Puffy Speaks Out About Nightclub Incident

Sean "Puffy" Combs sat down with the New York Daily News' Rush and Molloy in an interview published Dec. 21. The interview marks the first time the rapper/producer has addressed the Dec. 27, 1999 nightclub incident in which three people were shot, for which he stands trial on weapons possession and bribery charges.

Combs told the Daily News that he arrived at the club in a limousine, but in the panic to flee after shots were fired he and girlfriend Jennifer Lopez hopped into the infamous Lincoln Navigator that belonged to his company. Combs claims that he had no idea that there was an unlicensed gun in the vehicle. "If I do something wrong, I'm going to step up to it," Combs said in the interview. "If I was in possession of a firearm and I made that mistake, I would go to the DA's office or the judge and say I had a gun and I just wanna resolve the situation."

Though Combs faces up to fifteen years in prison if convicted of the weapons possession charges, he said that he was certain he would receive a fair trial and would be vindicated. During the interview he also deflected attention from himself, expressing concern for the victims of the shooting, and for his three sons, who he says have been exposed to all of the media reports stemming from the incident. "I try to teach them that this is a part of life," he said. "Every day is not going to be sunny. It has to make us stronger and bring us closer together."

Combs is due to appear in a New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Jan. 5 before Judge Charles Solomon. His bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones and rapper/protégé Jamal "Shyne" Barrow will also be in attendance to be tried on charges of weapons possession and attempted murder, respectively.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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