PUFF DADDY |
| IN just a few years, Sean "Puffy" Combs has transformed himself
from a streetwise party promoter and record company intern into one of the
most commercially successful producer-entrepreneurs in music history. Puffy,
or "Puff Daddy," as he is alternately known, was barely into his
twenties when he first started exercising his Midas touch by producing multi-platinum
albums for such artists as Jodeci and Mary J. Blige; in short order, he
became vice president of Uptown Records, and not much later, he founded
his own label, Bad Boy Entertainment.
While at Uptown, Puffy established the careers of rappers Craig Mack and Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. And in 1997 alone, he masterminded an astonishing three No. 1 records. But as successful and influential as he's grown, Combs' life has been plagued by its fair share of controversy: From his ongoing feud with his West Coast counterpart, Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, to the slaying of his friend Notorious B.I.G., to the contempt he has elicited from those within the hip-hop underground, Puffy has frequently been the subject of debate. What is less open to debate is that Puffy Combs is indeed the man of the moment. Sean Combs was born in 1970 in Harlem, the first of Melvin and Janice
Combs' two children. Janice was an aspiring model, while Melvin was a
notorious street hustler whose lifestyle caught up with him when he was
shot dead in Central Park—Sean was only three at the time. For the
next ten years, the family continued to live in Harlem, where Sean witnessed
firsthand the prime years of hip-hop's explosive evolution. From block
parties to b-boy battles in the park, the seeds of his dream of becoming
an entertainer were being sown. |
