Jelly Roll reveals why he bailed on Diddy photo opportunity in 2023
The country artist and Diddy appeared on the same episode of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ last year
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Your support makes all the difference.Country star Jelly Roll has described the time he almost met Sean “Diddy” Combs in the wake of the investigations into the music mogul.
Federal agents with US Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s houses in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March as part of a sex trafficking investigation. The rapper vehemently denies any wrongdoing and described the actions of the agents as a “gross overuse of military-level force”.
While on the CANCELLED With Tana Mongeau podcast last week, Jelly (real name Jason Bradley DeFord) recalled being asked if he wanted to meet Diddy for a photo while the two were appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last October.
“This is the first time in my career, ever, where they said, ‘Do you want to meet such-and-such?’ And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and I started walking that way, and as I was getting down the hallway — this is a true story – I said, ‘Nah,’ and went and got back in the car,” the “Need A Favor” singer said.
Jelly had been asked if he’s ever had a “weird” interaction with another celebrity.
“I don’t know what it was, and I made a joke at first, I was like, ‘Who don’t wanna meet the guy that got Tupac killed?’”
It has long been rumoured that Diddy ordered the hit on Tupac Shakur in 1996 – a theory that Diddy called “nonsense” in a 2016 interview. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was arrested and charged with the murder last year.
“Nobody thought that was funny, so I was like, ‘Ooh that’s a bomb. Maybe I shouldn’t go and do this anyway,’” Jelly continued.
“When we were walking, I was like, I don’t know. Very seldom does things rub me in a way where I was like, ‘I don’t even know if that’s a picture I want.’”
Jelly added that he’s “been in situations” where he’s “ended up in pictures with people I didn’t want to be with” at various events. “Motherf***ers will walk a carpet around the same time. S*** happens,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, y’all get together.’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t really even know who this human is.’”
People magazine has reported that Diddy was unaware of the request to meet Jelly, which may have come from one of Kimmel’s producers.
A month after the two appeared on the late night talk show, Diddy faced the first of five sexual abuse allegations that have been filed against him since.
In November, Combs’s former partner, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a lawsuit in which she claimed she was trafficked, raped and beaten by the rapper on numerous occasions over the course of 10 years.
Ventura’s lawsuit was settled a day after she filed it for an undisclosed amount of money.
Another of Diddy’s accusers is a woman who alleges that he raped her two decades ago, when she was 17 years old.
Combs has denied all the allegations. In a statement in December, he called the claims “sickening” and said his accusers were “looking for a quick payday”.
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