Diddy

My cousin once told me that the music you listen to as a teenager is the music that you’ll listen to for the rest of your life. He couldn’t be anymore wrong. I grew up listening to R&B, hip-hop, and rap music. It was part of my identity. I used to know songs, word-for-word. Others knew. A good friend in middle school asked me to perform a Puff Daddy song with him at a talent show. But, on one afternoon a year or two ago, I chose to not play that music anymore.

The decision was easy. Not only did my taste change, but much of that music was also largely inappropriate, especially for kids. Regardless of whether the songs are about an artist’s “life experience”, singing about sex, drugs, and crime knowing that kids will be exposed to it is wrong. It’s unresponsible. Anything for money. Like movies, I don’t understand why songs aren’t age restricted.

And I felt cheated. Sean “Diddy” Combs was the most popular rap and hip-hop artist in the mid-to-late nineties. He helped push rap and hip-hop into mainstream culture. Into my ears. Combs even dated arguably the highest profile female celebrity at that time as well – Jennifer Lopez. As a teenager, some of his songs were among my favorites. The popular ones were catchy. I knew the lyrics. They had a big production music video as well. But he defrauded me. Had Combs said, for example, that he is gay, he likes the semen from other men being rubbed on his body, or his personal trainer is also the man he likes to participate with in “hotel nights”, I wouldn’t have listened to his music. Many people probably wouldn’t have listened to his music. Sean “Diddy” Combs conned his way to fame and fortune.

Combs shouldn’t be erased from history. Rap and hip-hop greatly benefited from him. However, like Alex Rodriguez and Lance Armstrong, I hope he’s remembered for fraud – music fraud, culture fraud, man fraud – and, more importantly, a rapist and racketeer. I can’t get that time back, unfortunately, but, on the basis of misrepresentation, I should be given a refund for his CDs at the very least with interest.

Hollywood, again.