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Reggaeton king, Tego Calderón feels dissed by
P.Diddy's offer
Written by Nelson Ortiz, www.hispanicsurf.com
 January
25, 2005 -- Reggaeton king, Tego Calderón of Puerto Rico
was tapped by millionaire hip-hop mogul, Sean "P.Diddy" Combs to
promote the Sean John Spring Collection line with an ad campaign, that will display on Times
Square in NYC and on MTV.
Tego turned down Puffy's offer when he found out that Combs’ high-end apparel company is allegedly running sweatshops in Central America and said that
his offer of just $2,000 for the deal was an insult.
"I heard about the human rights violations in his clothing factories in Central America but frankly there was more," Calderon told the New York Post. "Me faltó el
respeto, [he dissed me] with his offer. I just did a $75,000 commercial (with
financial firm, First Mortgage) in Puerto Rico. Someone like Puffy could have offered more than $2,000 — but again, it wasn't about the money. I was not persuadable. It was about the principle."
While Tego kept his integrity by refusing the offer, he's disappointed that some of his colleagues, like Daddy Yankee,
accepted P.Diddy's offer. Therefore, he will take part of the promotional ads that will be displayed on Times
Square, MTV and VH1.
"It's the principle. I don't think he [Puffy] knows what I am about. What hurts me the most is that my colleagues accepted the offer [to do the ad campaign], thinking that it was a great opportunity. This
is about respect and respecting what we do," Calderon explained. "Forgive me, but I don't need Times Square, I don't need a billboard. I am not trying to conquer white Middle America. I already won the hearts and respect of those I wanted to win — mi gente
Latina, my people, the street, my black brothers and sisters."
The National Labor Committee, which supervises apparel working conditions in Third World countries discovered that Diddy's Honduras shops violated basic human and workers rights in 2003.
"The Honduras situation was horrific. They were giving young women pregnancy tests every month, locking bathrooms all day, no health insurance, and verbally and sometimes physically abusing them," Labor Committee leader Charles Kernaghan told the Post. "To his credit, Mr. Combs transformed the Setisa [Honduras] factory. He deserves enormous praise. But that victory could have been extended. He chose to clean up and stop at one."
When P.Diddy got notice that Tego denied his offer to promote his clothing
line, he commented "he should take the offer, no one knows him."
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