Joining the wave of women speaking out against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is Niykee Heaton. The American singer-songwriter, 29, has accused the Bad Boy Records founder and Kanye West of attempted assault, when she was in a recording studio with them ten years ago.
Combs, 54, was arrested in New York on 16 September and is awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn after he was denied bail twice. Among the charges he is facing are those of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors accuse the record producer and rapper of running a criminal enterprise from at least 2008, using drugs and violence to force women ‘to fulfil his sexual desires’. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Who is Niykee Heaton?
Niykee Heaton is a self-taught US singer-songwriter who gained popularity on YouTube, after her acoustic guitar versions of modern songs, mostly hip-hop tunes, went viral. She wrote her first song when she was five, and taught herself to play guitar at nine. She learnt to sing with a Diana Ross Greatest Hits CD. She started posting videos of her covers and some original songs on YouTube in 2011, which soon gained traction and caught the attention of record labels.
Her online success led to her graduating high school six months early and self-financing the recording of her own songs. She signed with All Def Digital, a YouTube-based label in collaboration with Capital Records, in 2014.
‘I realised early on that the only way to make my voice heard and say what I wanted to was through music. It was less like a hobby for me and more like a lifesaver,’ she said. ‘My music is a direct reflection of who I am. My writing is everything to me because that’s all I had growing up.’
She said her musical influences include Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj.
What is Niykee Heaton famous for?
Niykee Heaton is famous for covering hip-hop songs such as Chief Keef’s Love Sosa and Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen, which brought her to the attention of record labels. She made her debut with EP Bad Intentions in 2014, which reached the Top Ten in the US iTunes store on the day of its release and topped a Billboard chart that same year. She embarked on her first headline The Bedroom Tour in late 2015, followed by a mixtape, The Bedroom Tour Playlist, in March 2016.
Her second EP Starting Over was released in 2018. Other songs she is famous for include Lullaby and Bad Intentions featuring Migos.
How did Niykee Heaton know Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs?
Following the success of Bad Intentions, Niykee claimed in an Instagram Live session that she was invited to a studio session to work on music by Kanye West in 2014. When she arrived at the studio, Ye was there with Combs. ‘I was 19 years old, I had just left home. I got a call one day and it was like, “Hey, Kanye wants you to come into the studio,’ she said.
What has Niykee Heaton accused Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of?
Niykee Heaton claimed in the video that the two rappers allegedly tried to assault her in the studio, despite there being three other men – Kanye’s ‘executive’, his sound engineer and his cousin – there.
‘I walked in and it’s Kanye and Diddy. Immediately, I was like, there’s something not right. Kanye and Diddy are probably drunk, but probably something else,’ she said in the video.
She claimed that they approached her and made some unwelcome attempts, pressuring her to take her clothes off. ‘I’m like, this is a bad situation, I’m creeped out, but there’s no reason to panic. There are other men here,’ she said. ‘They start pawing at me and I’m like, “You guys, stop, stop”. They’re going to the point where they had ripped my shirt off and I’m almost fully exposed,’ she alleged.
Niykee claimed that she mouthed the word ‘Help’ to Kanye’s assistant while her shirt was being torn off. ‘This is the part that for as long as I live I’ll never f**king forget,’ she said. ‘It isn’t actually the aspect of being sexually assaulted. That’s not what haunts me… It’s as these two grown men were pawing at me trying to take my clothes off, I look over to this man asking for help, and I literally mouth the word ‘Help’ and we lock eyes, and he looks away.’
She said that she finally managed to escape out of the door, grabbing her clothes as she left. Neither Combs or Kanye have responded to Niykee’s accusations or the Instagram video.
Who is Niykee Heaton’s husband?
Niykee married actor, model, personal trainer and entrepreneur Jeff Logan on 14 July 2019, with whom she shares sons Damien, four, and Nikyta, two. The couple separated in 2022.
What is Niykee Heaton’s Instagram?
Nikyee Heaton is on Instagram, with the handle @niykeeheaton