While Sean “Diddy” Combs the influencer posted pics of himself to Instagram celebrating the New Year by holding a glass of Ciroc, the “Imma keep it real” Sean posted a video discussing his battle with depression and implored his fans to “lift each other up” in 2020.
On New Year’s Day, the fifty-year-old rapper posted a two-minute video that detailed his yearlong battle with depression and offered words of encouragement to everyone who “went through the shift and had a hard year, and is dealing with heartbreak or loss, or just not knowing where they’re going, [or] depression.”
A somber-looking Diddy said:
“For a whole year, I would have to say, I went through like a real state of dark depression, and I’m telling y’all this because I had so many people to help me, to help lift me up...There’s so many people that are dealing with depression. Nobody is immune to it. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how much success you have. Depression is at an all-time high, and even I’ve experienced the shit...2019 was the year where I honestly felt like I wanted to give up...”
At the end of 2018, model Kim Porter, Diddy’s ex and the mother of his three children, died of pneumonia. In an Instagram post penned just days after her death, he wrote: “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you baby...We were more than best friends, we were more than soulmates. WE WERE SOME OTHER SHIT!!”
Diddy’s short but powerful video is a breath of fresh air in a society that teaches Black men, in particular, to “man up” and neither privately nor publicly own up to their emotions.
The rapper and businessman joins a growing list of celebrities like Charlamagne Tha God, Jenifer Lewis, and Taraji P. Henson who are not afraid to get real about their mental health struggles. They are normalizing what’s always been true: that depression is real and relatable.
At the end of the video, Diddy takes a moment to deliver a low-key sermon:
“I just wanted to really say, before we go into 2020 ... We need each other. We gotta lift each other up. Lift it up! Lift it up! Anytime you see somebody and they feeling down ... lift them up ... We gotta all do our part cuz we all gon’ have some good years and some bad years ...”
True dat, Diddy. True dat.
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or anxiety, know that there is help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.