Diddy’s ex-employees added to his public relations nightmare in an exposé published by The Daily Beast. Former staffers at Diddy’s Sean John brand and his defunct advertising agency Blue Flame shared stories of his abusive behavior in the workplace.
The former employees requested anonymity as they still feared retribution from Diddy despite his legal woes. The Bad Boy Records founder is the subject of a federal investigation and faces multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault.
One woman who worked for Sean John recalled Diddy forcefully grabbing her by the face when she disagreed with him about a creative decision. The Hip-Hop mogul claimed he should be treated like fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. He allegedly grasped the woman’s face when she didn’t respond.
“At that point, I didn’t have a response to that, and he reaches out and he grabs my face,” she said. “He puts one hand on both sides of my cheeks and says ‘Stick out your tongue,’ and then he squeezes my face harder and yells at me to stick out my tongue, forces his hands on my face.”
Diddy told the woman he wanted to see if her tongue was bleeding because she was biting it.
“I started looking for a job immediately after that moment,” she said. “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.”
The ex-employees described a toxic work environment in which Diddy verbally abused people and instilled a “culture of fear.” A former Sean John staffer said a company director would leave the building every time Diddy showed up due to their fear of his antics. The same person noted how workers came up with the phrase “catching a brick” to describe Diddy’s rage-fueled targeting of employees.
“It was as if you’re walking down the street and someone randomly threw a brick at your head out of the blue,” the former staffer 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.”
The former employee revealed what happened when he “caught a brick” for the first time.
“I was surrounded by security guards, [who] rushed over—while [Diddy’s] six inches from my face, screaming at me, telling me I f##### up,” the person said.
A former Blue Flame worker reiterated many of the Sean John staff’s allegations while emphasizing Diddy’s mistreatment of women. She mentioned how his female assistants felt the need to warn newcomers.
“Everyone was kind of cautioned that, ‘Oh, he might say something weird or something off,’ but were told they should ‘just turn the other way,’” she said. “His assistants and representatives would be like, ‘We just keep it moving.’ He has so many assistants, I can’t remember who they all were.”
Surveillance footage of Diddy assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassie surfaced in May. Rolling Stone also ran a story detailing his alleged history of violence, which dates back to his time in college. Federal investigators are reportedly preparing to bring his accusers in front of a grand jury soon, paving the way for a potential indictment.