Home Interviews Diddy Says G. Dep ‘Did The Right Thing’ In Confession.

Diddy Says G. Dep ‘Did The Right Thing’ In Confession.

December 23, 2010

pdidy — Diddy
Photo:Statia Photography/ Getty Images

‘You could always feel that … maybe something was troubling his soul,’ Bad Boy mogul says of his former artist copping to 1993 shooting.

Diddy called into Sirius’ Shade 45 radio show on Tuesday (December 22) morning to talk up his latest effort, Last Train to Paris. But the rap mogul also commented on his onetime Bad Boy artist, G. Dep, who has made headlines in the last week.

G. Dep (born Trevell Coleman), recently confessed to a shooting and botched robbery attempt in 1993, only to discover from the New York Police Department that his victim, John Henkel, had died. Thirty-six-year-old G. Dep is now facing murder charges for the 17-year-old crime and was indicted on Tuesday.

“You could always feel that if you knew G. Dep, and I can’t say it was that, maybe something was troubling his soul,” Diddy said. ” ‘Cause he was real quiet. He’s the type of guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t know what happened in that instance but he did the right thing and manned up to it.”

Diddy also speculated on what G. Dep’s state of mind may have been back in 1993, not long before he signed to Diddy’s record label.

“He had a real bad drug problem and that could have caused the situation,” Diddy said. “As a person, that wasn’t nothing that he would do. Drugs sometimes make people slip up and make mistakes.”

Dep’s drug problem may have been a motivating factor behind his startling confession to a crime that he had essentially gotten away with.

On Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported that his lawyer, Michael Alperstein, indicated the confession was in step with a 12-step Narcotics Anonymous detox program in which the rapper was taking part. “The power of the 12-step program and making amends,” his lawyer said. “He’s trying to remake his life. He’s trying to clean up.”

Alperstein said Dep had twice tried to confess in the past, but that cops didn’t take him seriously and asked him to come back. A police source disputed that notion, saying that Dep was “high as a kite” when he first attempted to confess over the summer, and that interviews with him had been unsuccessful.

Diddy remembered G. Dep as an artist who showed real promise.

“Dep was definitely one of the favorite artists I signed to Bad Boy,” he said. “That’s something I really wanted to work out, but that was just like he had personal things he was dealing with and we tried our best with that.”