By Mr. Hollywood
JR Staff Writer
There are some guys who got it and there are some guys who don't, obviously Sean "Diddy" Combs is one who does. From women to money to possession to entertainment, Diddy has it all. Ever since his late teenage years, Diddy has been working on building his empire and he is one of the biggest names in entertainment history, all of his names.
Diddy started out as an event promoter while he was in college, during the late 1980s. Having a connection with Uptown Records star, Heavy D, led to him putting together a concert that had a horrible ending with people dying. Young, Diddy made plenty of rookie mistakes, not having enough security, and people paid for his mistake.
While it was a pretty bad start for young Combs, he did not give up, he tried harder and he ended up reaching his goals. Sean Combs' first venture was Bad Boy Management, a venture he used to promote a few local artists. In order to back up his venture, Combs convinced Andre Harrell of Uptown Records to give him an internship. He then ended up getting several of his artists meetings with the label. Harrell was impressed by Diddy's hustle and soon made him an executive vice president. The gig was short-lived when Diddy overstepped and Harrell ousted him from the label.
Now "Puff Daddy," Combs was trying to produce records, along with promote them. While Andre Harrell was angered by his ambition, Clive Davis was ready to invest in it. He gave Combs enough money for him to launch a record label and production company. Naming it after his management company, Bad Boy Entertainment was soon born. The label was distributed by Arista Records and Sean Combs' first act as head of the label was moving the talent he placed on Uptown to the new Bad Boy label. The early roster of the label included The Notorious B.I.G. Faith Evans, and Craig Mack.
Craig Mack helped solidify the label with his "Flava in Ya Ear" single, but Biggie soon stole the show. The big, black, Coogi-wearing, ugly gangster stole the hearts of women around the world with his larger than life persona. At the young age 25, Puff Daddy was on top of the world.
In his personal life, Combs was in love. He met Kim Porter during his time with Uptown Records. Porter was the former girlfriend of then-Upton artist, Al B Sure! The couple had just given birth to their only son, Quincy. However, Kim soon became Puff Daddy's girl, as they fell in love.
Despite being in a committed relationship, "Puffy," as he was called for short, had affairs with other women. Throughout most of his professional career, Combs has had an on/off relationship with Porter. One of their early breaks resulted in Combs having a child with former high school girlfriend, Misa Hylton-Brim.
Soon after the birth of Justin Combs, Puffy reunited with Kim and Quincy and Justin were raised as brothers, for the most part. On a professional level, Bad Boy Records was gearing up for the release of their very first album, The Notorious B.I.G.'s
Ready to Die. The album was very hardcore, filled with anger and rage, the same feelings Biggie had before he made it. While the first Bad Boy release was met with positive reviews, Puff Daddy made sure the people knew his label was more than rap and he began pushing Faith Evans.
Sean Combs officially became "Puffy" when
Ready to Die became a platinum success, making him a millionaire. Officially rich, Combs looked out for all of the women in his life and he began looking for ways to expand his empire. The Bad Boy record label was soon running in auto-pilot and Puffy was making extra money for his work as a producer. Everyone wanted to work with Puffy and Puffy wanted to work with everyone in order to make the most money possible.
The party came to an end in 1997, when The Notorious B.I.G. was fatally shot in Los Angeles, due to rising violence between the East Coast and West Coast hip hop scene. During this time, Combs also dealt with another breakup with Kim Porter. While things were bad, on a personal level, on a professional leve, Combs succeeded with the launch of the Sean John clothing line.
In 1998, his fortunes changed as Sean Combs welcomed the birth of his third child and covered
Fortune magazine. During this time, he also began a new relationship. For months, the tabloids had been linking him to rising star, Jennifer Lopez. Before the end of 1998, Combs admitted they had been seeing each other for some time.
In his four years in the public eye, Puff Daddy had portrayed himself as a ladies man, but it looked as if he had finally fallen in love. Puffy was ready to tell the love story, but the two suffered a bad breakup and Lopez moved on to another man. Meanwhile, Combs used the breakup to his advantage with the "I Need a Girl" songs.
The songs were written following his breakup with Kim Porter, but he decided to use them following the Lopez split. In the 2000s, Puffy felt his name had gotten a little outdated. For the new century, he decided to rename himself P. Diddy. It was then when he focused on expanding his empire.
Bad Boy Entertainment Worldwide was created to hold his ever-expanding business portfolio. The company included the record label, production company, management company, restaurant, and other small ventures. Despite being single, P. Diddy was on top of his business game.
Following his
Press Play album, P. Diddy shortened his name to Diddy and he made plans on ending his music career to focus solely on business. Soon, Diddy began his Ciroc liquor brand and has been promoting it, along with his rebranded Sean John clothing line. Over the past few years, Diddy has welcomed three more children, now having six. He has reunited and split with Kim Porter and has risen to new levels, regaining the title of top hip hop earner for 2010.
Diddy has been more of a promoter than anything else in recent years and he plans to continue opening new ventures so he can solely promote these ventures. The days of him scrambling for his checks are over and he lives a life surrounded by beautiful women and that is just another day in the office for him. Diddy not only has the record label and the production company, he also has a film division, which is responsible for the successful Run's House franchise, making him even more millions.
When people think of Diddy, they should think of a man who has dominated the game in every imaginable way possible.
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