Sean 'Diddy' Combs on the 'war zone' created by gangs in 90s

Sean Combs. Photo / AP

He's been a pioneering voice in the hip-hop business since the 90s and now, Sean 'Diddy' Combs spilled the beans about gang warfare in the early days of his music career and how stressful and dangerous it was.

During a tell-all interview with ES magazine, the 47-year-old triple Grammy Award-winning artist, formerly known as Puff Daddy, also opened up about his opinions on rap music's portrayal of women, and why he believes African Americans are denied their human rights.

According to the Daily Mail, Diddy went into detail about gang warfare being whipped up so much between the rappers in LA (centred around Death Row Records) and those in New York (around Bad Boy).

Explaining it was "very stressful, very dangerous", he said: "Everyone was in a war zone, and if you wasn't a soldier..."

"It was so big, so global, so crazy. I've never seen anything like that happen. The whole world split and everyone had to choose a side."

The entrepreneur also touched upon music's portrayal of women, revealing that these days his "platform" is education, children and women of colour.

"It's something I am focused on as a person with cultural influence. It's a cliché. There's still some of that in hip-hop, but I would say it was 75 per cent less than it was. The best way is by leading by example and showing that generation that our queens are important."

Sean spoke passionately about racism, likening the treatment and perception of African Americans to a "human rights crime".

He declared: "To this day, the perception and treatment of the African American man and woman is a human-rights crime.

"Just like killing people, to starve and not educate people, to keep people suppressed and not give them human rights is a crime. And [this situation] changes the mental state of the African American community.

"It gives you PTSD. You have a place where you have no education, where you could be killed. As parents you're trying to think of a way out of this, it's a dire state of emergency, and there's just no help coming. So my thing is we can't wait for no help.

"We have to save our communities and save ourselves. These are things that fuel me."