In an interview to promote his latest album, “MMM,” Forbes’s wealthiest hip-hop artist Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs explained his deep frustrations with President Obama, who Combs claims needs to “Unapologetically spend billions of dollars to uplift black communities.”
“We got Obama into office, the give back, the deal, where are the things in our community that have gotten drastically better?” Combs said Wednesday in an interview on Hot 97. “Let’s stop overcomplicating it. The hugest group of people that get you into office, you have to change their lives for the better. Pick a side, because they got you into office. And if that side just happens to be black people, and you’re black, you still have to do what’s fair.”
Combs’s consternation comes from feeling that the voter turnout campaign “Vote or Die!“—a political machine that the music mogul promoted and later called “a scam“—did the hard work of getting Obama elected president with black people reaping limited political gain.
Combs say he understands that “being the president is a hard job,” and “there are so many things that President Obama has done for” black people “that we are going to realize years and years and years from now. Then there’s some black man things for black people” that need to get done.
The Grammy-winning artist listed several political interest groups like the National Rifle Association, and AARP, and “Jewish people” groups and said that black people are not getting the “things they need done right now.”
Combs eventually called for President Obama to deliver “directed aid. Unapologetically sending direct aid to black communities. Let’s not try to hide it. Unapologetically spend billions of dollars to uplift black communities.”
The Bad Boy Records founder added that Obama should make it clear that “black people, this is what we are doing” for you. “Stop skirting around.”
Combs said that he’s “not going after Obama. I’m just saying that time is ticking and we need some repayment on the deal. The black community got President Obama into office, and there should be some nice parting gifts to give our youth, our future, a better chance.”
“We just need some education, some jobs… and we want to know that it was for us,” Combs said, adding that “just like if there’s a disaster in Chile, we’re sending specific aid to help with that specific problem.”
This isn’t Puff Daddy’s first time calling out Obama for not doing enough for black people. In 2011, Combs challenged Obama to “do better” for the black community. Combs doubled-down and said the same thing last year.
Reiterating that he “doesn’t have the solution,” Combs did insist that “things that we wanted done, our laundry list isn’t complete, the brother isn’t out of office yet but I will retweet the list.”
“The black community is at a state of emergency, so it should be treated just like that,” Combs said. “It should be treated like there’s helicopters coming with education and books and coming with trade. All of that stuff needs to be sent just like when we see another country and we feel sorry for the country, and we send them everything they need to get back on their feet.”
“Can you send them to Harlem?” Combs asks of Obama, adding, “we need to get back on our feet. It’s not that complicated.”
Combs, whose net worth is over $735 million, says he is looking forward to the 2016 presidential election process, adding that he wants people “to pay attention a little bit more because we are not going to the polls and voting without a pre-cut deal. We have our list and then our list just gets lost.”
Asked if he will support Hillary Clinton, Combs said, “I got to see who I trust first.”
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