In a frank interview about his experiences in the secular music industry, Houston-area worship Pastor Rod Long described previous encounters with disgraced rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Long, 46, now serves at RIG Global Church in Cloverland, Texas. He recently spoke with RIG leader Prophet Tomi Arayomi about writing and producing songs for Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges. Lawsuits continue to pile up against Combs, who allegedly coerced and silenced victims.
In a YouTube video titled “I Slept in Diddy’s House: Ex-Diddy Producer Turned Pastor Tells All,” Long said God blessed him with the gift of music at age 12, after his pastor-father laid hands on him.
Long excelled in the Motown Talent Search and began making money writing raps and beats for others. One night, Long heard God instruct him to “burn the raps,” so he obeyed—but he continued selling “the beats” so as not to waste his musical gifts.
At Diddy’s Studio, Rod Long Felt a ‘Demonic Spirit’
As a young music producer, Long was summoned to meet Combs in New York—something he called “a dream come true.” At one of the rapper’s infamous parties in Miami, Long recalled hearing Combs ask guests, “Hey, what kind of girls do y’all want?”
Long felt like he was going crazy, he said, being pulled between God’s voice and the industry. For his first project for Combs’ label, Bad Boy Records, Long was in the mogul’s studio “for four days straight, no sleep, because I was driven by something more than just my own ability,” he said. “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.”
Long also described “ritualistic” candle-lighting and chants, almost like seances in the studio. “It was amazing music,” he said, “but you don’t get to those realms without a supernatural guide.”
At a Diddy party in Las Vegas, Long was “about to go crazy trying to fight what the Lord wants me to do.” He decided to walk away from the scene, which led to threats against him and his family. “They even came to my church,” he told Arayomi.
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Next, while recording in Houston, Long ate six weed-laced cookies that made him hallucinate and panic. “It’s like I entered a red room,” he said, “and I started calling out to the Lord. But then the demons appeared, and they said, ‘He can’t hear you.’”
Worship Pastor Rod Long Received a Sign From God
While recovering from that incident, Rod Long received prayers from his pastors and felt “a sudden boom of peace.” He asked God for another sign that he should “leave this music completely alone.” As he left the hospital, Long saw on the ground a cassette tape by Pastor G. Craige Lewis titled “The Truth Behind Hip-Hop.” That played a huge role in his deliverance, Long said, because it helped him “understand spiritually what I was really up against.”
When asked about contrasts between the secular and gospel music worlds, Long said they’re almost “one and the same,” when “the flesh [is] on display.” He said he’s had songs and royalties stolen in the gospel industry, and both fields have “gatekeepers” and “certain rituals you have to do if you want to get to the top.”
