HIP HOP Diddy

Sean “Diddy Combs, the world-renowned media mogul, fashion magnut, record producer and recording artist, began his career as an intern at Uptown Records in New York in 1990. His acumen for the business was so impressive that he was promoted to Vice President within a year, but was fired three years later in 1993. That dismissal was the storied catalyst for Combs’ starting his own label, Bad Boy Entertainment. The next year, Bad Boy found its first two acts: Craig Mack and Christopher Wallace aka the Notorious B.I.G. The latter’s debut album, Ready to Die, would go double-platinum and would make Bad Boy Entertainment a household name. Sean Combs, who was then going by the name Puff Daddy, was working on a solo album No Way Out when Christopher Wallace was killed on March 9, 1997. The album would be released in June 1997. The album’s lead single was “I’ll Be Missing You,” a tribute to Biggie Smalls that also featured his widow Faith Evans, and was propelled by a funky sample from the 80s British rock group, The Police. No Way Out has been certified as seven times platinum. Sampling classic Rhythm and Blues, rock and pop songs became the bedrock of the Bad Boy sound. Diddy would win two Grammys in 1998 for “I’ll Be Missing You” in the Rap, Group or Duo category as well as the Rap Album category for Puff Daddy and The Family. He would follow that up with Forever in 1999, The Saga Continues in 2001, Press Play in 2006 and the critically-acclaimed Last Train to Paris in 2010. To date, Diddy has been credited with executive producing works by the likes of Mary J. Blige, French Montana, Kanye West, Carl Thomas, Aretha Franklin, The LOX, Heavy D, Britney Spears, Rick Ross, Jay-Z and many, many others.