Diddy Once Abandoned 112 in a Blizzard
Rapper and record executive Sean “Diddy” Combs has dealt with countless artists over the years as the founder of Bad Boy Records. R&B group 112 was one of the label’s first signees in the mid-1990s. And while Diddy believed in 112’s talent, he still gave them tough love on their rise to the top.
Diddy wanted 112 to succeed
When the singers of 112 (known then as Forte) auditioned for Diddy, the group’s members were teenagers who hadn’t even graduated high school. But Diddy recognized their talent after they auditioned for him at Atlanta’s famed Club 112, which they eventually took as their name.
112 quickly got to work on their self-titled debut album after signing with Bad Boy Records. During those days, Diddy pushed the young singers to be their best, and often worked them hard.
In 2018, GQ spoke with the members of 112 about their experiences with Diddy. Marvin “Slim” Scandrick recounted a time when they had a studio session during a blizzard.
“I remember a time when we thought we were finished and we left the studio around 1 o’clock. It was snowing out, a damn blizzard — at 4 or 5 in the morning, all of a sudden, BANG BANG BANG,” he remembered. “Diddy is at the damn door, knocking it down. He came in and sat down and was like, ‘TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS. Y’all asleep? Y’all are HAPPY with that record?'”
Diddy left 112 out in a blizzard
112’s Michael “Mike” Keith went on to describe how Diddy left them out in the cold — literally.
“One night, we had been in the studio from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. Daron and myself had to go back to the apartment, because we were still in high school, and we had to get up and go to class,” he explained. “That day was a huge snowstorm, more than four kids from Atlanta had ever seen. As we’re leaving, Puff is leaving, too, in a Benz with chains on the tires and everything. He rolls down the window and is just, like, ‘I’ll holler at y’all.’ And he drives off. And we’re like, ‘Motherf***er, how do WE get home?'”
Quinnes “Q” Parker, conceded that they couldn’t have even squeezed in Diddy’s car. “There was five of us, so we couldn’t have all fit inside that Benz anyway. But just the way he drove by and blew the horn at us — ‘Alright, see y’all tomorrow!'” he laughed.
Diddy worked 112 hard
Q remembered Diddy making the group members work late into the night many times in the early days of their career. “So many times, we’d be asleep after a full day of recording, and he’d pull up in front of our apartment at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, ringing our apartment buzzer down in the lobby. ‘Nah, let’s go back.’ Time after time after time,” he recalled Diddy saying.
Mike, meanwhile, said that Diddy mixed in praise for the group amongst all the tough love. “We are Walking Dead-zombie tired, pleading with him, ‘Puff, me and Daron have school in an hour! You gotta let us go!’ He didn’t let us go,” he said. “But then he told us he was proud of us. That we were going to make history. That we were going to be big.”
