Sean “Diddy” Combs maintained a successful career for decades before his current downfall. The hip-hop mogul now faces allegations of physical and sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and racketeering. In the early years of his career, though, he believed he was someone to be looked up to. He shared why he thought white people could make the world better by idolizing him.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs said people should idolize him
In 1999, Diddy was the head of a successful record company and Grammy-winning artist. He held a great deal of power in the music industry, which he attributed to his ability to spread around his influence.
“When you runnin’ a marathon, sometimes you take the lead, sometimes you stay back in the pack and you observe what’s goin’ on,” he told Rolling Stone. “If you always try to run in front the whole time, you gonna lose the marathon. I’m in it for the long run. I don’t have a problem with runnin’ with the pack. You ain’t gotta shine all the time. You shine all the time, you overshine.”
Still, he wanted to shine a bit. At a music video shoot that year, hundreds of teenagers gathered to see him. They were primarily white, which he saw as a good thing. Diddy believed that the world would be a better place if white people idolized him in their youth.
“I think it’s gonna have a drastic change on the way things are set up, totally,” he said. “You’ll have a lot of white kids with a lot of rhythm. I think it’s gonna make the world a better place.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ employees and acquaintances said he had a temper
Though Diddy wanted people to look up to him, those who knew him well didn’t always see him as a role model. When he worked at Uptown Records, he quickly rose through the ranks. Still, he didn’t make many friends at the label. Per a Rolling Stone investigation, executives at Uptown referred to Diddy as “Satan” and flipped him off when he walked past their offices.
After getting fired from the label, Diddy established Bad Boy Records. It became a major force in the industry, but former employees allege that the workplace was tense. Diddy was reportedly volatile, yelling at people and firing them with little warning.
“No one on his team at Bad Boy spoke back to him,” studio manager Felicia Newsome said. “No one challenged him.”
Another former employee believed Diddy exploited people’s fear of him to get what he wanted.
“He was so volatile,” the source said. “He’s always on the edge of snapping and being scary. People did whatever he said to stay in his good graces … and Puffy exploited people’s desires to be in those environments.”
He is currently in a New York jail
On Sept. 16, 2024, police arrested Diddy and charged him with sex trafficking and racketeering. A judge denied him bail and he remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
His attorney, Marc Agnifilio said that while in jail, Diddy is getting “treatment and therapy for things that most respectfully he needs treatment and therapy for and he’s getting that” (per People).
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
