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While Sean P Diddy Combs lies in jail, awaiting trial for the harrowing charges against him, his past has been catching up with him amid the ongoing drama and controversy. Even though the events post the Cassie Ventura lawsuit are the biggest conspiracy regarding the music mogul, his first taste of controversy happened more than 30 years ago.
When he was still building his rep, the rapper collaborated on a charity basketball game at New York City’s City College that led to a deadly stampede. So while he did pay money to the victims, the rapper never apologized.
Diddy’s earliest controversy: the City College stampede of 1991
Over three decades ago, whileDiddywas working at Uptown Records, he collaborated with rapper Heavy D for a charity basketball game at City College. Held on July 27, 2025, the event soon turned deadly since there was not enough space but more than twice as many people.
The details of the stampede are revisited in the recently released Peacock documentary,Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy. Capable of fitting only 2,730 people, on the day of the event there were more than 5,000 attendees present and many outside the gymnasium who couldn’t get in.
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Desperate to see the game, fans rushed inside and down a staircase into the gymnasium only to get stuck there since the doors opened inward instead of outward. There 29 people, mostly teenagers were crushed while piled on top of each other, and 9 youngsters lost their lives.
Just 22 himself, it was Diddy’s first brush with scandal but he did not have the courage to face the families. Even though there were scores of civil lawsuits and he was accused of promoting the event as though there would be a 10,000 people capacity, overselling the tickets, and not hiring enough security, he faced no criminal charges.
Diddy never apologized for the City College Stampede
The latest documentary,Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boyreveals in extensive detail what happened after the tragedy, featuring interviews from those present there as well as from the families of the victims. While one of the rapper’s childhood friends, Lee Davis stated that the rapper was running around and helping people, giving them CPR, Diddy’s then bodyguardGene Deal stated that never happened.
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No criminal charges were filed against the rapper, but he and Heavy D were held responsible for 50 percent and the college for the other half. Meanwhile, Diddy never formally apologized for the event. Jason Swain, who lost his brother in the stampede remarked in the documentary,
All families settled and were given a settlement amount. We got $40,000 from Sean Combs directly. But he never owned up to it, never just said, ‘I apologize.’ There’s a clip of him saying that it wasn’t overbooked. … That’s a blatant lie. His image is important to him. The lies go back to City College.
Meanwhile, Diddy never owned up to any responsibility for the event but rather claimed in court at that time that City College was responsible for the security at the event and that he was just sorry for being the promoter of the event. In 1998, while testifying against the college during that deadly night, Combs revealed that the event was something he dealt with every day of his life (viaThe New York Times).
Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boyis available to be streamed on Peacock.
Maria Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2703
Maria Sultan is a dedicated News Content Writer at FandomWire. With over five years of professional experience and hundreds of published articles, she brings a wealth of expertise to her coverage of Marvel, K-dramas, and the latest on streaming platforms.Her work is not just about reporting news; it’s about providing insightful perspectives on the entertainment trends that matter most.
