In an interview with The Art of Dialogue, former Bad Boy Records bodyguard Gene Deal suggested that Diddy was “turned into a monster” by the music industry.
“When Homeland Security ran up into his house, people would tell you, or people knew that it was only a matter of time that they was going to indict him and bring him in to see the judge,” said Deal, who was previously hired by Diddy as a bodyguard. “It’s all about the people who trained and taught him the music business, because Puff, he wasn’t born a monster. He was made into a monster, brother. … He started doing the things to other people that was done to him, to keep it frank.”
Earlier this week, Diddy was arrested on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. His properties in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by Homeland Security back in March, a dramatic escalation after several people including his ex-girlfriend Cassie filed lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault and abuse. Deal claims that Diddy wasn’t always like this, but the music industry was allegedly responsible for changing him.
”When he was in New York City, he was like that gecko from the Geico commercial, then [when] he lived in Cali and Miami, he turned into Godzilla,” he continued. “He turned into something that you could consider a monster, bruh. … He learned from Andre Harrell. He learned from Russell Simmons. He learned from Clive Davis. … They were heavy into beating women, and doing things at that crazy stage. That’s gonna make him think that he can get away with the same thing.”
Uptown Records founder Harrell was responsible for launching Diddy’s career, but their relationship broke down in the early ’90s, resulting in his founding of Bad Boy Records in ’93.
Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, meanwhile, has long been friends with Diddy and even came to his defense earlier this year, per The Root. In 2017, Simmons was accused of sexual assault and abuse by various women. In recent years, he has been hanging out in Bali, which has been met by accusations he’s there to avoid prosecution.
“Some people, they karma is too strong for what they do and they did,” Deal continued. “The stuff that he did to Craig Mack… Black Rob… His karma was bound to catch up with him. … This is going to be one of the greatest tragedies of hip-hop along with Pac’s death, along with Big’s death. And he brought it on himself, because he knew that he was wrong, and he knew that he learned something that wasn’t right.”
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Deal is one of the many former associates of Diddy who have spoken out about his legal battle in recent months, previously doing interviews on DJ Vlad’s platform and a podcast.
Shyne, who alleged he took the fall in a 1999 shooting incident in which Diddy was acquitted, said that even though Diddy “destroyed” his life by getting him sent to prison for ten years, he takes “no joy” in seeing the rapper behind bars.
Watch the interview with Gene Deal up top.
