The recent arrest of Sean “Diddy” Combs on federal racketeering charges certainly means that the rapper’s future freedom is in trouble, but alongside the current charges, we have seen a great deal come out about Diddy’s past. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against Diddy for alleged past wrongdoing, and one person is claiming that Diddy's past bad behavior started almost as soon as he became rich.
It was in the late ‘90s that Diddy’s Bad Boy Records became a major force in the music industry, turning the man then known as Puff Daddy into a very wealthy man. According to Former music executive Daniel Evans, who spoke with the BBC about his old boss, Diddy seemingly believed his money gave him a great deal of power as he allegedly threatened to kill a former college. Evans claimed Diddy said…
‘I have so much money now that I could hire someone to kill you, and nobody would know. No-one would miss you. No-one would know anything.’ It was like, this is what money does to you.
The exact context of the statement, who Diddy was allegedly threatening and why is unclear. It’s also unknown just how serious Daniel Evans may have believed his boss was in making the threat. Even if it was clear that he wasn’t really threatening to have someone killed, it seems that statement itself was something that came about because of the wealth and power that Diddy believed he had.
The BBC spoke to several people who worked at Bad Boy Records in the 1990s and the story reveals several incidents that allegedly took place in the early days of the successful label, including Diddy reportedly flying in women to have sex with the talent on the label, and Diddy himself having sex with women at the studio. Some of these incidents are reportedly the source of some of the lawsuits that Diddy is currently facing as some women are claiming they were raped.
Diddy’s lawyers are denying all wrongdoing and it should be said that not all of the former Bad Boys Records staff interviewed believe all the stories. Some claim that Diddy was an exemplary boss and that they never saw what the star was being accused of doing. For his part, however, Evans draws a connection between the temper he saw Diddy display when making the death threat, and the one seen in the infamous video of him assaulting Cassie Ventura, which led to the first lawsuit, and ultimately brought us to this point.
Diddy remains in jail in Brooklyn awaiting a trial that is currently set to begin in May. We can expect that we'll hear many more stories of the rapper's alleged behavior during his career.