Imagine reading the memoirs of P Diddy. What a cracking read that would be. Full of all kinds of spiffy tales about guns and pimps and hoes and J-Lo and falling off his motorbike and things.
That’s what Random House thought at least, when it paid Diddy a $325,000 advance to write his life story, anyway. But then, in true hiphop gangsta style, he didn’t bother to write anything at all.
It all got a bit nasty with courts getting involved and whatnot. But now P Diddy’s book lawsuit has been settled. Sadly though, not settled by an old-school rhyming battle. That would have been brilliant.
In 1998, P Diddy (CDs) – then going by the equally stupid name Puff Daddy –
signed with Random House in a deal to produce the rapper’s memoirs in
collaboration with a writer named Mikal Gilmore. The promised manuscript was due in
December 1999, but was never submitted.
Rappers are a notoriously tardy breed, and maybe the publisher
thought that P Diddy was just being fashionably late. As time went on,
it appeared to Random House that Diddy was actually fashionably
breaching a contract. And then fashionably refusing to return the
advance.
Papers were filed earlier this year at the Manhattan
Supreme Court, where Random House claimed that Diddy and his company
Bad Boy had "simply kept the money they never rightfully earned." They
asked for the advance back, plus interest.
And now the case has been settled. But we don’t know how. There’s
been a confidentiality agreement, so nobody will find out how much – if
any – money Diddy paid back. All that’s being said is that the P Diddy
memoirs will remain unpublished.
How do you think the case was settled? Did Diddy pay up, or will we
soon be seeing guest raps on P Diddy albums by the Ran Dom Howze Posse?
Leave your comments below.
[story by Stuart Heritage]