Southern Plug Magazine: Leaders of the New School 2017 Volume 2 Issue 1 A | Page 91

One of the biggest hip-hop impresarios ever, Sean Combs -- known as Puff
Daddy until his professional name change to P. Diddy, then just Diddy --
created a multi-million-dollar industry around Bad Boy Entertainment, with
recordings by the Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, Faith Evans, 112, and Total all
produced and masterminded by Combs himself. Responsible for over $100
million in total record sales and named ASCAP's 1996 Songwriter of the Year,
Combs was, on the other hand, criticized by many in the hip-hop community
for watering down the sound of the underground and also for a perceived
over-reliance on samples as practically the sole basis for many of his hits. A
very successful A&R executive at Uptown Records during the early '90s
responsible for sizable hit records by Father MC, Mary J. Blige, and Jodeci,
Combs formed his own Bad Boy label, signed B.I.G., Evans, and Mack, and
earned enough hits to cement an alliance with Arista Records. A highly
publicized feud with Death Row Records (in which Tupac Shakur and label
head Suge Knight served as West Coast/Dark Side equivalents to the
Notorious B.I.G. and Combs) was summarily ended in late 1996, when Shakur
was murdered and Knight jailed. Six months later, the Notorious B.I.G. was
dead as well, and after Combs mourned his friend's death, he hit the pop
charts in a big way during his biggest year, 1997. Born in Harlem in 1969, Sean
Combs spent much of his childhood in nearby Mt. Vernon, NY. Already a
shrewd businessman through his two paper routes, Combs applied to Howard
University in Washington, D.C., and while attending, convinced childhood
friend Heavy D to sign him up as an intern at the label for which he recorded,
Uptown Records. Several months later, he was an A&R executive with his
sights set on the vice presidency, serving as the executive producer for Father
MC's 1990 album Father's Day, which became a hit. Successful albums
followed for Mary J. Blige (What's the 411?) and Heavy D & the Boyz (Blue
Funk) during 1992, though Combs was fired from Uptown by the following
year (probably because he was a bit too ambitious). He worked as a remixer
during 1993 and set up Bad Boy Entertainment as his own venture, running
the label out of his apartment during long hours with only several employees.
After more than a year of hard work, he finally signed two hit artists: former
EPMD roadie Craig Mack and the Notorious B.I.G. Mack hit the big time in
mid-1994, when a remix of his "Flava in Ya Ear" single (featuring LL Cool J,
Busta Rhymes, Rampage, and the Notorious B.I.G.) hit the Top Ten and
became the first platinum record for Bad Boy. At the beginning of 1995, B.I.G.
notched the second, when his own second hit, "Big Poppa," reached number
six on the pop charts. Mack's album Project: Funk da World eventually went
gold and the Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die was certified double platinum.