Image for article titled Amid Investigation, Resurfaced Clip of Grown Diddy With Pre-teen Justin Bieber Has Internet Asking Hard Questions

Sean “Diddy” Combs has always made his life of fancy cars, private jets, mansions and star-studded parties look aspirational. However, with multiple sexual assault lawsuits leading to a federal sex trafficking investigation and two of his homes being raided by the Department of Homeland Security, that extravagant lifestyle is looking a lot more questionable.

On Tuesday, the internet did what it does best and began investigating Diddy’s public life. A particularly unsettling clip featuring the rapper/producer and a young, up and coming Justin Bieber resurfaced and immediately went viral. It features a 40-year-old Combs explaining that a then 15-year-old Bieber was set to spend “48 hours with Diddy, where we hanging out and what we’re doing we can’t really disclose. But it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream.”

Why would a 40-year-old Black man from Harlem want to spend 48 hours with a white teenager from Canada? Once they’re done discussing music and Justin’s career, what could they possibly have in common to talk about? And why are you being so secretive about “hanging out” with this kid?

As the video continued, Diddy recalled a similar experience with Usher when he was working on his first album.

“I have been given custody of him. He’s signed to Usher and I had legal guardianship of Usher when he did his first album,” Combs added. “I don’t have legal guardianship of him [Bieber] but for the next 48 hours he’s with me and we’re gonna go full crazy.”

Whether he means it as a record producer or for other reasons, the way he discusses these two young men like they’re just assets and not actual people is really disturbing. Also, his tone when he says “we’re gonna go full crazy,” is just weird. Unless “full crazy” means go cart racing, pizza and ice cream, there’s no reason to be so creepy about it.

Diddy Appears to Check Justin Bieber for Wire in Resurfaced Video

During a 2016 interview with Howard Stern, Usher spoke about his time with Diddy when he was 14-years-old. When asked directly about if he witnessed “nonstop” sexual activity, the “Yeah!” singer replied, “Not really,” revealing that he was so young he didn’t “understand what I was looking at.”

“It was pretty wild. It was crazy. There were very curious things taking place and I didn’t necessarily understand it,” Usher said.

At this point in his life, Justin was a kid who wanted to become a rich and famous singer, so he’s totally enamored with Diddy. It’s up to the adults around him and Combs to ensure his safety. Now that he’s older and has control over his career, Bieber has spoken out about being a young star who didn’t feel like he had anyone protecting him.

To be clear, we don’t know that anything untoward happened, and I’m not saying that it did. However, in light of recent allegations against Diddy, this clip does not age well, and leads to even more uncomfortable questions.