Ghostface Killah revealed that Diddy helped block the Wu-Tang Clan from getting radio play around the release of their second studio album, Wu-Tang Forever.
While recalling Wu-Tang’s 1997 tour with Rage Against the Machine, which the group left early, Ghostface said Diddy played a role in shutting them out of radio that same year.
“We left that tour, and it was messed up because we had to make a decision,” he explained in an interview on The Bootleg Kev Podcast. “Like, come back to your people over here, or stay over here and get big with these guys… We left.”
Hot 97 blacklisted Wu-Tang after Ghostface led a “fu*k Hot 97” chant during their Summer Jam performance that year.
“When we left and did the Hot 97… sh*t was a disaster,” Ghostface recalled. “They cut our records off that day, they didn’t play no Wu shit no more. That’s when Puffy was really getting on his shit, know what I mean? … It just wasn’t the same no more… I cursed them n***as out.”
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Diddy vs the World
Ghostface said he only learned recently that Diddy was partly responsible for that Hot 97 blacklisting.
Afterwards, Diddy rose to power in the Bad Boy “shiny suit” era after Biggie’s death. “RZA told me this maybe a year ago and said like, ‘Yo, Puff admitted to saying that he stopped our records up there,’” Ghostface revealed.
“So it was all Bad Boy. We dropped ‘Triumph,’ no radio play with that sh*t. So it came out that he told the truth, like, ‘Yo, I had to do it.’ He had the power. I don’t know what he paid ’em, but he had the power.”
No Beef
The Wu-Tang Clan and Diddy never engaged in an outright beef, but tension lingered between them.
The only public sign of tension between Diddy and Wu-Tang came at the 1998 Grammy Awards, when Ol’ Dirty Bastard stormed the stage. The late rapper interrupted Shawn Colvin’s acceptance speech for Song of the Year to protest Diddy winning Best Rap Album over Wu-Tang.
“Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best,” he declared. “I want you all to know that this is ODB, and I love you all.”
As for Diddy and his trial, freedom remains elusive. Earlier this month, Judge Arun Subramanian denied the hip-hop mogul’s bid for release, dealing another blow to the Bad Boy founder. There is also a possibility of a full presidential pardon from Donald Trump before the music mogul receives his sentence later this year.
