Today, we're bringing you episode two of the latest podcast from 20/20 and ABC Audio, "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy." This week, we chart Diddy’s rise from musician to mogul, from the center of hip-hop to the center of American culture. But that rise wasn’t always a smooth ascent. Along the way, he had moments of alleged violence and brushes with the law. Were these lapses in judgment or serious red flags that signaled a darker side to his success? Remember, you can catch new episodes of "Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy" early by following the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the focus of 'Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy' Episode 2?
Hi there, 2020 listeners. It's Deborah Roberts here. We're going to bring you the next installment of our six-part series on Sean Diddy Combs. Here's Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, Episode 2, Invincible.
And now, people all over the world!
On an August night in 1995, the four corners of the hip-hop world gathered at the Paramount Theater in Midtown Manhattan. Artists from the South, the Midwest, and from the East and West Coast were all under the same roof.
It's the Source Hip-Hop Musical Board!
They were all there for the second annual Source Awards. It was a celebration of hip-hop, a music genre that was rapidly moving from underground to mainstream. The event felt like a pretty standard award show. An eager crowd filled the auditorium waiting to hear the results.
And the winner is...
West Coast rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, also known as Snoop Dogg, won Artist of the Year. East Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G. won Album of the Year for Ready to Die. And Outkast, a duo from Atlanta, won Best New Artist of the Year. The night was filled with performances and acceptance speeches. And one of those speeches turned the 1995 Source Awards into one of hip-hop's most infamous nights.
Yeah, yeah. Record executive Suge Knight and rapper Danny Boy won the award for Best Motion Picture Soundtrack for their work on the movie Above the Rim. Suge climbed on stage in a bright red button-down shirt. First of all, I'd like to thank God. Suge is not a small guy by any stretch of the imagination. He stands at maybe 6'2", and is definitely over 260 pounds.
Before he got into the music business, he spent a year in the NFL as a defensive end for the Los Angeles Rams. In 1995, he was running one of hip-hop's two big record labels, Death Row Records out of LA. Now, after thanking God, Suge didn't go on to give a standard acceptance speech.
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Chapter 2: What happened at the 1995 Source Awards?
And now Diddy is an established artist on top of an already established executive. So his star power really began to rise.
Suge had made fun of him for wanting to be in the spotlight. But lo and behold, there he was, basking in it. In an interview later that year, Diddy was asked about the perception that he was exploiting Biggie's death. It wasn't just that one of his album's singles was a tribute to the late rapper. He also used some of Biggie's lyrics for the album.
Because, you know, you know how people think.
They'll say, well, you know, you took some... I can't move on how people think. You know what I'm saying? I can only be judged by God. You know what I'm saying? And I got to constantly be living... with myself. I got to live with myself at the end of the day. I got to close my eyes and know what's right.
You said that after Biggie's death, you took some time off to reflect.
Yeah. I mean, after Biggie's death, I was like, that was my heart. So my heart wasn't beating. So I was dead, too. And it was just a situation where I didn't want to.
1997, the year Biggie died, was a wildly successful year for Diddy. Vibe magazine reported that his Bad Boy label sold $200 million worth of records and had the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 straight weeks. Rolling Stone approached Bad Boy Records about putting someone associated with the label on the magazine cover. Kirk Burrows was the president of Bad Boy at the time.
In 2024, he told Rolling Stone that he urged Diddy to put Biggie on the cover. His posthumous album, Life After Death, had been at the top of the charts all year, and he was still on people's minds.
So Burroughs is allegedly telling Diddy, you'll have your chance to get another cover, but Biggie will never come out with another album. Give him that moment. And according to Burroughs, Diddy basically says, no, he's dead. This is my time now.
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