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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Kevin E G Perry

Joe Jonas quietly removes Diddy lyric from hit song amid sex trafficking trial

Getty

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Louise Thomas

Louise Thomas

Editor

Joe Jonas removed a reference to Sean “Diddy” Combs from his band DNCE’s hit 2015 single “Cake By The Ocean” during a recent live performance as the disgraced rap mogul awaits a federal trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

Footage from the Jonas Brothers concert at the LDLC Arena in Paris, France, on Saturday, September 28 has been widely circulating on social media as fans noticed the missing lyric.

In the video, Jonas, 35, appears to sing: “Walk for me, baby / I’ll be watching you be Naomi.”

Joe Jonas and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Joe Jonas and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs (Getty)

The original lyric is: “Walk for me, baby / I'll be Diddy, you'll be Naomi,” a reference to rumors that Combs dated supermodel Naomi Campbell in the early 2000s.

The Independent has approached representatives for Jonas for comment.

Jonas is not the first artist to remove or change a reference to Diddy since the embattled rapper has been engulfed in scandal.

Earlier this year, Kesha announced plans to re-record her debut single “Tik Tok.”

In recent live performances, the 37-year-old singer has amended the original opening line: “Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy” to alternatives such as “Wake up in the morning feeling like f*** P Diddy” or “Wake up in the morning feeling just like me.”

Earlier this week, Combs made a bid for freedom ahead of his high-profile sex trafficking and racketeering trial.

On Monday, the rapper’s lawyers submitted a notice of appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals asking the court to overturn Judge Andrew Carter’s decision to keep him locked up in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, while he awaits trial.

In the filing, Anthony Ricco and Alexandra Shapiro – Combs’s latest additions to his legal team – said the music mogul had promised to ban women from entering his home, undergo weekly drug tests, and to not meet anyone considered a witness or “co-conspirator” if his release on bail is granted.

No women other than Combs’s mother and the mothers of his children would be allowed at his home, the bail appeal says.

For nearly a year, Combs has faced a series of civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse, rape and misconduct.

In March, federal agents raided two of the rapper’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami.

Then, last month, he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution after a federal grand jury in New York returned an indictment against him.

In the indictment unsealed on September 17, federal prosecutors allege Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced women and others around him “to fulfil his sexual desires.”

That allegedly includes forcing victims into engaging in recorded sexual activity referred to as “freak offs”.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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