P.Diddy

Love him or hate him, Sean John Combs is one of the biggest players in the rap industry today. Known by an ever-permutating array of stage names (among them Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and Puffy), the New York City-born Combs is not just another rapper, but also a record producer, promoter, actor, fashion designer, and entrepreneur worth an estimated $680 million - a fortune rivaled only by fellow New York hip-hop... More >

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Biography

Love him or hate him, Sean John Combs is one of the biggest players in the rap industry today. Known by an ever-permutating array of stage names (among them Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, and Puffy), the New York City-born Combs is not just another rapper, but also a record producer, promoter, actor, fashion designer, and entrepreneur worth an estimated $680 million - a fortune rivaled only by fellow New York hip-hop renaissance man Jay-Z.

After growing up amidst the rougher neighborhoods of Harlem, Sean Combs got his start in the music industry while attending Howard University in the early 1990's, working as both an intern at Uptown Records and as a party promoter. Though he would eventually drop out of college and be fired from his job at Uptown (where he had signed Mary J. Blige), Sean used the connections he had fostered to create his own record label, Bad Boy Records, in 1993. His first act as CEO was to sign The Notorious B.I.G., who proved to become the cornerstone of the East Coast rap movement until his untimely death in 1997.

After The Notorious B.I.G.'s death, Combs attempted to distance his label from the firestorm of negative publicity surrounding the East Coast/West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the mid-1990's by signing a more diverse spread of artists to Bad Boy, including R&B artists like TLC, Mariah Carey, and Aretha Franklin. By the end of the 1990's Combs had successfully established himself as a crossover producer, working with acts like *NSYNC and Britney Spears that, while popular, would have had no place in Bad Boy's roster just a few years earlier. Bad Boy remains a powerful label to this day, with new releases in 2008 by Lil' Jon, Danity Kane, and Elephant Man rounding out its offerings.

Sean Combs has released five of his own albums; two solo albums (Forever in 1999 and Press Play in 2006) and three albums with the Bad Boy Family (a name collectively given to the band of Bad Boy Records artists who accompany Combs on his albums): No Way Out (1997), The Saga Continues (2001), and We Invented the Remix Vol. 1 (2002). Each of the albums have sold in excess of 1,000,000 copies with the exception of Forever, Puffy's least successful and only critically panned release. Some of Puffy's biggest hits include "It's All About the Benjamins", "Bad Boy For Life", "I Need a Girl", "Diddy", and "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down". Combs plans on releasing his sixth album We Invented the Remix Vol. 2 sometime in 2008; the lead single is confirmed to be called "Diddy Rock".

Outside of his musical career, Combs owns a number of restaurants and nightclubs throughout the United States and manages a successful clothing line, Sean John. He has also appeared in a number of feature films, including Monster's Ball (2001), Made (2001), and Carlito's Way: Rise to Power (2005). His most recent business venture is a multi-year partnership with international liquor distributor Diageo in which Combs will develop their Ciroc brand of premium vodka; the agreement is estimated to be worth in excess of $100 million.

From Discogs:

Born November 4th, 1969 in Harlem, NY.

From Lastfm:

Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969[1]), known by his stage name Diddy, is an American record producer, rapper, actor, men's fashion designer, entrepreneur and dancer. He won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally known as Puff Daddy and then as P. Diddy (Puff and Puffy being often used as a nickname, but never as recording names).

Read more about P.Diddy on Last.fm.

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