Before Tanya Trotter was The War and Treaty with husband Michael Trotter Jr., she was Tanya Blount — and she was signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records.
Though Tanya never released an album on the controversial label, she did spend several years under the company’s thumb, a time she now reflects on as a “learning experience.”
“People have their own stories. I was very young. We all were,” the singer, 52, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “And the one thing I could say is I had never seen anybody work as hard. Work ethic was something that I learned at that label.”
In the decades since she left Bad Boy, founder Combs, 55, has fallen from grace; the mogul is currently facing dozens of lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct (all of which he has denied), and is also facing criminal allegations after he was indicted on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently in custody in Brooklyn as he awaits trial.
“It’s just unfortunate, the unthreading that’s happening in that situation. But I don’t speak on his personal matters,” she says. “I think that from a business perspective, it was like being at one of your top-notch entrepreneurial [schools]. You didn’t have to pay all the money, just watch Puffy work.”
Tanya previously addressed the allegations against Combs on Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde podcast in August, saying she was “really appalled” by the situation.
“I was young, but I had a manager who told me, ‘No, you’re not going to that party.’ I also had God protecting me from whatever was happening,” she said. “The people who experienced it, I really feel bad for them.”
Tanya first rose to fame with a memorable appearance in the 1993 movie Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, during which she sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” alongside Lauryn Hill. She released her debut album Natural Thing the next year, which featured the Top 100 hit “Through the Rain.”
She signed to Bad Boy in 1996, but an album she worked on for the label was ultimately shelved, stalling her career. A 2000 Washington Post article quoted her manager as saying that “got caught up in Puffy’s vortex,” and said that while Combs was initially “heavily involved” in the album’s production, his interest waned until eventually he stopped working on it.
The Post reported that Tanya hired attorneys to release her from her contract and that she was, at the time, in the midst of negotiating a settlement with Bad Boy, who denied her version of events.
Tanya spent several years out of the spotlight, and by the time she met Michael at a musical festival in 2010, she was ready for a reminder of why she’d fallen in love with music in the first place.
“I’ve always been strong, but he revived my faith in being vulnerable and what it takes to be an artist,” she says. “He helped me find my way; I was lost.”
The Grammy-nominated couple released their latest album, Plus One, on Feb. 14, and are set to take the record on tour starting in March.
Tanya describes the album as “an invitation” for “people that are just trying to have a good time.”
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