On Monday, May 20, 2024, Grammy-nominated musician and It Is What It Is Host Cam’ron Giles appeared on CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip. The host planned to discuss recently released footage of Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, but things quickly went off the rails.
“Thanks for being here. First, when you saw that video of Diddy [and] Cassie in that hotel, did you recognize that Sean Combs?”
“Everything in the video was egregious. I’m against. I don’t support all of the charges that are alleged against him. I don’t support any of that. Trafficking minors [and] domestic violence, I’m totally against it. So, when I saw the video, I was kind of upset with it,” Cam’ron answered.
After the rapper turned sports talk show host answered the question, Phillip followed up with an identical question. However, the Harlem native maintains that while he knows Combs, he’s “not necessarily a friend” of his.
“What do you mean do I be recognize—did I recognize him?” he responded when Phillip followed up with an identical question.
“I seen him. What do you mean my ‘experiences’? I seen him, and I thought it was disgusting. I didn’t do a zoom-in to see if it was really him or nothing. But he admitted it was him, so, yeah, it was him.”
Eventually, the conversation shifted toward the apology Diddy issued once the video was obtained and published by CNN. When asked how he felt about the video, Cam’ron said, “You need to ask Cassie if she accepts the apology.” The interview went further off the tracks when Phillip shifted to a clip from a 2023 episode of It Is What It Is in which Cam’ron asks his co-host and former Bad Boy Records signee Mase why he took him to meet Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace and not Bad Boy label head Combs. Mase told him that Biggie was a “good friend” who would “do right” by him.
“Can you tell us a little bit more about that?” Phillip asked.
“Sorry, I’m gonna get some cheeks after this Horse Power joint,” Cam’ron said as he promoted Pink Horse Power supplements.
“I can’t really tell you how Puff moves or anything like that,” he continued.
Ultimately, Phillip concluded the interview by asking, “So many people have pointed out that Diddy couldn’t get away with this stuff if there weren’t a lot of people protecting him. Do you think that’s the case?”
“Who the talent agent for this joint?” Cam’ron answered.
“You think I be sitting around watching what Diddy do and all this? I didn’t know this was a Diddy joint that y’all invited me to.”
Hours after the interview concluded, Cam’ron appeared alongside Mase and Treasure Wilson for an episode of It Is What It Is.
“They invited me on the show to talk about what’s going on with Diddy and all of that. Mase, my thing about it was that they didn’t invite me on to talk about how successful our show is or the positive stuff we do in the community,” he told his co-host.
"You call me on CNN for the bullsh*t," Cam'ron reacts to his CNN interview, and Mase reveals there is a documentary coming soon where he will share his take on the Diddy/Cassie situation.
(? It is What It is/YouTube) pic.twitter.com/y4Ih7nzBnM
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) May 21, 2024
