The new documentary Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy features interviews with people who knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a young man, and some of them offered theories about how he became the person he is now.
Tim Patterson, who grew up with Diddy, 55, in Mount Vernon, New York, drew a clear line between the man born as Sean Combs and the one who became known as Puffy, Brother Love and other names.
“I know Sean, not Diddy, not Daddy Love. I don’t know those people, I don’t know them, I swear I don’t know them, I never met those people,” Patterson said in the film, which premieres on Peacock Tuesday, January 14. “I have to tell people about what they don’t know about his childhood.”
Ron Lawrence, who was the rapper’s classmate at Howard University, said that Diddy always knew he wanted to work in the music business, even at a young age. (He dropped out of college after his second year.)
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“He would tell you that ‘I’m gonna be the biggest record producer in the world,’” Lawrence recalled. “He already knew what he wanted at Howard University.”
Now, however, Diddy’s legacy has been tarnished by his September 2024 arrest on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied the allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“This documentary recycles and perpetuates the same lies and conspiracy theories that have been slung against Mr. Combs for months,” a rep for the mogul told Us Weekly ahead of the film’s release. “It is disappointing to see NBC and Peacock rolling in the same mud as unethical tabloid reporters. By providing a platform for proven liars and opportunists to make false criminal accusations, the documentary is irresponsible journalism of the worst kind.”
Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy premieres on Peacock Tuesday, January 14. Keep reading for the biggest revelations about Diddy’s youth from Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.
His Father Died Young
When Diddy was a toddler, his father, Melvin Combs, was shot dead while sitting in his car in New York City. “Sean had to learn about his dad through other fellas that came up during that time,” Patterson recalled, adding that he didn’t know how Melvin died.
According to Diddy’s former bodyguard Gene Deal, however, Melvin’s death wasn’t a random act of violence. “His father sold [drugs] to an undercover cop, to a New York City police officer, and he gave the cop information,” Deal alleged in the documentary. “His father was killed because he was ratting them out.”
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Gucci Watches and Private School
Patterson claimed that Diddy’s mother, Janice Combs, inherited money after her husband’s death, which allowed her and her kids to move to a nicer neighborhood in Mount Vernon. “I look at him like, ‘Oh, my God, this guy is different,’” Patterson said, reflecting on a photo of himself and Diddy as kids. “He’s the one in the hat. You can see he has jewelry on, he has rings on, he has bracelets on. This is a 4-year-old in a 30-year-old’s wardrobe.”
Rich Parker, another friend, recalled Diddy always being dressed to the nines, even as a kid. “He was part of a dance and fashion crew called 7 Up Crew,” he explained. “Those people would go throughout New York City, battle people in dancing, fashion. He also was one of the first kids I knew that had, like, a Gucci watch.”
Lee Davis (a.k.a. DJ EZ Lee) said that he met Diddy in Little League but knew he went to private school. “He had all the best of everything,” Patterson explained. “This kid is rich, he was looked at as the rich kid.”
‘Always Bullied’
According to Patterson, Diddy’s wealth made him a target of grade school bullies. “Sean was the different kid,” he alleged. “Sean was the kid that people could smell was not tough. Sean was always bullied.”
Deal claimed that Diddy initially had a hard time fitting in and was roughed up by guys from his Same Gang crew who didn’t like that the young Combs wasn’t from Harlem. After that incident, however, Deal noted, “Puff was in the Same Gang.”
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His Mom’s Parties
As an adult, Diddy gained a reputation for throwing wild, lavish parties, and Patterson believes he inherited that trait from Janice. “Because Sean had no dad, all he had was his mom. Sean’s house, our house, there was always things going on,” Patterson claimed. “On the weekend, you partied in the house, and we did that a lot. He was around all type of alcohol, he was around reefer smoke. He was around drug addicts, around lesbians, around homosexuals, he was around pimps and pushers. That was just who was in our house.”
Patterson went on to allege that it wasn’t difficult to find people hooking up in the home. “At night, it wouldn’t be a thing to mistakenly walk into one of the bedrooms and you got a couple in there butt naked,” he claimed. “That’s what we were privy to. This is what we were fed. Was it desensitizing us? I’m sure it was. Were we aware of it? No. That was just Saturday night.”
Davis, for his part, said he never attended a party hosted by Janice but heard stories about them. “She had, like, a little crew of chicks that would come around, and she made sure everybody was comfortable,” he recalled.
Producers noted that Janice did not respond to their request for comment.
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Hustling to Get a Job
Before his career began in earnest, Diddy did everything he could to get on the radar of employees at Uptown Records, which was founded in 1986 by Andre Harrell. “Sean would show up in the weirdest places — at Heavy D’s doorstep, he’d show up at Uptown, he’d show up at parties,” Patterson said. “Anything to get the attention of the bigwigs.”
Parker claimed that he heard a young Diddy once slept outside of Harrell’s car in order to get his attention. Eventually, that effort paid off, because by 1990 he’d landed an internship.
