Dancehall’s ‘Energy Gad’ Elephant Man was the ultimate vibe-master in his heyday, but you could never catch him at a Diddy party.
The Hip-Hop mogul is facing a slew of civil lawsuits centering on sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and rape. Several of the lawsuits place the allegations at “freak-off” parties held by Diddy. In their own cases, Diddy’s ex-Cassie and producer Lil Rod described these events as opportunities to secretly record high-profile guests in compromising acts for the purpose of blackmail.
Diddy, whose aliases include Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, and Love, has denied all allegations and has not been charged.
Ele was briefly signed to his Bad Boy Entertainment from 2006 to 2009, and says he never attended any of the parties.
“It never so deep fi me go over Puffy side fi, like, party – no,” he reasoned with peer Noah Powa on Instagram Live on Monday. “Memba a me seh Queens; we deh at all of the parties inna Queens…so we never ketch none a dah party something deh wid Diddy.”
He argued that had he been present, there’d be digital proof.
“First of all, if we deh a party, yuh know everybody a go see that and that a go post. Differently, if we’d even go party, we nuh care weh dem a do round a fi dem side. But no, we never go no party… I see him keep one wid a big bed inna the yard, ah never ketch none a dem.”
The story goes that Ele was about to hit the stage at Hot 97’s On Da Reggae Tip in 2005 when he was told that Diddy wanted to sign him. The acclaimed producer had previously seen him in action at Madison Square Garden in New York with Usher.
“Mi a seh a weh dah man yah a talk bout? Weh yuh mean? … Mi seh alright, watch me and him… I called P. Diddy on the stage and gave him a big giant mampy… Me bring him down to our thing, give him likkle roughness.”
Evidently, Diddy liked it and partnered with VP Records to distribute and market all things, Ele.
“When Puffy sign me…me carry the whole of my friend dem from dancehall over deh cause I had a studio for myself where a deh so me a do my productions.”
The fruit of their labor was Elephant Man’s Grammy-nominated album Let’s Get Physical, which featured tracks like Feel the Steam with Chris Brown, Throw Your Hands Up with Rihanna and Five-O featuring Wyclef Jean and Diddy. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart and No. 38 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
“Big up P. Diddy said way… I don’t business wid weh him did a do or weh him inna. I just hope fada God help him out… When I did that album for him, Let’s Get Physical, that’s the first Grammy-nominated album for O’Neil Bryan (me)… Nuff people never ‘member seh mi did nominate fi Grammy with that album Let’s Get Physical for Bad Boys.”
Despite his well-wishes for the embattled “bad boy,” Ele is making his stance known about his former label head in his new release Nuh Shaky.