P. DIDDY 1969 –
“You’re not what you were ten years ago. It’s just a natural evolution and having wisdom”
The founding of hip-hop
Sean Combs secret weapon was to out-work the competition “I was making $600 a week by the age of 13…”
His mother Janice Combs was married to Melvin Combs, a well-known local hustler (who was murdered when Sean was a toddler, the assailant was never found). They lived in Harlem a citidel of hip-hop.
At school Sean became a member of the football team. He often profiled bigger than he actually was by puffing up his chest, gaining the nickname ‘Puffy’. It didn’t take long before Puffy was staging rap parties and concerts whilst attending the university. Heavy D (who went on to become a major rap star) hooked him up in 1990 with ‘hip-hoppreneur’ Andre Harrell, founder of Uptown Records. Sean Puffy Combs was the only teenager ever to be employed at Uptown Records. His work rate was staggering, averaging an 80-hour week. The teenage minion sprinted up the ladder to become Vice-President within 12 months. Harrell kicked him out when Combs began getting carried away with his success.
Puffy respose? The founding of Bad Boy Records. Within weeks Bad Boy signed a $15 million deal with global music distributor Arista.
He gave the predominantly white middle-class youth market intimidating but (generally) safe black pseudo-gangsters, edgy singers and rappers, all of which the rebellious youth market identified with. Major corporations flocked to the hip-hop artists as their route to penetrating the urban market segment. The multi-billion dollar global distributors never looked back.
The deaths of Tupac and Biggie Smalls
After leaving the Mike Tyson v. Bruce Seldon fight on September 7th 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot and killed. The grapevine held Combs and B.I.G. responsible for the hit. Within six months B.I.G. was assassinated in a drive-by shooting following the annual Soul Train Awards in LA.
Combs had a global hit with the single I’ll Be Missing You (a hip-hop version of Sting and the Police’s original), his own performance to commemorate his friend’s death. The album released that year was his biggest ever.
Unstoppable drive
‘Bad Boy’ couldn’t steer clear of trouble for very long. In December 1999, he was charged with shooting up a nightclub, for concealing a weapon and bribery. Combs got off, having hired the late great Johnnie Cochran, to defend him.
Whilst on trial for shooting up the club, the entrepreneur worked on a clothing collection, spending much of the time with a design team. ‘Sean John’ (P. Diddy’s first and middle names) was the brand name chosen for his new line of ghetto-fabulous fashion. In 2004, the entrepreneur opened a Sean John boutique on Fifth Avenue having secured a $100 million investment in the clothing chain from supermarket multi-billionaire Ronald Burkle. Next up was a licensing agreement with Estée Lauder to create a line of fragrances under the Sean John brand (Unforgivable was the number one selling US fragrance of 2006). Combs’ business interests are extensive, including endorsement deals with global brands.
Charity
Combs sold a 50 percent stake in Bad Boy to Warner Music Corp. in 2005 for $35 million. He remains the company’s CEO. He now feels it’s time to give back, launching the charity Daddy’s House, funding social programmes based in Harlem.
By Ron Shabazz Shillingford
Author of : The History of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs
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