After it was reported earlier this week that “Me & U” singer Cassie had filed a lawsuit against producer and label owner Sean “Diddy” Combs alleging abuse and sexual assault, one of Diddy’s former Bad Boy artists has spoken up in support of her.
Aubrey O’Day, formerly of the girl group Danity Kane, posted on her Instagram Story, “Been trynna tell y’all for years. Prayers up for this queen.”
Former Danity Kane singer and Bad Boy artist Aubrey O’Day has shared support for Cassie after she filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against Diddy. pic.twitter.com/ndjNPWWj19
— Complex (@Complex) November 17, 2023
O’Day has gone on record several times about Diddy’s handling of the group and its formation on the show Making The Band, telling Vulture in 2019, “Puff is a very difficult person to work with. Everything had to be perfect. I remember times where he looked at my toenails and was like, ‘What is your third toenail doing? Go get that sh*t fixed before you walk into a room.’ Or we would be in rehearsals performing an hour-and-a-half set over and over and he would walk in for five minutes with a camera and say, ‘Aubrey, why are you sweating? You look like a wet dog. You’re the hot one, so do you think anyone wants to see that?’ … I experienced everything from race [remarks] to sexism and a lot of it was scary.”
Although O’Day expressed hope that the music mogul had grown from his time as her mentor, she also noted that the problems with sexism in the music industry go way beyond Diddy. More recently, she also said that Diddy’s recently relinquishing former artists’ publishing came with strings attached — namely, that those artists would have to sign NDAs promising to “never disparage Puff, Bad Boy, Janice Combs, Justin Combs Music, EMI, or Sony ever in public.”
Meanwhile, Diddy is currently under investigation by the NYPD, although it’s unclear whether it’s connected to the lawsuit.