Looks like Rocky 'Puff Daddy' Combs is in some more drama. The first involves him not participating in the Essence Music Awards as originally planned. Reports are circulating that state the organizers had uninvited Puff to show up and do a song with Faith Evans..They were concerned that Puff was not a good role model. According to Lee Bailey's EUR Report, it was Sean himself who decided to pull out of the event because he didn't want to detract from an otherwise positive event. In any case, he won't be hanging out with Faith and doing his thing at the Essence awards.

Mr Puff is dealing with some other drama, in the form of Steve Stout, the man he assaulted. Sean has reportedly offered Stoute 2 million bucks and Stoute has turned it down. He plans to go on with his lawsuit and not drop the charges. If convicted Puff can get 7 years. And if that's not enough, the IRS is hounding Puff about the amount of money and time he's donated to his non-profit organization Daddy's House. Let's hope Puff is able to pull himself out of all the mess that's swirling around him..

On a personal tip, I think it's high time that we start demanding certain standards from our heroes and sheroes. This is not to pick on Puff, but far too often we get folks who do some off color things and we kind of overlook them and pay tribute to them. A lot of times people will make the claim that it's their personal life and we don't have a right to judge. Unfortunately we are judging and we are being judged. I think it's appropriate to send a strong message out to entertainers that state if you dishonor yourself you dishonor the community and we don't wanna pay you any sort of tribute. In other words take away the social rewards for ill behavior. This extends beyond Puffy. It applies to the Darryl Strawberrys, the guys who beat their wives or the numerous ball players who don't take care of their kids. If we as adults who know better, keep supporting and honoring those who continuously do foul things, what sort of message are we sending to our kids as well as to the rest of society? My guess is that Puff will be vindicated because there are some powerful folks in this industry who don't want to see this cash cow removed. Somehow, someway, a deal will be cut with Stoute and Puff will be spared, but at what price? No, I don't wanna see the brother go to jail or anything like that.. I'm just pointing out how we will excuse bad behavior in the interest of making money.

Finally, folks may wanna be aware that Sean is in the process of dropping a brand new song which is a remake of the classic Public Enemy jam entitled 'Public Enemy #1'. The version I heard had Lil Kim on it and to be honest I wasn't feeling it too much. Neither were the folks in attendence at the Next Level Seminar Hip Hop Conference. He's supposed to be getting Chuck D and maybe Kool Moe Dee to lace vocals on the remix.. We'll keep you posted on how this develops..