Diddy has denied allegations that he stole from his artists, and said Mase owes him $3 million.
At the 42:20-mark of his latest appearance on The Breakfast Club, DJ Envy pointed out that Mase was accused of taking money from one of his own artists in the same way Diddy was accused. Envy asked Diddy if he looks at that situation as an “I told you” sort of revelation.
“No I don’t look at it like that,” Diddy said.
Explaining himself further, Diddy said that he “didn’t do nothing” to Mase, and called his previous claims “negative propaganda.
“[It] has really tried to stain my legacy,” he said. “I don’t like to get in just talking people’s business and things like that… [but] I can’t have y’all following me, because I am here to be a leader and to give some direction, if you think that I’m a scumbag that will ever steal anything—My name is Diddy, Sean Combs, I never took nothing from nobody a day in my life. All I’ve ever given is opportunity and more money than a person was making.”
Charlamagne asked straight-up if Diddy “steals” from his artists, to which he replied, “Never.” Charlamagne pointed out that many different artists have accused Diddy of stealing money from them, and asked why that is.
“People have this thing called the tap out button, when you get to a certain point and the money is running low you gotta run this hustle to find somebody to blame,” Diddy responded. “I have all my receipts.” He then proceeded to directly call out Mase, who he asserted actually owes him money, instead.
“Just in general, the Mase thing. I did one album with Mase. One album. How much money do you think I owe this guy,” he said, in reference to Mase’s 1997 album Harlem World. “And then he became a fake pastor and went and conned people. And y’all gon’ let him throw dirt on the god’s name. Anybody can come and step up. Bring your receipts. But I’m not playing. I’m back outside and I’m fighting back for us. And I’m also doing some fighting back for me.” It’s worth pointing out, however, that Mase released two further albums under Diddy’s Bad Boy Records.
“Mase owes me $3 million,” Diddy said, claiming that he gave the rapper the money for an advance on an album he never turned in. “That’s facts, I got the receipts. … And I’m not gon’ go back-and-forth with Mase. I’m not going back-and-forth with nobody. I’m just gonna speak up for myself now. … Anybody that thinks I owe them something, show me the receipt and you’ll get paid within 24 hours.”
Mase responded on Wednesday, per TMZ, claiming that Diddy is upset with him after he rejected the opportunity to apologize. “You see how people act when you won’t let them come on stage, and give their fake apology so they can promote that little wack song,” he said in a clip posted to Instagram and TikTok.
Elsewhere in the interview, Diddy defended Kanye West sporting a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt alongside controversial right-wing commentator Candace Owens.
“Kanye my boy… is a super-super-super free-thinker,” he said at the 22:00 mark of the interview. “A lot of times what he means is, like, misconstrued, you know what I’m saying?”
Charlamagne chimed in to say that he has to “stop making excuses for him,” which Diddy refuted. “No I’m not making excuses, I’m just saying that if he did it, like, that’s the way he thinks. And I do understand white lives do matter, but it’s not that. That was our slogan, that wasn’t our slogan to go share with nobody else.”
He went on to say that the hip-hop community doesn’t need to “condemn” Ye or “cancel him,” but the situation did lead him to have second thoughts about releasing a t-shirt that pays tribute to Kanye. “I just need a couple of days to get over this t-shirt, because right now we’re the ones that are dying,” he continued. “There really ain’t no time for no other lives matter right now but the tribe. You have to be unapologetically Black and love your people and love your tribe first.”
Diddy then proceeded to say that it’s “not the time for unnecessary noise,” and referred to Candace as “Karen Owens.” He added, “That’s her new name… [Candace] is too Black of a name. She's Karen Owens.”
At the 56:00-mark, Diddy suggested that the Brooklyn drill scene is holding back New York City’s rap scene. “I’m here to deliver a message to New York artists,” he continued. “We are in last place, we have to press the hard reset button and get back to being us. I love that we know how to rap on trap beats, I love that we know how to rap on drill beats from London. But what are we rapping on that’s coming from out of this city, you know what I’m saying? I don’t want to sit back and watch my city just stay in last place and keep on following what everybody else is doing.”
Watch the full interview with Diddy above.
