Rapper Bow Wow is raising eyebrows as he mourns the loss of the star-studded parties hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs, amid the embattled mogul’s federal sex trafficking case.
The 37-year-old “Like Mike” star made the controversial remarks during his appearance last week on Rocsi Diaz’s “More to the Story” podcast.
“He’s like the gatekeeper to the game. … Like BET Award weekend just passed. It didn’t feel right, ’cause there was no motion, there was no parties. There was nowhere to go,” said Bow Wow, who signed with the Harlem native’s Bad Boy Records in 2015.
Diaz made sure to clarify that Bow Wow was referring to Diddy’s post-award show parties, and not the notorious “freak-offs” mentioned in his indictment.
“I’m separating,” Bow Wow continued. “I’m talking about him as the artist, the person, right? How monumental and important he was to the culture.’”
Bow Wow went on to say he feels the “hole” in the absence of Combs’ annual bashes: “He was just such a gatekeeper, from the liquor in the clubs. He was everything hip-hop.”
Despite the long-standing rumors surrounding Combs, Bow Wow said “he was the guy that every young hustler looked up to,” adding that he never would’ve thought “this would be the story of how it would end.”
In the wake of the interview, one X user suggested that “a lot of celebs just wanna continue partying with Diddy and don’t [give a f-k] about victims,” but that Bow Wow was the only one “tone deaf enough to say it out loud.”
Bow Wow has come under fire before for his seeming support of other controversial stars in the music industry. In 2010, he collaborated with Chris Brown on “Ain’t Thinkin’ ‘Bout You,” over a year after the latter pleaded guilty to felony assault for his brutal attack on then-girlfriend Rihanna.
Federal agents arrested Combs on Sept. 16, charging him with wide-ranging offenses from sex trafficking to racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Also the subject of over 100 increasingly disturbing lawsuits, Combs been denied bail three times and remains in custody at Brooklyn’s infamous Metropolitan Detention Center.
He has denied all the allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
