Ice Cube says he never attended parties that federal authorities say Sean “Diddy” Combs hosted that included sexual displays called “Freak Offs.”
The 55-year-old rapper and actor distanced himself from Combs, 54, who remains jailed following his arrest a week ago on sex trafficking allegations, while performing at the Yaamava Theater in Highland, California, on Sunday.
Ice Cube, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, told concertgoers: “Almost 40 years of playing the mic, and I’m telling you right now: me and (fellow rapper) WC ain’t never been to a Diddy party, motherf***er.”
The Los Angeles native assured his fans: “You don’t have to worry about us on those damn tapes.”
The Boyz n the Hood star previously spoke about the issue in July on the PBD Podcastas he said at the time that he felt Combs “was being targeted” following raids on several properties the rapper owned last March.
Ice Cube, 55, says he never attended the parties that federal authorities said Sean “Diddy” Combs hosted, which included sexual displays dubbed “Freak Offs.” Pictured in 2021 in Los Angeles
The 55-year-old rapper and actor distanced himself from Combs, 54, while performing at the Yaamava Theater in Highland, California, on Sunday.
“I think someone had the power to pull the trigger to do this – this domino effect happened,” Ice Cube said.
Last week, Combs pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges.
In an indictment, authorities said the rap mogul had abused, threatened and coerced women “to satisfy his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct,” with allegations dating back to 2008.
Combs twice attempted to obtain bail after his arrest, but was ordered to remain in custody at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
If convicted, Combs faces at least 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Combs faced another lawsuit Tuesday, when a woman named Thalia Graves said the music mogul and his security chief raped and videotaped her at his New York recording studio in 2001.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, the latest of several similar lawsuits against Combs, comes a week after he was arrested and a federal sex trafficking charge was unsealed.
Thalia Graves claims that when she was 25 and dating an executive who worked for Combs in the summer of 2001, Combs and Joseph Sherman convinced her to go to a meeting at Bad Boy Recording Studios. She said they picked her up in a van and gave her a drink “probably laced with a drug” during the ride.
Ice Cube, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, told concertgoers: “Almost 40 years of playing the mic, and I’m telling you right now: me and (fellow rapper) WC ain’t never been to a Diddy party, motherf***er.”
The Los Angeles native reassured his fans: “You don’t have to worry about us on those damn tapes.” Photographed in Los Angeles in 2022
Last week, Combs pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit federal crimes. Photographed in New York in 2018.
According to the suit, Graves lost consciousness and woke up tied up inside Combs’ office and living room at the studio. The two men raped her, slapped her, slammed her head against a pool table and ignored her screams and cries for help, according to the suit.
At a news conference in Los Angeles with one of his attorneys, Gloria Allred, Graves said he has suffered “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive thoughts” in the years since.
“I’ve found it difficult to trust others to form healthy relationships or even feel safe in my own skin,” Graves said, crying as she read a statement.
She said it’s “a pain that reaches deep into your being and leaves emotional scars that may never fully heal.”
Her representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the latest lawsuit. Neither the lawsuit nor representatives for Combs immediately indicated whether Sherman had independent counsel who could comment on the allegations.
The lawsuit was filed under New York City’s Gender-Based Violence Victims Protection Act, and comes during a two-year period that suspends legal deadlines and allows sexual assault victims to sue for abuse that would otherwise be too old to report.
Allred declined to say whether her client had spoken to investigators in Combs’ criminal case. The indictment in that case only mentions allegations dating back to 2008.
Graves’ lawsuit also alleges that late last year, after Combs’ former protégé and girlfriend Cassie filed a lawsuit that started the wave of allegations against him, Graves learned through her ex-boyfriend that Combs had recorded her rape, shown it to others and sold it as pornography.
Combs faced another lawsuit on Tuesday, when a woman named Thalia Graves claimed the music mogul and his head of security raped and videotaped her at his New York recording studio in 2001.
At a news conference in Los Angeles with one of his attorneys, Gloria Allred, Graves said he has suffered “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive thoughts” in the years since
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually abused unless they go public, as Graves and Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, have done.
Graves’ lawsuit claims that both Combs and Sherman contacted her multiple times in the years after the assault, threatening her with retaliation if she told anyone what had happened to her. At the time, she was in a divorce and custody fight and feared losing her young son if she revealed anything, the suit says.
Graves said at the news conference that the guilt and shame that came with it “often made me feel worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”
The suit asks that damages be awarded at trial and that all copies of the video be accounted for and destroyed.
The suit also names as defendants several companies owned by Combs, the three-time Grammy winner and founder of Bad Boy Records who was one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.
