As the sexual assault and sexual harassment lawsuits shine a light on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ troubling history of alleged violence toward women, Rolling Stone’s shocking new investigative article reveals that the music mogul’s misdeeds may stretch all the way back to his time at Howard University.
Diddy began attending the acclaimed HBCU in the fall of 1987 and left after his sophomore year. However, the way he shouts out his alma mater, talks about his time there and donates money, you’d think he graduated. Apparently, it was during his time at Howard that he developed his reputation for throwing unforgettable parties.
However, he also gained a reputation for his alleged “unwanted touching and fits of rage.”According to the magazine, one woman told the outlet that after he “‘caressed’ her back without warning and asked if she would be willing to meet one of his friends,” she stayed “as far away as possible” from the future Bad Boy founder.
It seems anger management has always been an issue, as a former student described an incident in which she had a problem with Diddy cutting the cafeteria line and he “flew off the handle.”
In a particularly scary incident, a former classmate of Diddy’s then-girlfriend described how he would show up at their English class and “tap on the window” to get his girlfriend to ditch. The classmate, who stayed anonymous out of fear of retaliation, recalled how the girlfriend “would tense up” during these moments. “He just had a weird control thing. I felt like she was fearful,” the classmate said.
Turns out she had reason to be scared: That same classmate went on to describe a situation where Combs showed up outside his girlfriend’s dorm “screaming in a ‘belligerent’ manner,” wanting her to come down. A short time later, women were banging on doors and panicking because he was outside allegedly assaulting his girlfriend. The classmate remembered other students saying, “Puff is out here acting crazy. He’s beating her.”
Another witness, who stayed anonymous “due to the sensitive nature of the incident,” said he used what looked like a belt to “strike the young woman ‘all over the place.’”
“She was trying to defend herself a little bit,” the witness said. “She was crying. And we were telling him, ‘Get off of her.’ We were screaming for her.”
The victim of the alleged assault declined to comment to Rolling Stone.
In case you’re wondering, Howard is taking a lot of heat for its continued relationship with Diddy. Its reputation is being damaged by its association with the rapper/producer.
Combs started his music career as a part-time intern at Uptown Records while he was still attending Howard. Eventually, he left the university to work at the record company full-time. It was late rapper Heavy D who got him the job interview. They lived in the same neighborhood and Diddy bothered him relentlessly about the opportunity. Unfortunately, Diddy and Heavy D are forever linked for a much more tragic reason.
In 1991 they co-promoted a Celebrity Basketball Game at City College of New York. The event, which was supposed to feature appearances from New Edition’s Michael Bivins, Big Daddy Kane, members of Run-DMC, Ed Lover and others, was oversold past its 2,730 capacity.
When way more people than expected showed up and the event didn’t start on time, a lack of adequate police and security presence led to a crowd surge that killed nine people and injured 29.
The event put a quick halt to Diddy’s rise up the ranks at Uptown, with the controversy eventually leading then-CEO Andre Harrell to fire him. Shortly after he left Uptown, Arista Records signed him, along with Bad Boy, and the rest is history.