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Scott Mescudi, the Grammy-winning rapper better known as Kid Cudi, believes Sean “Diddy” Combs had “something to do with” his car being torched in 2012, he said in federal court.
The 41-year-old musician, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, took the stand Thursday for an hour and a half, during which he discussed his brief romance with Cassie Ventura, Diddy’s once on-and-off girlfriend. Mescudi and Ventura dated in late 2011. Shortly after their relationship ended, Mescudi received a call from his dogsitter that his black Porsche was on fire while parked in the driveway of his Los Angeles home.
Mescudi was 45 minutes away from home when he was alerted around 6.30 a.m. on January 9, 2012. He drove home to find a "burnt up” bottle on the ground near his vehicle and a large hole cut into the soft top of his car.
“It looked like it was cut open. That’s where they inserted the Molotov cocktail,” Mescudi told jurors while looking at photos from the incident. Photos captured the dark smoke residue on the driver’s side window and ash splattered across the red leather driver’s seat. Although he didn’t specify who he meant by “they,” the rapper believed Combs was connected to the incident, he testified.
Mescudi said the blaze appeared to be “intentional,” and his scorched car couldn’t be repaired.
The next day, he arranged to meet with Diddy at Soho House in Los Angeles. Asked why, Mescudi told the court: “I knew he had something to do with it.”
Fingerprints and DNA were taken from the scene but no one was ever charged or arrested in connection with the incident, he told the court.
Diddy is facing five federal criminal counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Porsche firebombing was one of many shocking moments on Thursday. Among other revelations:
- Mylah Morales, a celebrity makeup artist, recalled Ventura getting a “swollen eye, busted lip and knots on her head” after a screaming match with Diddy in a hotel room in 2010.
- Notes from Diddy’s guest profile at the L'Ermitage Beverly Hills hotel revealed he “ALWAYS spills candle wax” and “uses excessive amounts of oil.”
- The music mogul’s former assistant George Kaplan testified about a 2015 incident in which he saw Diddy throwing green apples at his girlfriend Gina; he wasn’t sure if she was struck.
- Kaplan gave his notice of resignation within one month of that incident, explaining that he was “unwilling to stand behind that behavior.”
At Soho House, Mescudi recalled entering a meeting room in which one wall was just made up of windows. Diddy was “staring out the window with his hands behind his back like a Marvel supervillain," he testified.
During that meeting, Mescudi informed Diddy about how he and Ventura started dating and how it ended. Both men were “played” by Ventura, who was dating both of them at the same time, he said.
The meeting ended with a handshake, signaling all was well between them. When their hands were clasped, Mescudi recalled asking: “What are you gonna do about my car?” He recalled Diddy replying: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mescudi didn’t believe him and thought that “he was lying,” he testified.
This wasn’t the first conflict between Diddy and Mescudi. Weeks earlier, in December 2011, Ventura had called Mescudi at around 6 a.m. saying Diddy had “found out about us,” and she asked to be picked up. She sounded “nervous and scared,” Mescudi recalled. Ventura told him she was worried that Diddy would come to Mescudi’s house because he had asked for his address and she gave it to him.
Mescudi then drove Ventura to the Sunset Marquis, a hotel in West Hollywood, to keep her “safe and away from him.” That’s when he received a call from Capricorn Clark, Diddy’s then-assistant, who was sitting in a car parked outside of Mescudi’s house. Sounding like she was on the verge of tears, Clark said Combs and his associate had “forced her physically” into the car.
On his drive to check out his home, he called Diddy, and said: “Mother f***er, are you in my house?” He recalled Diddy responding: “I want to talk to you.”
When he arrived, no one was there — but some things had been moved. His security camera had been shifted so that it was no longer pointing toward his door, his dog was locked in his bathroom, and Christmas gifts for his family had been opened. He reported the break-in to police.
Years later, Diddy and Mescudi met up again at Soho House, where Diddy “apologized for everything,” the musician testified: “After I got the apology, I found peace with it. That was the last thing I was expecting to get.”
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