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Sean (P Diddy) Combs (1707 hits)

PROFESSION: Musical Artist/Producer

November 4

"Puffy" Combs
On this date in 1970, Sean "Puffy" Combs was born. He is an African-American Musician, and Producer.

Raised in Mount Vernon, New York, his father Melvin Combs was murdered in 1973. His mother Janice Combs was a model. He attended Howard University, Washington, D. C. majoring in Business. The career of "Puffy" Combs began with an apprenticeship as an intern at a new record company. Puffy convinced Uptown Records founder Andre Harrell to take a chance on him. He was barely 20 years old and a student at Howard University when he started commuting to Manhattan three times a week on the train.

For his first assignment, Puffy constructed the careers of Uptown's Jodeci and Mary J. Blige starting in 1991-92. In the process, he helped to create a new musical genre: hip-hop soul. In 1994, his collaboration with Mary J. Blige on her second album, My Life, produced a classic that spoke to a new generation of youth. That same year Combs created Bad Boy Entertainment and produced his first successful recordings for the new label, including the debut of his oldest friend Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) entitled Ready To Die.

"Bad Boy," a successful Black-owned and Black-operated company, was renegotiated as a 50/50 joint venture with Clive Davis and Arista Records in 1995 as Puffy introduced the debut album by Notorious B.I.G.'s wife Faith Evans. Combs' was married to Misa Hylton a hip-hop fashion stylist. Together they had one child Justin Combs in 1994; the relationship ended in divorce. Afterwards he was with Kim Porter and they had one child Christian Casey Combs in 1997.

One year later combs' began dating actress, musician Jennifer Lopez; they broke up in 2001. That same year Combs went on trial for weapons charges stemming from a 1999 Manhattan nightclub shooting in which three people were injured; at trial's end he was acquitted of all charges.