Sean Combs An American Dream
10th anniversary for P. Diddy and company
By Steve Jones, USA TODAY... For more
information log on to USAToday.com
Walter Lee Younger, the character from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun whom Sean "P. Diddy" Combs will portray on Broadway in April, has hopes of breaking the bonds of poverty by going into business for himself.
But whereas Walter
Lee's dreams are deferred, the self-made entertainment mogul is living
the American dream.
"It's something
that I understand in my heart to the fullest: wanting to make something
out of your life and be somebody," says Combs, who in just over a
decade has gone from record-label intern to an internationally known
CEO and celebrity who hobnobs with Donald Trump, the King of Morocco
and, most famously, ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez.
Signs of
success:
• His Bad Boy
Entertainment record label has sold more than 75 million records
worldwide.
• In June, he
opens a New York boutique for his Sean John clothing line; stores in
Los Angeles and New Jersey will follow.
• He owns upscale
Justin's restaurants in New York and Atlanta.
• His
advice-to-young-artists MTV show, Making the Band, started its
second season last week.
• He won a Grammy
this year for Shake Ya Tailfeather with Nelly and Murphy Lee
and performed the song at Super Bowl XXXVIII.
The anthology Bad
Boy's 10th Anniversary ... The Hits is released today, seven years
to the day after the slaying of iconic franchise star Notorious B.I.G.
A companion DVD presents nearly a dozen videos with commentary from P.
Diddy. The videos' ghetto-fabulous aesthetic helped fuel hip-hop's
international growth. The skills as a rapper
have often been criticized, and he admits he's no great lyricist
("Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write checks," he boasts in Bad
Boy for Life). But where he excels, he says, is in the
presentation. "I wanted to bring that showmanship to the records, and
that had a lot to do with my success."
Bad Boy "kind of
brought a Broadway effect to rap music," says Sway Calloway of MTV
News. "And it worked, because it still had integrity. When Bad Boy came
to the house, there was always a good feeling, because you knew there
was going to be a party."
All of the times
haven't been good. Death, defections and disappointments have struck
the label at various times, but Bad Boy stayed true to its motto — "we
can't stop" — and kept making hits.
He may not be
making his own hits for long, though. Combs says the solo album he'll
release this year will be his last, "not that it will affect the rap
community in the way that Jay-Z's retirement did. But I'll be shedding
a tear the last time I walk off that stage."
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