The New York Times got up with Sean “Diddy” Combs this past week for an exclusive interview in which they the publication got him to reflect on the typical Bad Boy Legacy/ shiny suits era/ all white parties legacy that precedes him. And just as usual came the questions on his politics, which in relative terms have followed him around nearly as prevalently as they do Russell Simmons in recent times.
The past year in politics has been anything but usual with the rise of Donald Trump to the seat of the Presidency. The Times reporter drew Diddy into the topic of politics by recalling his heavy involvement in the Rock The Vote initiative of the mid-2000’s, during which his face was plastered everywhere, along with the slogan, “Vote or die.” The entertainer/executive/entrepreneur has since fallen back from promoting the ballot to the degree he did at the time, which he attributes to the failure of candidates to have earned his faith.
“There was nobody I wanted to support. Nobody understands the state of emergency that’s going on in black America,” Diddy responded when asked why he was absent during the 2016 election cycle. “I just really got turned off by politics.”
