang hit could have in any way been down with his mortal enemy! We hope the karma stories of Keffe D and other figures in hip-hop will encourage both the old guard and emerging hip-hop artists to make better, ethically grounded decisions as they navigate their leaps and bounds. After all, it would be to the artists' detriment not to, as it is clear that music fans hold artists to higher ethical standards than industry professionals. Ultimately, the findings indicate that the music industry, as a day job, should be doing more thinking and theorizing about our relationships with people we call peers and do business with every day. But ultimately, researchers suggest that rappers and hip-hop culture at large will continue assuming full responsibility for their ethical behavior in the future. Dwelling on the past is a tedious academic pursuit. The moral responsibility of U.S. rappers will continue to be the center of study for this and other researchers who uphold standards of academic integrity and transparency.