CNN
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The refrain to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ music “Do You Like It… Do You Want It,” which additionally options Jay-Z, asks a now eerily prophetic query: “Wanna know what it’s prefer to be me?”
At the time, maybe nobody knew what it was prefer to be Combs higher than Jay-Z, who was born Shawn Carter. Both rappers, producers and businessmen, they topped charts and commanded respect within the recording sales space and the boardroom in equal measure.
But there was, seemingly, no rivalry.
Back in 2009, Combs was requested by a reporter if he remembered a photograph exhibiting him in dialog with Carter. Combs defined the second had been captured at his party. Jay-Z had flown in particularly to attend, although he had restricted time, Combs recalled.
“People see us as opponents and completely different icons within the hip-hop sport, however that was only a second of two Black brothers telling one another how a lot they admire one another,” Combs stated.
Years later, as Combs sits in federal detention awaiting trial on expenses of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, Carter is loath to be linked to him, although a lawsuit is doing precisely that.
A girl, who in October filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was sexually assaulted by Combs in 2000, amended her swimsuit on Sunday to incorporate allegations that she was additionally assaulted by Carter. The plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe, was 13 on the time of the alleged assault at an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty.
In a press release to CNN, Carter referred to as the allegations “so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a prison grievance, not a civil one!!”
“Whomever would commit such a criminal offense in opposition to a minor ought to be locked away, would you not agree?” he stated.
On Monday, Carter filed a movement to ask the court docket to both dismiss her declare or rule that Doe has to disclose her identification.
Combs has pleaded not responsible to the fees and has denied all wrongdoing in roughly 30 civil lawsuits which were filed in opposition to him. Several of these lawsuits embrace allegations from accusers who’ve chosen to file beneath pseudonyms.
In current months, two federal judges rejected efforts by two of Combs’ feminine accusers to anonymously carry sexual assault lawsuits in opposition to him in rulings that highlighted the problem of utilizing pseudonyms.
With this week’s authorized growth, Combs and Carter’s parallel profession paths are gaining renewed consideration.
Combs and Carter traveled in the identical circles previously, having constructed their respective enterprise empires on a basis of hip-hop success earlier than increasing into different enterprises.
Both based document labels – Combs with Bad Boy Records and Carter with Roc Nation – and helped launch careers of quite a few artists. They additionally shared comparable backstories, being raised by single moms in New York.
In 1997, following the homicide of their mutual good friend and Combs’ protege Christopher “Notorious B.I.G” Wallace, or Biggie Smalls, Combs and Carter collaborated on Carter’s “My Lifetime, Vol 1.” album and Combs’ single “Do You Like It…Do You Want It.”
Carter shared in 2010 that he had spoken with Wallace, who was finest associates with Combs, an hour earlier than the rapper was gunned down.
“He wasn’t a troublemaker in any respect. He was only a humorous, charismatic man,” Carter stated on the time. “For him to die so senselessly – I spoke to him that evening, and he was so blissful to be in Los Angeles, after the entire East Coast-West Coast factor.”
Two years in the past, throughout a celebration of what would have been Wallace’s fiftieth birthday, Carter talked about the “void” that the murders of Wallace and one other legendary rapper, Tupac Shakur, left in hip hop.
“Bro, you stuffed them sneakers although,” Combs stated of Carter. “You got here in and we positively give thanks. You positively got here, and I simply know the way a lot Big actually regarded as much as Jay.”
Combs and Carter joined forces collectively in 2005 to collectively current a verify for $1 million throughout a televised telethon for Hurricane Katrina reduction.
In 2020, their longtime friendship was on show when Carter stood beside Combs throughout Roc Nation’s Black Billionaire luncheon.
“We right here collectively and we gonna maintain staying collectively – and tighter,” Combs stated as Carter agreed. “United we stand and ain’t nothing else.”
Carter paid tribute to Combs throughout a video presentation proven as a part of Combs receiving a lifetime achievement recognition on the 2022 BET Awards.
“Here’s this man from a neighborhood, just like the place I grew up, that made it to those unreachable heights,” Carter stated. “Puff [Combs’ childhood nickname] was the primary one which got here by way of and made us really feel prefer it was us.”
