Incarcerated former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has urged Sean "Diddy" Combs to stand up and defend himself in court.
Suge, 60, the founder of Death Row Records and a long-time rival of Diddy, 55, said the accused rapper should try to “humanize” himself by taking the stand and try to convince the jury to “give him a shot” amid his ongoing sex trafficking trial.
Combs is facing sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy charges after he was arrested in September last year on allegations of threatening to abuse and coerce victims “to fulfill his sexual desires” between 2004 and 2024.
He has denied all accusations of wrongdoing.
Speaking to CNN in a recent phone interview, Knight said: “I feel if he does tell his truth, he really would walk.”
“If Puffy goes up there and says, ‘Hey … I did all the drugs, I wasn’t in control of my life at the time, or myself’ – he can humanize his old self and the jury might give him a shot”, Knight added.
However, it is unclear if Combs will testify during the trial, which is expected to last for at least five weeks. It was initially expected to last around eight weeks, ending on or around July 4.
“If they keep him sitting down, it’s like he’s scared to face the music.
“He should just have his faith in God, put up his pants, and go up there and tell his truth,” he continued.
Combs' former assistant, “Mia,” testified in court Thursday, telling jurors that her then-boss tormented her with degrading assaults that included sexual abuse. She also claimed that she would set up and clean hotel rooms following the alleged “freak-offs”, testifying they could be covered in substances that included candle wax, water, and even blood.
In the 1990s, Knight and Combs were embroiled in an infamous feud that coincided with the growing popularity of hip-hop and rap across the country.
As the popularity of the genre surged, so did the rivalry between certain rap artists, the most famous of which was the war between the East and West Coasts.
The feud essentially boiled down to various disputes between Combs’ Bad Boy Records in New York City, which counted the Notorious B.I.G. as its star, and Knight’s Death Row Records in Los Angeles, which counted 2Pac and Snoop Dogg on its roster.
Bad Boy were accused of authorities of using the street gang the Crips as security, whereas the Death Row were accused of having ties to the rival Bloods.
The battle reached a chilling peak when 2Pac and the Notorious B.I.G. were shot and killed within months of each other. Knight had been driving the car in which the former was killed in Las Vegas in 1996.
Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2018 for an unrelated incident involving a hit-and-run on the set of the movie “Straight Outta Compton” in 2015. The former record label founder pleaded no contest to manslaughter in connection with the death of Terry Carter.
Days ahead of his comments to CNN, Knight told Chris Cuomo on his show, Cuomo, that Diddy “should definitely walk free".
The Independent contacted Knight’s representative for comment.
