Born in Harlem in 1970, 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 he recorded for, 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 Notorious B.I.G.) hit the Top Ten and became the first platinum record for Bad Boy. B.I.G. notched the second at the beginning of 1995, 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 Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die was certified double-platinum.
Sean "Puffy" Combs began branching out Bad Boy during 1995, adding platinum R&B acts Faith Evans and Total (both of whom were connected to B.I.G., Evans as his wife and Total as his former backing vocal group) plus another platinum seller, 112, in 1996. He also produced for many outside artists (including Aretha Franklin, Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, TLC, SWV, and Lil' Kim) and added two straight-ahead hip-hop acts, Mase and the LOX. By that time, however, Combs and B.I.G. were embroiled in a feud with Death Row Records' head Suge Knight and star Tupac Shakur. Shakur accused Combs of involvement in his 1994 shooting, mocked B.I.G. by saying he had slept with Faith Evans, and threatened the two in the lyrics to his hit song "Hit 'Em Up". (The video for the track featured two characters, P.I.G. and Buffy, who are humiliated in various ways.) In September 1996, however, Shakur was shot and killed by unknown assailants; just six months later, in March of 1997, B.I.G. himself was killed in the same fashion. Just three weeks later, his second album debuted at number one and was eventually certified ten times platinum. The single "Hypnotize" also hit number one, and stayed on the charts for months after B.I.G. was killed. Though Combs had been preparing his own solo debut, under the name Puff Daddy, he quit working for several months out of grief for his longtime friend. When he returned in mid-1997, it was with a vengeance, as the single "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" held the top spot on the singles charts for almost two months. Following quickly behind was another monster number one hit, "I'll Be Missing You," a tender tribute to Notorious B.I.G. with Faith Evans providing background vocals. Combs' subsequent LP as Puff Daddy, No Way Out, shot straight to number one and was certified platinum several times over; in 1998 it won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and "I'll Be Missing You" won the award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.
Forever followed in 1999, but the rushed release and lack of any new ideas disappointed fans and dampened sales. On top of that, on April 15 of that year, he was accused of severely beating Interscope Records exec Steve Stoute and was brought to court for the incident. Puffy managed to get his sentence trimmed down to second degree harassment when he finally reached the courts in September, much to his detractors' dismay.
More controversy started brewing when his relationship with singer/actress Jennifer Lopez was made public around the same time. Engagement rumors haunted them for a few months, but the real problems began when they were present at a shooting in a New York City club that December. The couple was brought in for questioning, and eventually both faced charges for illegal possession of a firearm. Meanwhile, rapper Shyne was indicted for the incident, but Puffy was not dismissed because of the weapons charge. His trial date for the club shooting was finally set, while October found two new lawsuits facing the rapper. First, his driver sued for three million dollars due to personal injury and stress, followed by a $1.8 million suit from the club owner stemming from poor business following the shooting. Though Lopez initially supported Puffy, she broke off their relationship on Valentine's Day 2001.
A planned gospel album was pushed back to a summer release during the mess, but by March some good news finally hit the Bad Boy camp. Puffy was acquitted of all charges stemming from the club incident, which also snuffed out the civil suits also revolving around his involvement in the club situation. In a move sure to spark comparisons with Prince (and not the good kind of comparisons), he announced that he was changing his professional name to P. Diddy at the end of the month, and also predicted a new direction for himself and his label. He recorded a gospel album, Thank You, as well as a new solo album, The Saga Continues, but the former was never released. "Bad Boy for Life" became his biggest hit in years late in the summer, and a collaboration with David Bowie appeared on the Training Day movie soundtrack. He took a serious blow in the spring of 2002 when Arista stopped distributing Bad Boy and took Faith Evans with them. A collection of Bad Boy's remixes entitled We Invented the Remix became Combs' last album for Arista. 112 attempted to also jump ship to Def Jam, but Combs filed a restraining order before the group could make a clean break. Diddy celebrated a new distribution partnership with Universal by releasing an overview of his label, Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary...The Hits, in March of 2004. His slumping label was revived during the summer of 2006 through the success of both Yung Joc's "It's Goin' Down" and Cassie's "Me & U," which helped set the stage for his own star-studded Press Play, released that October.
Sound Files (MP3)
Come To Me (f/Nicole Scherzinger) - from the album Press Play
Tell Me (f/Christina Aguilera) - from the album Press Play
Last Night (f/Keyshia Cole) - from the album Press Play
*Shake Ya Tailfeather (f/Nelly & Murphy Lee) - from the Bad Boys II soundtrack
I Need A Girl (Part 1)(f/Usher & Loon) - from the album We Invented the Remix
I Need A Girl (Part 2)(f/Ginuwine, Loon & Mario Winans) - from the album We Invented The Remix
I'll Be Missing You (f/Faith Evans & 112) - from the album No Way Out
Can't Nobody Hold Me Down (f/Mase) - from the album No Way Out
Been Around the World (f/Notorious BIG & Mase) - from the album No Way Out
Bad Boy For Life (f/Black Rob & Mark Curry) - from the album The Saga Continues
Diddy (f/The Neptunes) - from the album The Saga Continues
Satisfy You (f/R.Kelly) - from the album Forever
*Best Friend (f/Mario Winans) - from the album Forever
PE 2000 (f/Hurricane G) - from the album Forever
It's All About the Benjamins (f/Notorious BIG, Lil' Kim & The LOX) - from the album No Way Out
Victory (f/Notorious BIG & Busta Rhymes) - from the album No Way Out
NB: MP3s with a * next to it indicates that it is located on another server. Reason being is because these MP3s exceed 5 MB and Geocities (the web host for this site) will not accept MP3s over 5 MB. These MP3s are located under the server Angelfire. So in order to download MP3s that are under this server, you must left click once on the name of the MP3 that you want to download, which will take you onto a different page (because it is on a different server, and Geocities do not allow direct links to files located on other servers) and then either left click (if you want to download the MP3 but do not want to save it) or right click, then "Save Target As..." (if you want to the save the MP3) on the name of the MP3 that you want to listen to. Easy as...
