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SEAN COMBS made a US$1 billion fortune by the time he turned 50, but the rap mogul was already making US$1 000 a week from his paper round aged 12.
The former altar boy — aka P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Diddy or just Sean — had a tough start in life, where his drug dealer father was shot dead when he was a toddler.
Rap impresario, singer, songwriter and seller of vodka and clothing, Sean Combs is also a noted ladies’ man, never marrying but dating famous figures, including Cameron Diaz and Naomi Campbell.
The rap bachelor’s most famous lover was Jennifer Lopez, whom he was with at the height of his fame from 1999 until 2001 — once declaring her derriere will go down as the most beautiful in history, before quickly adding that her music would, too.
The father of seven is believed to be currently single after splitting with musician and actress Yung Miami last year, who, at 29, was 24 years his junior.
Combs also has seven children from four different mothers, has palatial homes all over the world, including New York, LA and Miami, several yachts and many luxury cars he cannot remember them all.
To the outside world, it would appear the perfect life.
And while he was seen smiling in LA sometime in March this year, he was in the midst of a legal storm, facing lawsuits from three women and had lost a host of commercial deals in the wake of the claims.
Diddy’s Los Angeles and Florida mansions were raided by the Department of Homeland Security on March 25 this year.
Diddy has not been seen in public since officers turned up and his private jet was tracked to Antigua but he was not on it.
Where the court cases and criminal investigations will lead, it is not yet known, but the star denies all the claims against him, calling them “pure fiction”.
- Diddy’s music career began in the early 1990s.
He got his start in the music industry as an intern at Uptown Records.
He was fired in 1993.
He then created Bad Boy Entertainment with Arista Records and brought on Notorious B.I.G., who turned out to be a major player in the rap game.
The label’s roster continued to grow and so did P. Diddy’s bank account.
The rapper and producer, 53, still pays US$5 000 a day in royalties for sampling Sting’s iconic 1983 single “Every Breath You Take” on his 1997 single “I’ll Be Missing You”.
With Dr Dre and Jay Z, Diddy is the most successful person in rap history.
His father, a drug dealer called Melvin, was shot dead in his car after a party when Combs was just a toddler.
Nine years later, his mother Janice had scraped together enough money to move to upstate Mount Vernon, where her young son attended a fee-paying, highly academic Catholic school.
Diddy calls himself a Christian and was an altar boy at his local church.
Around the same time, he was making US$1 000 a week from paper rounds, and before he hit the big time, he worked in a diner and at a petrol station, and cleaned toilets to make ends meet.
He said two years ago: “I was raised in Harlem and my father was killed when I was two.
“My mother had five jobs. I’m from the roots of hustle. I was a paperboy, the first entrepreneurial thing I did.
“I would reach out to the boys about to go to college. I asked if I could do their round and send them half the money. I was making US$1 000 a week as I kept all the other rounds on.
“I was a busboy in a restaurant, I pumped gas at a gas station, I also had to keep the bathrooms clean. They are the worst, but I was proud to make them clean and see people’s faces when they came out.”
Twenty years ago, he was acquitted on charges stemming from a nightclub shootout 20 years ago, when he was known as Puff Daddy.
Being arrested after a shooting incident at a club — two loaded guns were found in his limo — seemed only to enhance his reputation.
Today, he has a business empire that stretches from music, to clothing and premium drinks and even bottled water.
Combs founded the record label Bad Boy in 1992, propelling himself to become one of the leading figures in hip-hop, working with the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige.
It was his first big business and has since sold over 500 million records, produced 38 platinum singles, earned multiple Grammy Awards.
The music mogul was born in New York City and raised in Mount Vernon, New York.
Biggie was murdered on March 9, 1997 — and his tribute “I’ll Be Missing You” with Faith Evans made him famous all over the world.
With that fame and fortune came money and women — and he has never married or settled down.
He has had a colourful dating history, which has seen the musician romantically linked to the likes of supermodel Naomi Campbell and model Lori Harvey.
His most famous love, and perhaps his greatest, was with Jennifer Lopez.
J-Lo has found happiness with Ben Affleck — but her ex insists he is “lucky” to count her among his exes.
He once hailed her famous derriere and body as a “work of art” that will go down in history.
He later added: “But also her talent, her drive, her determination, she will never give up. She’s a great friend of mine, always will be my friend, and I mean that thing is just incredible, man.”
The rapper also slammed Kim Kardashian’s famous backside and added that it is “no way” comparable to Jennifer’s.
Best known as Puff Daddy, he later insisted on being called P. Diddy, Diddy, Sean John, Swag and Sea.
He said once: “I am in the love era now. I answer to all the names. Call me whatever you like. I will answer to all of them.”
Combs started his clothing brand, Sean John, in 1998 and partnered with Macy’s in 2010.
He sold part of the brand in 2016 but then bought it back in 2022 for US$7,5 million after the brand filed for bankruptcy.
The brand was making US$450 million in sales in 2016.
Macy’s announced the end of their partnership with Combs, saying they were going to “phase out” the collection.
A source told RadarOnline.com that they had been evaluating the brand for a while now and the decision predated the allegations, noting it has not been selling like it used to in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
They said: “As part of our ongoing review of our brand portfolio, the Sean John collection has started to phase out of assortment since early fall 2023.”
They added that his products were “being removed” and “won’t be available on the site”.
Combs set up his drinks company, Combs Spirits, in the early 2000s.
The company began working with beverage giant Diageo in 2007, taking over the marketing and promotion of Cîroc for a share of the profits.
Then in 2013, the two companies co-purchased DeLeon tequila.
He is reported to have made US$60 million a year from the drinks’ brands and by 2014, more than two million cases of Cîroc were sold a year.
But in June last year, before allegations about his conduct emerged, the spirits’ parent company, Diageo, started the process to cut ties with the mogul, accusing him of using threats and acting in bad faith to get his own way.
It followed a lawsuit lodged by Combs that claimed his vodka and tequila brands did not receive promised investments and were treated as inferior “urban” products.
Agents combed through the rapper’s properties in Los Angeles and Miami in March.
At least two men, believed to be Combs’ sons, were put in handcuffs at his Holmby Hills property.
Combs has been fighting various legal battles, including one against an unnamed woman who claimed he and two friends sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Combs has filed a motion to have the woman’s case thrown out and she will remain anonymous until the judge makes a ruling.
She was the fourth woman to accuse him of sexual assault last year after his former girlfriend, singer Cassie, sued him in November last year.
Combs denied Cassie’s claims and the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement in February.
The rapper has vehemently denied all of the accusations and claims the women are “looking for a quick payday”.
It was alleged that after supplying the 17-year-old with “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol”, Combs and two friends took turns to rape her, leaving her in so much pain that she could barely stand or remember how she got home. — Daily Mail UK
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