 Yesterday we reported how Puff Daddy was arrested early Monday morning along with his girl Jennifer Lopez and two other individuals after police found a stolen gun in his car... According to the initial police reports, Puffy was stopped after his car was seen leaving the scene of a shooting at a New York night club. Supposedly there are witnesses who are claiming that Puff fired the gun after some sort of argument with patrons. When I first heard this I immediately thought to myself that this sounded like the early stories surrounding Jay-Z . Hence I wasn't too quick to jump to conclusions. For folks aren't in the know, NYPD supposedly had 30 witnesses stating that Jay Z stabbed fellow record executive Lance Un Rivera.. That story made front page headlines until Jay- Z noted that he had a video tape.. I haven't heard anything sense.. I was hoping to see a similar scenario involving Puffy. Initially the police were claiming that Puffy's car ran a red light before being stopped. They felt he and his entourage were fleeing the shooting at a New York night club called Club NY. Upon the stop police discovered the unregistered gun which was supposedly stolen from Georgia. None of the four people in the car, which included a driver, Puffy's body guard, Puff himself and Jennifer Lopez claimed responsibility or ownership, hence everyone was arrested. Puffy and Lopez were held in jail and questioned for more then 14 hours. Now the shooting that took place at the night club, left two men and a woman injured-non seriously. Puffy's new artist Shyne was also arrested outside the club and charged with 3 counts of attempted murder. According to the most recent police reports, an altercations kicked off when a group of club goers began 'playa hating on Puffy and his crew. Words were exchanged and some one from the rival group pulled out a wad of money and tossed it in Puffy's face and yelled 'You ain't the only one in this place with money'. A fight ensued and police state that Shyne began shooting at folks resulting in the three injuries. He was later arrested and outside the club. Then gun possession charges that were levied against Lopez have since been released and she's been completely exonerated of all charges. Her PR person released a statement which read as follows:
PR 12/27 1803 Jennifer Lopez is Released on All Charges, ... Puff has also maintained his innocence and insists that he will be cleared of all charges within the next few days. He said in his press conference that he does not own a gun. He was simply a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He will have to appear in court on Valentines Day. Puff's lawyer was quick to jump on the press, and told folks not to believe everything you read and hear in the news. He felt that Puffy was being unfairly maligned and a victim of bad luck. He also noted that Puff is a good friend and an very intelligent person. As I said earlier, I really do hope this whole matter can get cleared up. Initially all this drama didn't smell right especially with this coming at the heels of Jay-Z's recent arrest. However, if this latest scenario was a thing of folks playa hating on Puff as was implied, he may want to seriously take a long hard look at the way he's carrying himself. I hate to say it but he appears to consistently be in the midst of some sort of craziness.. There are at least 4 major incidents that I can think of that have involved Puff. We can start off with the huge 'celebrity basketball' fiasco at City College which led to the trampling death of 9 people back in 1991. Puff along with Heavy D was the promoter of an over sold event where all hell broke loose after folks tried rushing the door. Puff was sued by the families for the CCNY event. He steadfastly maintained his innocence and apologized to the families. The next involved the 1995 shooting death of Jake Robles who was a close friend to Death Row's CEO, Suge Knight. An altercation took place at an after party for Jermaine Dupri in Atlanta. Robles wound up being killed and local newspaper as well as Suge began pointing fingers at Puff and his crew. Reports said the trigger man was either a cousin or bodyguard to Puff. There were accusations made by Suge against Puffy that he was trying to have him ambushed. Robles was seen as someone who took a bullet on Suge's behalf. Again Puff maintained his innocence. The next highly publicized event came when 2Pac got ambushed and shot five times in the lobby of a recording studio in New York. After he recovered 2Pac publicly accused Puff and his camp which included Biggie and Andre Harrell of being the masterminds behind the assault. In a letter that was sent to Vibe Magazine, Puffy again denied involvement. But as we all know, the Robles and Pac incidents were central in Hip Hop's East/West Coast dispute.. The most noted incident to date involved this year's assault on record promoter Steve Stout. Here Puff couldn't deny involvement because he was caught on video tape. He was charged with assault and had those charges dropped to harassment and was sentenced to anger management classes. Again Puff came forth and offered up his regrets... I'm not sure if there were minor incidents.. I recall what went down this summer when Puff visited a local Bay Area radio station. The on air deejays accused Puff of threatening them after they questioned him about the lack of west coast artists being played on New York radio stations. In this case many saw Puff as being unfairly questioned. However, as Puff was leaving some concerns were raised because a receptionist saw him in possession of a gun. The weapon was never brandished during the argument with the deejays. The other scenario that comes to mind involves the near fight that Puff had about a month ago while attending a music awards show in Ireland.. In addition to all this Puff had to deal with some public misgivings expressed by the Lox who wanted to be released from the label. They made their dissatisfaction with Puff headline news. Remember earlier this summer when the Ruff Ryders Crew came on stage during Hot 97's Summer jam concert wearing shirts that read 'Free the Lox'? Now I understand that once one becomes famous there is a lot of hating that goes on..especially in the music business. People will frequently target you. I would love to give Puff the benefit of the doubt. It does seem fashionable to hate him these days. But there is no denying, he seems to be attracting a lot of drama. Is it because of his visibility and folks are just jealous? Or is there something more to it? What are your thoughts on this? Hit me up mailto:kingdave@sirius.com
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