While dozens in the music and entertainment industry rush to cut ties with Sean “Diddy” Combs in recent weeks as federal charges and heinous allegations continue to pile up, Rod Long is open to talking about his time working with the rapper. Long, now the 46-year-old pastor for RIG Global Church in Cloverland claims to have worked as a songwriter and producer for the hip-hop mogul’s Bad Boy Records back in the early 2000s and even attended Combs’ parties in New York City, Miami and Las Vegas.
In a highly produced YouTube video released last week, Long recalled “making beats” for four days straight without sleep at Diddy’s recording studio in NYC. “I was driven by something more than just my own ability,” Long said. “It was something driving me, driving me, driving me. I believe it was a demonic spirit in the sense that if I wasn’t in those realms I couldn’t hear the music like that. I couldn’t hear it as clear.” Long also alleged without evidence that he witnessed “ritualistic” seances in the studio that included candles and chanting.
The pastor’s remarks come after Combs pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges following his Sept. 16 arrest at a New York hotel. The charges include allegations that Combs, aided by associates and employees, coerced and abused victims for years and that he silenced them through blackmail and acts of violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings, per reporting by the Associated Press. Seven new lawsuits have been filed this week against Combs in state and federal courts, including one alleging the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
On Oct. 17, Tomi Arayomi, the self-identified prophet and leader of RIG Global, released a 40-plus-minute video of himself interviewing Long about his time in the music industry. Arayomi, who has more than 220,000 YouTube followers, posted the video titled, “I Slept in Diddy’s House: Ex-Diddy Producer Turned Pastor Tells All.” Promoting the video, Arayomi said on YouTube: “In this must-watch interview, Rod shares jaw-dropping stories that expose the dark side of fame and the hidden struggles artists face.” As of Friday, the video has garnered more than 1.1 million views on the platform.
Photo: Pastor Rod Long worked as a songwriter and producer with Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment in the early 2000s.
Courtesy Of Rod Long
At one point during the interview, Long alleged that he was a guest at a party in Miami where Combs asked attendees what kind of women they wanted to meet. “I believe these girls came specifically to do whatever we wanted them to do,” Long said. He later claimed that he finally left Bad Boy Entertainment after attending a party in Las Vegas. “At this point, I’m pretty much about to go crazy trying to fight what the Lord wants me to do,” he said, describing how he left the party and called his father who bought him a plane ticket to Houston. “I got that close. I tasted it. And I still walked away,” Long said. “And I walked away because of the voice of the Lord.”
Reached by phone last week, Long told me he’d already been recording footage of himself for a documentary about his music career when Arayomi asked him to participate in the interview. Long said he agreed to sit down to share his message of hope with RIG Global Church and the 1,000 or so individuals who attend weekend services. “It’s a message of faithfulness and grace even when we are wrong or go a different direction than what our God teaches us,” Long said. “That God is still faithful.”
Long is among several Texas-based pastors with connections to Combs. Most notably, Bishop T.D. Jakes in Dallas has served as spiritual advisor to Combs in recent years. A federal lawsuit filed against Combs in March alleges the rapper “planned to leverage his relationship” with Jakes to “soften the impact on his public image” after being sued by the singer Cassie, a former girlfriend, last year. Critics have accused Jakes of attending Combs’ “freak-offs” parties and having affairs with men, per reporting by Religion News Service. Jakes’ media team has fought against the accusations calling them false and baseless.
RIG Global Church, founded in 2007 and relaunched in 2019 by Arayomi, has planted churches in London, Nigeria and Houston. It’s one of the growing number of prophetic worship centers in the U.S., while Arayomi is among the rising number of independent preachers who’ve launched churches as part of the charismatic Christian movement, which believes in experiencing the Holy Spirit through speaking in tongues and supernatural healing. He tells followers that God instructed him to move to Houston from Nigeria, and claims to have the ability to tap into supernatural powers and prophesy future events. In the YouTube video, Arayomi declared that he actually discovered Long had worked for Diddy’s music company through a prophecy.
