A tobacco shop has sparked outrage after a ‘sickening’ mural featuring rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Justin Bieber was painted on its shopfront wall.
Pro Art Sydney, a store that sells snacks, paint supplies, tobacco and smoking paraphernalia, shared a picture of its newest mural to Instagram over the weekend.
The artwork emblazoned on the store’s shopfront on Cleveland Street in Surry Hills shows Combs glaring at a wide-eyed Bieber, with the rapper and singer separated by a bottle of baby oil.
Aussies were outraged at the ‘art’, with many claiming the mural was ‘shameful’ considering Combs’ recent arrest and charges.
‘Absolutely disgusting. Sorry, but anyone that thinks it’s funny is a f***wit,’ one said.
‘That is so disrespectful not only to Justin Bieber, but every victim of sexual assault in the world. It’s repulsive,’ a second.
Combs, 54, was arrested in New York earlier this month and was hit with an indictment accusing him of years of coercion and abuse while using blackmail and violence to control his victims.
He was charged with sex trafficking and related crimes, and will likely spend about 10 years behind bars if found guilty.
Among the most harrowing claims is how federal agents seized 1,000 bottles of baby oil from his Miami and Los Angeles homes during raids in March.
Justin Bieber’s formerly close bond with the disgraced rapper has since come under intense scrutiny – with troubling videos of a then-15-year-old Bieber spending ’48 hours with Diddy’, as well as the pair partying together, resurfacing online.
However shop owner Winston Cooley told Daily Mail Australia said ’95 per cent’ of people found the mural ‘funny’, while the other five per cent were not people who visited his store.
‘Someone is always going to get offended,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t some deep thought and wasn’t something to offend people.
‘We just thought “what’s in the news at the moment” and it was all about P Diddy and baby oil. So I thought, let’s do a meme and put it on the front.’
He compared it to another iconic mural of Tony Abbott dressed as a bride and marrying himself, which was created by artist Scottie Marsh as a commentary on same-sex marriage.
‘You can paint things like that, and there’s going to be plenty of people who find it offensive, and there’s plenty of people who like it,’ Cooley said.
‘I don’t see how the one at the front that was painted by someone is any different to that. You’re going to piss some people off, some people going to like it. What can you do?
‘I’m just running a business, you know, independent and out there, and I don’t really want to put something out there that has everyone abusing me.’
Mr Cooley said he would replace the mural sometime this week.
‘No matter what I think, personally, I’d rather not put things up that are going offend people,’ Cooley said.
‘This one obviously did. And I thought I don’t really want to leave it up and just cop abuse over it.’
While he has received hate mail over the mural, Mr Cooley said he spoke with the artist on Sunday who said he has been offered a full-time job because of the painting.
‘He said people told him they had no problem with the mural and didn’t find anything offensive but he understands why I want to change it,’ Mr Cooley said.
‘He’s got jobs out of it. He was offered a full-time job and he had other people offer him to paint their room.’