Diddy: 'Studio sex' and 'hitman threats' - insiders speak out about his 90s music empire
2025-02-06
Category: entertainment

"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."Former music executive Daniel Evans says he can still remember the threat from his old boss, Sean "Diddy" Combs - then known as Puff Daddy - to a colleague. It was 1997, he says, in the New York office of Combs's Grammy Award-winning music label Bad Boy Records."It was like, this is what money does to you," he says.Combs was often "prickly", but Evans says power was transforming him. Just days before, the hip-hop mogul had received his biggest reward to date – $6m (£4.8m) to mark the label's success, which boasted platinum-selling artists like The Notorious B.I.G.That year Combs's music career reached its peak, with his empire soon expanding into fashion, alcohol and even his own TV network.Nearly three decades on, his legacy is in ruins as he sits in jail awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering alongside battling dozens of lawsuits accusing him of drugging and assault at lavish parties, high-end hotels and in his label's recording studio. He denies all the allegations.Now the BBC has spoken to more than 20 people who worked with Combs at Bad Boy Records - including former executives, assistants and producers - who describe for the first time troubling incidents they say they witnessed during its 1990s rise.Some executives say they had concerns after seeing Combs having sex with women in the studio, including one incident where the employee says the young woman did not seem to react when he walked in. Another staff member complained Combs asked her to bring him condoms.The BBC also heard that corporate funds were used to fly in women from across the US for sex at the request of artists and other employees.
"There was a course of conduct that became more egregious over time and that conduct does go back to the 90s," says Tony Buzbee, a US lawyer representing dozens of alleged victims, including one who says Combs threatened to kill her in similar terms to the incident Evans says he witnessed.His client alleges Combs raped her on a bathroom floor at a promotional party held for The Notorious B.I.G., the label's biggest star, in 1995. She says in her lawsuit that afterwards, Combs told her not to tell anyone or "you will disappear".In a statement, Combs's legal team accused Buzbee of being "more interested in media attention than the truth" and said the hip-hop star "never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone".The 55-year-old's lawyers said they had not been provided with sufficient details about the BBC's claims to present the facts that would "counter these fabricated accusations"."As we've said before, Mr Combs cannot dignify every publicity stunt or facially absurd claim with a response. He has full confidence in the judicial process, where the truth will prevail: these accusations are pure fiction," they said.
A brash go-getter, Sean Combs became an overnight millionaire when he launched Bad Boy Records in 1993 with a roster of top artists.It was Combs's first venture, having already built a name for himself as a talent director at another music label, Uptown Records, aged 19."He said that he wanted to be one of the biggest artists in the world and it didn't matter if I believed him or not," remembers Jimmy Maynes, a former Uptown colleague.Maynes remembers Combs having a short fuse in the office, sometimes banging "his hands up against the desk" like a "bratty kid" and yelling if he did not get his way.Combs was eventually fired from Uptown and at the age of 23 started Bad Boy Records."He's the hardest working man that I've ever met and always wanted people to match his energy," says Daniel Evans, a senior executive who managed Bad Boy's recording budgets and artists' contracts between 1994 and 1997.Combs described himself as the "Great Gatsby" and swiftly became known for hosting coveted celebrity bashes at New York nightclubs, on the beaches of Cancun, Mexico, and later infamous "White Parties" - named after the all-white dress code - in the Hamptons.Even President Donald Trump attended events in the 90s, says Evans, who once saw him sit on a golden throne at Combs's 30th birthday and exclaim: "I'm the real King of New York!"
"We were all really young. I was 24 years old," reflects Evans, who was one of the label's original employees. "People wanted to party, have fun, hook up and build good memories."But looking back, Evans says he is troubled by some of the things he witnessed about his boss's behaviour and the company culture.In about 1995, he says he walked in on Combs having sex with a young woman at Daddy's House, Bad Boy's New York recording studio near Times Square."I was getting ready to go home for the night and looking for my jacket. Open the door and he's having sex with this girl," says Evans, who thought the studio was empty as it was silent. Combs swore and shouted at him to leave. "I thought I was getting fired," he says.Evans remembers the young woman had been brought to the studio, presumably for a tour, by a party-promoter who was a friend of Combs. His boss seemed sober, while she was quiet and did not really talk, he says, wondering if she was high on drugs or just shy.He says it did not seem unusual at the time. But recalling how the woman did not react when he entered the room, he says: "Knowing what I know now, there's a lot of speculation about what state she was in… usually both parties are very responsive during the act."
Felicia Newsome, the manager of Daddy's House recording studio between 1994 and 2000, says inappropriate conduct in the music industry as a whole was rife at the time."It was abnormal if somebody reported it, but it wasn't abnormal for it to be happening," she says.Newsome says an employee once called her to the studio in the middle of the night because Combs was in his underwear, about to have sex with a model and another woman. He was demanding the staff member fetch him condoms, she recalls."I said to Puffy, don't ever ask anyone here to go and get condoms," says Newsome, who arrived while they were getting dressed again. "He replied: 'I didn't need anything like that, ma,' and never did it again."Newsome, then in her 30s, says she found Combs reasonable and that he changed his behaviour when she challenged him. On one occasion, when the studio first opened in 1995, she says Combs was unhappy about the look of the countertops and called her a "bitch" in front of staff.
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She says she demanded a public apology and temporarily shut the studio, asking him: "If I'm bringing women into this space, which is open 24 hours, how do you want to treat people?"Combs responded that he wanted it to be an inclusive and safe environment, she says.But while Newsome ran the studio with an "iron fist", she says other staff were less comfortable calling Combs out."Bad Boy Records was a crazy house with a lot of young people who wanted to touch the King's robes," she says.Former staff say the label was run by twenty-something executives and a large number of interns, some of whom were of school age. There were often sexual relationships between employees and the interns, they say.Evans remembers an uncomfortable moment with a 14-year-old in his own team, who he says propositioned him."She says to me, you work really hard. If you ever want to like, get loose, you and I should kick it… but not tonight, I have a curfew."
Evans says he sent her home and called the next day, telling her not to return to work. He did not report her, but two weeks later she was back working in the mailroom.Artists and other employees at Combs's record label would sometimes also request for women to be flown in to have sex at the studio, the former executive says."If they had a [sexual] specialty in something, they would be flown in," says Evans, who told the BBC he knew because he controlled the budgets. Money for the flights would be set aside and logged under travel, he adds."It was probably like thousands of dollars," says Evans. "I don't think it happened all that often, but it was definitely a recording expense."Evans says Combs's own requests were managed by his personal assistants. One told the BBC that Combs would often ask them to fly in women he was "messing around with" and put them up in hotels, though the assistant said they were not sex workers.In the 2000s, the Daddy's House recording studio further changed, two former staff say, into a culture of "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll". Combs would regularly bring "random women" there to party, turning up with an entourage of dozens of people in "three white jeeps, with white rims and white leather seats", they say. Other artists would demand suitcases of Ciroc vodka and one even brought a monkey to a session, according to a former executive.The studio is one of the locations where women have since accused Combs of drugging and raping them. Model Crystal McKinney alleges the mogul plied her with alcohol and marijuana before sexually assaulting her there in 2003. That same year, a woman alleges that Combs and two associates gang raped her at the studio when she was 17.Combs's lawyers say he "looks forward to proving his innocence", adding that McKinney's claims are "without merit".
Many ex-staff say they still find it hard to reconcile the allegations with the man they knew. "These accusations are a surprise to me, as I am sure it is to many of our circle," says Jeffery Walker, a close friend of Combs who was part of Bad Boy's original production team. "I've been to White Parties and of course studio sessions, and none of what he is accused of went down in my sight."Evans was also sceptical about some of the claims until he saw the footage of Casandra Ventura, Combs's ex-partner of 10 years and a former Bad Boy artist, being brutally beaten by the rapper in a hotel in Los Angeles in 2016.Ventura was the first person to sue Combs back in November 2023, alleging that he had trapped her in a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking during their relationship. Combs settled the lawsuit the next day for an undisclosed amount."It's not the first time I've seen that temper," recalls Evans, thinking back to the death threat he says he witnessed back in 1997. "It's hard to see. The guy in the video with Cassie is almost identical to the guy who threatened the employee. So, you wonder, has anything changed?"Over the years, Sean Combs has repeatedly reinvented himself - from Puff Daddy, to P Diddy and in recent years, "Love"."If I'm acting crazy, like 'ahhh!' that's Diddy. If I'm dancing real smooth with a girl, that's Puff Daddy. And if I'm looking like I'm nervous or scared or shy, that's Sean," he said in an interview in 2015.With more details likely to emerge when he goes on trial in May, many of those who were close to the rapper are questioning whether they knew the real Sean Combs at all."One could think that he's just a disgusting human being, but that's not my memory of Puff," says Jimmy Maynes, who grew up with Combs in Mount Vernon, New York.But after a pause, he adds: "Or maybe money just gives people the freedom to be exactly who they really are, and he was that guy all along."
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