Diddy is denying that he scammed his past artists and says he wants the artists who claimed that he stole from them to now help him change the narrative, and he also plans to fight back against that impression.
For many years, Diddy, who owned the Bad Boy Records label, has been called out for his shady business practices not only in allegedly underpaying artists but also holding the rights to their music masters and making big bucks with the evolution of music into the streaming age while the artists struggle to get by.
Recently, Diddy announced that he was looking for skilled professionals to work with him and do “God’s Work,” but it seems that the pushback by many in the black community who expressed fear that he isn’t a fair boss or pays up has weighed heavily on him.
While on the Breakfast Club, the artist sought to clear up the rumors and also claimed that one of his accusers, Ma$e owes him money. Ma$e has accused Diddy of being wicked and spiteful and holding on to the masters of his music, which he paid $20,000 for but won’t sell back for $2 million.
In the interview, Diddy says he’s never robbed anyone and says that he is shocked when he hears what people say about him because he feels he is one of the pioneers in hip hop who helped many people.
“If you think that I’m a scum bag that would ever steal anything, my name is Diddy Sean Combs. I never took anything from nobody a day in my life, all I’ve ever given is opportunity and more money than a person was making. So when I hear like or I see things and I’m like this vibe that they got on me like I’m big red or something, I came here and I opened up the doors,” he said.
When Charlamagne Tha God asks him, “so you saying you never steal from artists?” Diddy denies the allegation, “Never, never never,” he says.
“So how does a narrative like that happen with so many people?” Charlamagne Tha God asks.
Diddy, however, goes on to say that the artists have blamed him because their money runs out.
“People have this thing called the tap put button, when you get to a certain point and the money is running low, you gotta run this hustle to try to find somebody to blame you know what I’m saying,” he said.
The “Gotta Move On” artist also shared that he was going to ask some of the artists who have made allegations against him to join him in a special to help clear his name.
“I have all my receipts and so we are gonna do a special, a retrospective with all the artists and we’re gonna get this narrative clear.”
He also addressed the allegations by Ma$e and referred to himself as “God” and said that he’s ready to fight for himself in light of the allegations.
“You know just in general, the Ma$e thing, did one album with mase, how much money do you think I owe this guy? One album and then he became a fake pastor and went a conned people and then y’all gon let him throw dirt on the God’s name?…I wrote each and every one and each and everybody could come and step up, bring your receipts, but I’m not playing, I’m back outside and I’m fighting back for us and I’m also doing a little fighting back for me,” he said as he shared that Ma$e owes him $3 million that he received as an advance for a second album that he failed to deliver.
“If I’m here I’m gonna speak up for myself now, I spoke to the Lox, I told the Lox, they gon help me clear it up…not trying to start anything with nobody..anybody think I owe them something show me the receipt, you get paid in 24 hours,” he ended.
Diddy has a long successful career as a label executive that shot to fame and became a multi-millionaire in the 1990s after signing artists like The Notorious B.I.G. and others.
However, his reputation has been damaged significantly by other artists like the group The Lox, whose members Jadakiss, Sheek, and Styles P accused Diddy of owning half of the trio’s publishing rights for more than ten years. In a blow-up on live radio, the members had called him “a thief” and “a coward.”
“We made one record with you, Money Power & Respect. It’s 10 years later and you still got half of our publishing…you can’t make it justifiable that you deserve half of our publishing.” Styles P had alleged, “you had a bunch of artists whose careers never went right with you.”
The parties later settled their disagreement out of court, but the details have never been released to the public.
Ma$e also accused Diddy of refusing to sell him his masters back and told him that he had higher offers.
“I offered u 2m in cash just a few days ago to sell me back my publishing,” Ma$e wrote on Instagram in 2020. “Your response was if I can match what the EUROPEAN GUY OFFER him that would be the only way I can get it back.”
Other artists who have accused Diddy of shady business practices are Craig Mack, who passed in 2018, R&B group 112, who said their deal was basically “doo doo,” Black Rob, who accused Diddy of not doing anything for his career while he was locked up and couldn’t make him money, and even Faith Evans who left the label with accusations that mirrored other artists- that Diddy prioritized other artists sometimes at the cost of holding back their albums and careers to reduce competition in the music market.
While most of the artists were from decades before, Punk artist Machine Gun Kelly had claimed in 2012 about his deal with Bad Boy, saying, “my deal is for like $1.5 million. I haven’t seen 1/16 of that. I don’t even understand what my deal means.”
Although not signed to Diddy, others like Sauce Money have accused Diddy of being shady in his dealings with artists like himself that ghostwrite for him. He was also accused by Biggie Smalls’ daughter in 2016 of doing nothing for her family despite buying Biggie’s publishing for $200K in 1995, way below the market value for the publishing even back then as the artist had hit songs like “Juicy.”
