Five former employees of rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs are now alleging that he was an abusive boss on the heels of a recently-released video showing Combs beating his girlfriend in a hotel hallway.
The group of employees have opened up to the Daily Beast and told the outlet of being abused both physically and mentally in the work place and of the toxic environment the rapper created inside his music and fashion empire the rapper named Sean John.
One female employee told Daily Beast that she quit over an incident in which Combs physically grabbed her face and screamed at her after she disagreed with a fashion decision he made.
She said Combs also demanded that she stick her tongue out for him because he said he wanted to see if her tongue was bloody because she was clearly biting her tongue. He also told her she was in the company of fashion genius and, “When you speak to me, you should imagine that you’re talking to Karl Lagerfeld.”
The woman who refused to allow her name to be used in the article for fear of facing retaliation added, “I just wasn’t interested in being there to deal with that kind of treatment. You have to really idolize him and see him as an icon. I didn’t. I was just there to do my job.”
Another ex-staffer who said he was fired for giving Combs “a look” after Combs was hours late for a meeting, noted “There was erratic behavior, there was definitely what I would consider mental abuse, [with] how he spoke to us as employees.” This man decried the “culture of fear” that Combs created among employees, and added, “There was “a lot of profanity, kind of aggressive, in your face—physically in your face—kind of stuff.”
A third employee told the outlet that working for Combs was “the worst experience I ever had in my life.”
One employee told the Daily Beast that Combs was paranoid about the women he had with him at work events and when one employee asked one of Combs’ associates about one particular woman, all hell broke loose and staffers began warning the employee never to mention or even look at any of the women he was with. The incident culminated with Combs forcefully grabbing the employee by the arm and delivering a warning to him about discussing his women.
Employees even coined a term, “catching a brick,” for when someone became a target of Combs’ fury.
“It was as if you’re walking down the street and someone randomly threw a brick at your head out of the blue,” a former employee said. “Out of the blue, if he was unhappy with something that you might not have done but he thought you did, you ‘caught a brick.'”
An employee of another company who had close dealing with Combs and the Sean John employees substantiated the claims that Combs’ company was toxic, saying, “There was a lot of cursing, a lot of talking to people crazy, a lot of [calling women] bitches, [saying], ‘Fuck you,’ or ‘Stupid,'” and “‘I’ll fire y’all bitches right now.’” This person said she never saw Combs attack a man in the fashion industry like he treated women — unless they had no “power or stature in the industry.”
None of these former Combs employees were surprised by the hotel surveillance video showing Combs’ attack on Cassie. One of the ex-staffers noted, “I’m sorry that it took this long. I hope he gets what’s coming to him.”
The result, they all said, is that there was a revolving door for Sean John staff, and the company had very short turnover.
Still, the Daily Beast did find other employees who claimed to have had a positive experience working at Sean John.
Combs is facing a slew of lawsuits against him for violence and abuse. One such suit was filed by April Lampros who said she met Combs when she was in college.
Lampos is just one of six other women who have filed similar lawsuits alleging rape and physical abuse.
He is also being sued by singer Cassie Ventura, the woman seen being beaten in the surveillance video.
Combs has other legal issues, as well. He was the target of a recent series of federal raids of his properties in California and Florida, as part of an investigation into sex trafficking.
The rapper has denied all wrongdoing, with his lawyer slamming the raids as “a gross use of military-level force,” adding that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name. But he did post an apology for the video showing him beating Cassie.
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