Former friends, acquaintances and employees including industry insiders have revealed that embattled music mogul, Sean Combs aka Diddy, has been viole
Former friends, acquaintances and employees including industry insiders have revealed that embattled music mogul, Sean Combs aka Diddy, has been violent to women for decades and has used his power in the entertainment industry to silence his victims while using his public celebrity-adored persona to hide a pattern of sexual abuse and violence.
Diddy’s history of sexual abuse reportedly traces back to before his music career started, with women who knew him at Howard University saying he showed signs of an abusive personality even then.
Before leaving Howard University, Diddy had already built a reputation as an ambitious young man who threw legendary parties, but several former students spoke of a darker side.
Several alleged witnesses remembered a vicious attack on a young woman, who they say was beaten with a belt by the rapper outside her dorm.
Diddy reportedly showed up outside the young woman’s dorm and began screaming for her to come outside. Quickly, other students started running down the halls saying Diddy, then known as ‘Puff,’ was beating the young woman.
Another student who witnessed the incident said Diddy was using what appeared like a belt to hit the young woman ‘all over the place’ as she cried and others tried to intervene.
Diddy soon dropped out of Howard to start his meteoric career at Uptown records, where he helped nurture artists such as Mary J Blige.
But according to one of his accusers, Joi Dickerson-Neal, he already had a bad reputation by 1991, when he asked her on a dinner date and allegedly spiked her drink when she used the restroom.
Dickerson-Neal says in a lawsuit that Diddy then raped her at a nearby residence, and filmed the assault, which he later showed to others ‘like a trophy.’
Diddy has however called her claims false, offensive, and salacious.
Liza Gardner, who has also filed a lawsuit against Diddy, claims she was 16 when Diddy pressured her to drink and raped her in 1990 after meeting at a MCA Records event in Manhattan.
Gardner said that Diddy’s friend, Uptown singer-songwriter Aaron Hall came in the room and raped her as she was getting dressed following the first assault.
The alleged victim says the rapper then showed up where she was staying and choked her until she almost passed out because he feared she would speak about the alleged rape.
Diddy has also denied Gardner’s claims.
By December 1991, Diddy’s aggressive demeanor at Uptown Records had become an issue, and he came close to criminal records after organizing a charity basketball that left nine people dead after a stampede.
Diddy eventually returned to Uptown, but his attitude had earned him too many enemies, with some colleagues reportedly calling him ‘Satan,’ prompting his mentor CEO Andre Harrell fired the 23-year-old in 1993.
Diddy went on to grow Bad Boy records, with the help of a new artist, Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G.
Kirk Burrowes, Bad Boy’s co-founding partner, said he saw Diddy attack a woman in the label’s office in 1994, claiming he and another employee had to tear the producer off the woman after they heard screaming and shattered glass.
Former Bad Boys employee, Felicia Newsome said in another incident she had to hold Diddy back because he was about to beat another girl.
In another lawsuit against Diddy, former Arista intern, April Lampros claims he attacked her in a parking garage in the 1990s and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She said it was one of four horrific sexual assaults she experienced with Diddy.
After Biggie’s murder, Diddy’s career sky-rocketed, only amplifying his bullying behavior.
Former talk show host, Wendy Williams said in her 2004 book that Diddy spent a lot of money and used a lot of his influence to try to crush her after she posted a sexual photo showing him with another man on her website.
In 1999, Interscope Records executive Steve Stoute said Diddy barged into his office and beat him up because Stoute did not cut him from a scene in a music video.
“He punched me in the face, and then he grabbed the phone and bashed me in the head with it,” he revealed.
Diddy privately settled with Soute, reportedly for $500,000, avoiding a seven-year sentence by pleading to a reduced charge of harassment.
Months later, Diddy was arrested for a nightclub shooting that left three people injured. He and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez fled the shooting and Bad Boys star Shyne, a.k.a. Jamal Michael Barrow was convicted of firing the shots.
Diddy was charged with weapons possession and attempted bribery, with prosecutors saying he offered money to witnesses who said he had fired the shots. However, Combs was acquitted after a six-week trial in 2001.
Diddy threw a party to celebrate the verdict. A graphic designer working with Bad Boy Records at the time said the producer began messaging her, saying she later learned Diddy had tried to solicit her for sex.
Sources claimed even when women tried to leave Diddy, he would continue to contact them and try to control them.
When Jennifer Lopez ended their relationship sometime after the club shooting, he allegedly sent staffers to try to win her back by standing outside MTV’s studios with signs.
Moreover, after learning that late label executive Shakir Stewart had become romantically involved with his ex-partner Kim Porter, Diddy beat him up in Italy, where the music industry was gathered for L.A. Reid’s wedding.
Model, Crystal McKinney has also claimed that in 2003 Diddy pressured her to take a hit from a ‘laced’ joint before forcing her to perform oral sex on him despite her resistance.
A woman also claimed in another lawsuit against Diddy that she was 17 when the same year she met former Bad Boy President Harve Pierre in a Detroit-area lounge.
Pierre called Diddy and introduced him to the young woman, before she agreed to board a private plane to New Jersey to meet Diddy in person. The woman says she was then gang raped by Diddy, Pierre, and an unnamed third man after they plied her with drugs and alcohol.
Diddy denied the claims.
The Department of Justice is gearing up to bring a criminal indictment against Diddy as his accusers have been told they could be brought to testify in New York City.
