April 07, 2008

Diddy Talks About L.A. Times' Tupac Story: 'It Just Really Hurt'

By Jayson Rodriguez, with reporting by Sway J. Calloway (MTV.com)

The Los Angeles Times apologized to Diddy and others for Chuck Philips' recent story suggesting that the Bad Boy CEO had advance knowledge of a plan to ambush Tupac Shakur in 1994 - an assertion Philips and the paper have since backed away from.

Still, Diddy said the ordeal hurt his feelings.

"I've been through so much; hip-hop has been through so much; Biggie's, Tupac's [families] have been through so much," he told MTV News at the Blender Theater on Thursday evening, before a showcase for his newest protégé Janelle Monae. "To rehash the lies and just rumors like that, I didn't understand where that was coming from. I knew that I would never - me and Biggie would never be involved, or even have any knowledge of that. Because if we have knowledge of something, we the type of people that's gonna warn somebody, we're gonna tell somebody. It just really hurt."

Diddy admitted he was grateful for was the timely fashion in which the story was debunked. He said he was frustrated that he'd been working to proclaim his innocence, and that one article could change things so quickly. But he said he fell back on some advice his grandmother had given him.

"Just knowing how people in this day and age, what they read online and what they see in the papers, they just take it as fact," Diddy explained. "It's like, come on, I been working so hard to rise above all of this stuff, and to see it now trying to pull me back down.

"[But] I stayed focused," he continued. "I was still. My grandmother told me, 'Be still.' No matter what it feels like, be still. And I was still and then the truth came out the way it was to come out. I didn't jump up and down about it. I let them give the apology and let people go back to the things they need to be focusing on about me, which is the #1 albums I'm dropping with Danity Kane and Day26, #1 fragrances, Janelle Monae, making this black history. And that's what it's about. But it's important to really deal with things however they come at you. And I've always done that my whole life and just always told the truth."

Unlike Jimmy Rosemond, who was accused in Philips' story of being a mastermind behind the Shakur ambush, Diddy isn't calling for the Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer to be fired.

"It's so ridiculous for me, I'm not even giving no energy to it," Diddy said. "I don't wish anybody no ill will. I'm just glad the truth came out. I can't even really justify it with no more energy, so I don't even wanna talk about it no more.

"I don't know what I'll do [as far as legal action]; I can't say what I'll do," he finished. "I'm just moving on."