Showing posts with label Diddy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diddy. Show all posts

Sunday, August 3, 2008

P. Diddy Escapes Atlanta Shoot Out


Rapper mogul Sean "P.Diddy" Combs was rushed by a bodyguard out of club Dreams in Atlanta last night after an alleged incident broke out. We’re told that the incident happened at an after-party thrown by Janet Jackson’s boyfriend, Jermaine Dupri, to kick off his annual So So Def SummerFest.

Jermaine explained "I'm sad this incident happened because it interrupted a beautiful and loving party. But I'm happy none of my people or friends got hurt. And the party continues."

People.com reports that gunfire broke out about 3:30 a.m. at Dreams and a security guard was injured.

When contacted Diddy's spokesperson said: "We are not issuing any statement as Sean was not involved in the incident. He was one of several celebrity guests in attendance at this party."

Other stars at the hot spot that night included Usher, Gabrielle Union and Nia Long.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Turns Out Diddy's Involvement In Tupac's Murder Was A Big Phat Lie!

White Prison Inmate James Sabatino
Dupes L.A. Times


News reports last week claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports.

Per The Smoking Gun, it appears the Los Angeles Times has been hoaxed by an imprisoned White con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs's trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud.

James Sabatino, 31, has long sought to insinuate himself, after the fact, in a series of important hip-hop events, from Shakur's shooting to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.. In fact, however, this cat was little more than a rap devotee, a wildly impulsive, overweight kid from Florida.

The Times relied on "FBI records recently obtained by The Times" and interviews with several unnamed sources in its reexamination of the November 30, 1994 shooting of Shakur at Quad Studios near Times Square. Included in the paper's online package was a PDF of two key FBI interview reports cited in the 2800-word story, which was six months in the making and written by veteran reporter Chuck Philips, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for his coverage of corruption in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the documents posted on the Times site, a third purported FBI interview report was included by Sabatino in court papers he filed four months ago in U.S. District Court in Miami. In that civil case, Sabatino is suing Combs for $16 million over an alleged soured business deal from nearly a decade ago. According to Sabatino's complaint, which he prepared and filed himself from the Allenwood federal penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania, Combs stiffed him on a $175,000 payment for audio and video recordings Sabatino made in 1994 of The Notorious B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace).

But those FBI reports, dubbed "302s" due to the numbered government form on which they are prepared, are nowhere to be found in the bureau's computerized Automated Case Support database, TSG has learned. The ACS system allows investigators to search various bureau indices to determine whether particular individuals, groups, or topics have been referred to in FBI "302" reports or various other bureau documents.

The suspect documents contain information supposedly provided to agents in the FBI's New York office by an unnamed "confidential source." The records, which Sabatino himself has distributed, conveniently contain black redaction marks covering up the name of the agent (or agents) who prepared the "302s" as well as the corresponding FBI case number. However, since the documents are filled with the names of individuals and corporations, they can be tracked within the FBI system by working backwards (by subjects as opposed to case number or agent name).

And while Sabatino claims to have been provided the FBI reports during the discovery phase of a 2002 criminal case, a federal law enforcement official involved in that successful prosecution told TSG that the probe was headed by Secret Service representatives and that the FBI had no role whatsoever in the case. The official added that, at the time, investigators "had no inkling" of Sabatino's supposed role in the rap music world and never saw investigative reports detailing his purported involvement with hip-hop's leading figures or its assorted bloody disputes.

Additionally, an examination of the three documents revealed that the bodies of the respective "302s" were actually created on a typewriter (the "frame" of the reports is consistent with an authentic "302" template). In some instances, you can see where one letter was typed on top of an existing character, a so-called overstrike. In an interview, Bruce Mouw, a former FBI supervisor who headed the bureau's pursuit of John Gotti, estimated that agents ceased using typewriters about 30 years ago.

Most telling, though, are the obvious similarities (type size, font, line spacing, individual character renderings) between the purported "302s" and certain court filings created by Sabatino while he has been incarcerated at Allenwood (he was transferred last May from a Florida prison to the high-security penitentiary in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains). As with all other Bureau of Prisons (BoP) facilities, Allenwood provides inmates with access to photocopying machines, office supplies, and typewriters, according to the BoP's 2008 Legal Resource Guide. Inmates, the guide states, are "permitted a reasonable amount of time...to conduct their own legal research and to prepare legal documents."

A comparison of the "302s" and Sabatino's own court filings shows that the authors of each set of documents share remarkably similar spelling deficiencies. For instance, the word "making" appears as "makeing" in both the "302s" and Sabatino's pro se court pleadings. Similarly, the authors also have difficulty with the word "during." It appears as "durring" in both sets of documents.

After a reporter provided Philips and Marc Duvoisin, the deputy managing editor who edited the Times story, an account of TSG's findings, Duvoisin said that the newspaper would launch its own investigation to determine if the FBI documents cited in its story are real.

The first mention of the existence of the purported "302s" came in filings Sabatino made late last year in a civil lawsuit against Combs. According to the convict, he received the explosive "302s" during "discovery, trial, and other proceedings" in a federal fraud prosecution brought against him in New York in August 2002. That case, though, never went to trial. Sabatino pleaded guilty to two felonies in August 2003 and was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

While he described the contents of four separate "302s" in his court papers, Sabatino attached only two of those reports to a November court motion. One of those documents was posted on the Times web site, along with another report that was referred to in Sabatino's filings, but not included as an exhibit. So, between Sabatino and the Times, three of the four purported FBI reports have been made public (those documents can be found here, here, and here). Details from the fourth supposed "302," dated July 1, 2002, are included in recent Sabatino court filings.

Notably, the convicted felon publicly filed the two "confidential" FBI records as exhibits to a motion seeking a court order barring Combs from distributing the documents to journalists. The bizarre motion surfaced six weeks after Sabatino filed his original October 4 complaint, which made no mention of "302s," Shakur, or any confidential FBI source. But that document does contain some of Sabatino's traditional flights from reality.

Along with claiming that he had been promised a "creative consultant" credit on Wallace's posthumous album "Born Again," Sabatino charged that Combs had delayed paying off his outstanding $175,000 debt because, in late-1998, "it was reported that the Los Angeles police had named [Sabatino] a 'person of interest' in the murder of Christopher Wallace," according to a December 6 court filing.

Of course, no news reports back this claim.

And then there's the small matter of Sabatino's whereabouts on March 9, 1997, when Wallace was gunned down while seated in a GMC Suburban outside the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. While he enjoys repeating the "theory" that he mysteriously bailed on a planned meeting with the rapper that fateful night, Sabatino was actually 2400 miles away from the crime scene. He was imprisoned in Miami's Federal Detention Center, where he still had six months to serve on a two-year sentence for separate felony convictions.

It is not Bureau of Prisons policy to allow cross-country furloughs. Even to attend the Soul Train Music Awards.

In his lawsuit against Combs, Sabatino denied prior knowledge of the plot to ambush Shakur, but added that he "does not contest that he was present at Quad Studios" on the night of the shooting. However, in the reams of copy about the 1994 attack, Sabatino's name has never appeared anywhere. The first time a publication linked him to the Shakur ambush came last week in the Times, thanks to one of the FBI "302s" obtained by the country's fourth-largest newspaper.

The New York Police Department probe of the Quad Studios incident was headed by Detective Joseph Babnik, who worked robbery cases out of the Midtown North precinct. In an interview, Babnik, now retired, told TSG that Sabatino's name "does not ring a bell" and that he could not recall anyone with that surname being connected to the Shakur case. Asked if he would have recalled a rotund white teenager being present at Quad Studios that night, Babnik said yes, adding that the only white witnesses he recalled interviewing were employed in technical capacities at the recording studio.

Shakur, who never hesitated to point fingers at those he suspected of setting up the Quad Studios shooting, never once mentioned Sabatino's supposed role in the attack.

In a three-page "302" dated December 30, 2002, the FBI's supposed confidential source reported first meeting Shakur through Sabatino in late-1993. Sabatino, born October 24, 1976, would have been 16 or 17 at the time of the Shakur introduction. The source went on to report that in February 1994, the 17-year-old Sabatino was rebuffed by Shakur when the teenager spoke to the performer about a "business offer." In short order, Sabatino and an associate devised a plan to "set up" the disrespectful Shakur, whom they decided needed to be "dealt with."

The "302" purportedly describing the behind-the-scenes machinations leading up to Shakur's assault also includes a narrative flourish that somehow escaped prior investigative or journalistic excavation. As has been widely reported, after Shakur was shot in the lobby of the Seventh Avenue building, he stumbled into an elevator and headed upstairs. When the elevator doors opened on a floor where members of the Combs entourage were milling about, a bleeding Shakur exited. Sabatino, the FBI source claimed, responded by yelling, "Get that piece of shit out of here!" Though the agent who authored the report (you know, the one whose name was conveniently redacted) actually spelled the third word in that sentence "peice."

Coincidentally, an examination of Sabatino's court filings shows that he, too, has a pronounced difficulty spelling words with the i-e and e-i couplings. He and the unnamed FBI agent apparently never memorized the old "i before e except after c" mnemonic device.

Court records show that the teenage Sabatino was living with his father in Boynton Beach, Florida around the time of the November 1994 Shakur shooting. In fact, a 1999 profile ("Con Kid") of Sabatino in Miami New Times opens with a scene from early-November 1994 in Florida. Sabatino, then 18, is masquerading as a Sony Music executive and palling around backstage with Julio Iglesias at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Another "302," which Sabatino included as a motion exhibit in his Combs lawsuit, quotes the FBI's confidential source as saying that they met Combs through Sabatino in late-1991. At the time, Sabatino would have been only 14 or 15. Amazingly, such precociousness on his part went unremarked upon (or unnoticed) by the entertainment press. And to think, just years earlier, music journalists were falling all over themselves to chronicle how Rick Rubin, a relative graybeard at 21, was co-founding Def Jam from his room at NYU's Weinstein dormitory.

In fact, according to a suspect December 30, 2002 FBI report, the confidential source said that Combs even enlisted Sabatino, 18 at the time, to serve as his envoy to "broker a 'peace agreement'" between Combs's firm, Bad Boy Entertainment, and Suge Knight's Death Row Records. Sabatino, apparently the James Baker of b-boys, was sent West because, the FBI source noted, Combs felt he "would hold a little influence over Knight due to Sabatino's father, Peter Sabatino, a/k/a Fat Pete, a member of the Colombo crime family and his relationship with a individual in Las Vegas (NFI)."

After meeting with Knight in California, Sabatino reportedly told the source that the "situation" was resolved, apparently due to the teenager's efforts. But when problems resurfaced later, "the source stated that Sabatino told him that it was all Combs fault and that Combs did not do what he said he would." Here, the negligent FBI agent authoring the report made the mistake of identifying the confidential source's gender through the careless use of the pronoun "him," thus narrowing the field of informant possibilities by half.

While hip-hop chroniclers have never recorded Sabatino's 1995 shuttle diplomacy on Combs's behalf, The New York Times Magazine did report in January 1996 that Combs sent Mustafa Farrakhan to speak with Knight (who refused to meet with the Bad Boy agent). Perhaps Death Row's boss just preferred negotiating with a 5' 5", 220-pound Italian-American kid rather than Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan's son.

The Times reported that Sabatino told Combs and Wallace beforehand about the plot to ambush Shakur at Quad Studios, and that talent manager Jimmy Rosemond, working with Sabatino, was an architect of the assault. Shakur was shot several times during the 1994 attack and was robbed of his jewelry, which reportedly included a $40,000 gold medallion. After the Times story was published, Combs and Rosemond issued statements attacking the paper's reporting and vehemently denied orchestrating the attack on Shakur or knowing about it ahead of time.

It appears that the real purpose of the suspect "302s" is to portray Sabatino as a feared hip-hop figure who muscled and conned rappers into deals. The entertainers were drawn to him "because he is a member of La Cosa Nostra" and such Mafia ties were "glamorized in the Hip Hop world," reported the confidential source. The documents Sabatino supposedly did not want disseminated--but which he himself filed publicly--conferred upon him the kind of rap world status that he has long coveted.

Sabatino has frequently claimed to have managed a number of leading hip-hop acts, including Notorious B.I.G., Lords of the Underground, and Heavy D and the Boyz. Du Kelly, a member of Lords of the Underground, described Sabatino as a "scam artist" who briefly tried to befriend the group's manager. Kelly said that he recalled Sabatino as a "short, Caucasian, little chubby fat guy" whose "father was supposed to be Mafia or something." Sabatino was "just a con artist who tried to get close to artists, but he was a nobody," said Kelly. He added that Sabatino also tried to get near the Wu-Tang Clan, "but I heard they beat him up."

Sabatino's convoluted and bizarre motion to gag Combs, of course, was immediately denied. Judge Stephen T. Brown ruled that the federal inmate's request was moot since the "allegedly confidential documents...are attached to this motion as exhibits." While the prodigious jailhouse litigant surely expected this defeat, he succeeded in drawing attention to the Combs lawsuit, the "302s," and, of course, himself.

But unlike Sabatino's own prior outlandish and unsupported claims about his entertainment industry resume (he once said he regularly consulted with music industry legend Clive Davis and even co-produced Combs's 1997 album "No Way Out"), the information about him in the "302s" came with the shiny imprimatur of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its valuable confidential source, who, the documents noted, "is in a position to testify."

And now The Los Angeles Times has added to the myth, describing "promoter James Sabatino" as a Tupac Shakur antagonist who toured with The Notorious B.I.G. and "became a fixture in Combs's circle...helping him stage lavish parties and land corporate sponsorships."

While Sabatino's "302" gambit might seem inexplicable, especially for someone already in prison (he has a November 2012 release date), it appears fairly typical for a man who has spent most of his adult life behind bars and appears to have little impulse control.

The bizarre story continues...

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter, From P Diddy And His "Girls"

Now If My Man Would Only Marry These Twin's Momma!

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Listen Up Brothers: Talking On That Cell Phone Is Killing Your Sperm Count!

Spending hours on a cell phone each day may affect the quality of a man's sperm, preliminary research suggests. Oh, so that's the deal with Diddy.

In a study of 361 men seen at their infertility clinic, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found an association between the patients' cell phone use and their sperm quality.

On average, the more hours the men spent on their cell phones each day, the lower their sperm count and the greater their percentage of abnormal sperm. Meanwhile, looks like P Diddy's real issue is not making babies. Truth be told, Sean John's just decided to abandoned that burgeoning music career and will focus on his incredible thespian endeavors.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Notorious B.I.G. Movie Cattle Call: The Search for a Big Poppa


When the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. was alive, his career and personal life was a swirl of media attention and controversy.

Now, over ten years after his tragic assassination, the drama continues.

This time it's headed to the big screen--again--but not as a documentary. The life and death of Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie) will be portrayed in a movie entitled "Notorious" by Fox Searchlight.

Diddy is set to executive produce the film. Wallace's mother, Voletta Wallace, and his two former managers, Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts, are producing the movie. The film will be directed by George Tillman Jr. (he directed "Soul Food" and "Men of Honor") Nothing surprising there.

But here's the twist: The role of Notorious B.I.G. will be filled through an open casting call.

This means that the producers will seek its star by auditioning actors and non-actors alike who resemble the rapper. Thus anyone, repeat, ANYONE, can submit audition videos to

Foxlight or Biggie Casting.

Why are they doing this? The producer said, "In the typical Hollywood world, no one came to mind outside of Forest Whitaker who could capture that essence genuinely."

But the film's producers never approached Whitaker because - though he would have been ideal - at 46 years old, Whitaker is more than twice the age Wallace will be for much of the film. Wallace was gunned down at the age of 24 on March 9, 1997, after a music-industry party in Los Angeles.

"We thought it would be best to open it up to the world and . . . give somebody the opportunity to step into his shoes and fulfill their own."

Big boys seeking to play Biggie could line sidewalks for miles. Now THAT'S a cattle call!

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

DIDDY'S EX, KIM PORTER, LOOKING FOR TELEVISION DEAL


Why Else Would She Be Putting Her Business Out In The Street?

Kim Porter has gone on the record with OK! Magazine in a tell all interview about her relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs.

She blasts all the "other women" and even names names: Sienna Miller, Jennifer Lopez and cheating allegations against her Bad Boy CEO ex.

On Diddy: "I'd been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Mr. Combs for about 10 years, and it came to a point where it was time for me to move on with my life. I had invested a lot of time in that relationship, and it wasn't going where it should have been going. So it was time to [end it]. In a relationship, it's important that the people are on the same page at the same time. And we weren't on the same page."

On His Alleged Cheating: "I will never sit here and say that Puffy -- or any man -- is 100 percent faithful. I just don't believe it. Some of you are, but I'm not going to sit here and say that I didn't believe that he cheated on me. I would never say that. I'm aware that he's cheated."

On J-Lo's relationship with Diddy:
"It was an embarrassment. I never thought it was real. I knew what was going on with him. Despite what you see in print and when the cameras are flashing, what's going on in someone's heart may be totally different. He was still [in love] with me. I never looked at their relationship [as serious]."When asked if Sienna Miller played a part in her break up, Porter states: "They're just friends. That wasn't the cause."

Kim, baby, you are sounding a little like Oprah purging. And this is a little too much attention for what most consider a private matter. So me thinks you're trying to pump up your "emotional credibility" for that new talk show.

You readers heard it here first. Good luck Kim!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

USHER'S WEDDING PLANS TOP THE DAY'S NEWS: LEAVE THIS GROWN BLACK MAN ALONE!

NEW! Tameka & Usher Cancel Wedding!

Judge Acquits New Orleans Cop in Videotaped Beating
Diddy Drops New Video That Talks About Kim Porter Video
We Are Really Okay With African American Hotel Ownership
Fiancee Of NY shooting Victim Sean Bell Sues Police
Tony Yayo Rejects Plea Deal In Child Assault Case
Athlete/Businessman Magic Johnson Wins Civil Rights Award
Top-Achieving Black Grads Sought For Milwaukee Jobs
Former Newark Mayor Pleads Not Guilty To Corruption
Tupac Shakur's Estate Moves Against Songs' Sale
Texas Man Who Claims Self-Defense Scheduled To Die

Monday, July 16, 2007

WE KNOW WHITE PARTIES ARE ALL THE RAGE, BUT IS DIDDY TAKING IT LITERALLY?


Newly Single, Daddy Diddy & His Blond Party On in Baltimore... Allegedly!

While Diddy and his Black queen may have parted ways, the split isn't holding the music-fashion-perfume-restuarant mogul down.

Auditoning for the role of the Black Hugh Hefner, Diddy headed down to Baltimore, Maryland, to host the "All White Diddy Affair" at Gardel's Supper Club on Friday night, where he had a constant companion by his side: an unidentified blonde, a partygoer tells PEOPLE.

That's code for White girl, for our new readers!

"They were friendly," says the onlooker.

Meanwhile, mama Porter was at home, with twin baby girls gummin' her lactating teats!

COULD CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS EXCEED A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR?

According to eyewitnesses, Diddy kept a cozy position by homegirl, who wore a sparkly silver minidress and stilettos, on the black leather sofas (no pun intended) of the club's VIP areas much of the time between sipping on $500-a-bottle Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Orange label champagne.

Dressed in white girls, umm... clothes from head-to-toe and signature dark sunglasses, Diddy arrived at the club just after midnight Saturday in one of three black Hummers.

At least the cars served as a reminder!

The "brother" shook a few hands and doled out a hug or two to fans, before he and the rest of his entourage made a beeline to the club's second floor VIP area.

After hanging out there for a tick, Kim Porter's ex then headed to the less-crowded and even more exclusive VIP area on the club's fourth floor, where he again settled in beside the blonde.

By 2 a.m. Diddy, the blonde and the rest of his entourage rolled out.

Interesting!

While we added flava, the original story was by Arnesa A. Howell