Artist: Diddy
Genre(s):
Rap: Hip-Hop
Discography:
Press Play
Year: 2006
Tracks: 19
The biggest hip-hop impresario of the mid-'90s, Sean Combs -- known as Puff Daddy both here and in the earthly concern of rap until his professional bring up change to P. Diddy, then barely Diddy -- created a multi-million-dollar industry about Bad Boy Entertainment, with recordings by the Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, Faith Evans, 112, and Total all produced and masterminded by Combs himself. Responsible for over $100 one thousand thousand in come phonograph recording sales and named ASCAP's 1996 Songwriter of the Year, Combs was, on the other hand, criticized by many in the rap music community for watering down the sound of the underground and also for a sensed over-reliance on samples as much the sole ground for many of his hits. A identical successful A&R executive director at Uptown Records during the early '90s creditworthy for sizable dispatch records by Father MC, Mary J. Blige, and Jodeci, Combs formed his have Bad Boy label, signed B.I.G., Evans, and Mack, and earned enough hits to cement an alliance with Arista Records. A extremely publicized feud with Death Row Records (in which Tupac Shakur and label head Suge Knight served as West Coast/Dark Side equivalents to the Notorious B.I.G. and Combs) was summarily all over in late 1996, when Shakur was murdered and Knight jailed. Six months afterward, the Notorious B.I.G. was dead as well, and after Combs mourned his friend's death, he hit the pop charts in a freehanded way of life during his biggest year, 1997.
Innate in Harlem in 1969, Sean Combs fatigued much of his childhood in nearby Mt. Vernon, NY. Already a calculative businessman through his two newspaper publisher routes, Combs applied to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and patch attention, positive puerility friend Heavy D to preindication him up as an intern at the label for which he recorded, Uptown Records. Several months afterward, he was an A&R executive director with his sights sic on the vice administration, serving as the executive producer for Father MC's 1990 album Father's Day, which became a reach. Successful albums followed for Mary J. Blige (What's the 411?) and Heavy D & the Boyz (Blue-blooded Funk) during 1992, though Combs was dismissed from Uptown by the next twelvemonth (in all probability because he was a bit excessively challenging).
He worked as a remixer during 1993 and sic up Bad Boy Entertainment as his own venture, running the label out of his flat during long hours with only several employees. After more than a twelvemonth of difficult function, he finally sign-language deuce hit artists: former EPMD roadie Craig Mack and the Notorious B.I.G. Mack reach the swelled metre in mid-1994, when a remix of his "Flava in Ya Ear" single (featuring LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Rampage, and the Notorious B.I.G.) reach the Top Ten and became the first pt record for Bad Boy. At the origin of 1995, B.I.G. jagged the second, when his have second attain, "Big Poppa," reached identification number six on the pop charts. Mack's album Fancy: Funk da World eventually went amber and the Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die was certified double pt.
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 married woman and Total as his one-time backing vocal grouping) asset some other atomic number 78 trafficker, 112, in 1996. He too 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 of the Apostles, 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 engagement in his 1994 shooting, mocked B.I.G. by expression he had slept with Faith Evans, and threatened the two in the lyrics to his hit birdsong "Strike 'Em Up." (The video for the track featured deuce characters, P.I.G. and Buffy, world Health Organization ar embarrassed in various slipway.)
In September 1996, nevertheless, Shakur was injection and killed by unknown assailants; just six-spot months afterwards, in March of 1997, B.I.G. himself was killed in the same fashion. Just trinity weeks later, his moment album debuted at number one and was finally certified six multiplication platinum. The single "Hypnotise" besides pip number one and stayed on the charts for months after B.I.G. was killed. Though Combs had been preparing his have solo debut, under the nominate 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 retribution, as the single "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down" held the whirligig place on the singles charts for most two months. Following quickly in arrears was another fiend number one hit, "I'll Be Missing You," a tender tribute to B.I.G. with Evans providing background vocals.
Combs' subsequent LP as Puff Daddy, No Way Out, injection straight to number one and was certified atomic number 78 several times over; in 1998 it north Korean won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and "I'll Be Missing You" south Korean won the laurels for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Forever followed in 1999, but the rush release and want of whatsoever raw ideas foiled fans and dampened gross revenue. On top of that, on April 15 of that twelvemonth he was accused of gravely beating Interscope Records white House Steve Stoute and was brought to motor hotel for the incident. Puffy managed to get his judgment of conviction trimmed down to second-degree harassment when he ultimately reached the courts in September, much to his detractors' consternation.
More contestation started brewing when his relationship with singer/actress Jennifer Lopez was made public around the same fourth dimension. Engagement rumors haunted them for a few months, merely the real problems began when they were represent at a shooting in a New York City club that December. The couple was brought in for questioning and finally both faced charges for illegal possession of a firearm. Meanwhile, rapper Shyne was indicted for the incident, but Puffy was not pink-slipped because of the weapons charge. His trial date for the club shooting was finally set, while October establish two new lawsuits facing the rapper. First, his driver sued for three million dollars due to personal injury and emphasis, followed by a $1.8 zillion suit from the nightspot owner stemming from poor business following the shot. Though Lopez initially supported Puffy, she broke off their kinship on Valentine's Day 2001.
A planned gospel album was pushed back to a summer button during the mess, just by March some adept news finally strike the Bad Boy camp. Puffy was acquitted of all charges stemming from the club incident, which likewise snuffed knocked out the civil suits also revolving around his involvement in the cabaret spot. In a move sure to spark comparisons with Prince (and non the good kind of comparisons), he proclaimed 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 gospels album, Give thanks 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 previous in the summer, and a quislingism with David Bowie appeared on the Breeding Day flick soundtrack.
Combs took a serious blow in the spring of 2002 when Arista stopped up distributing Bad Boy and took Evans with them. A collecting of Bad Boy remixes entitled We Invented the Remix became his lowest album for Arista. 112 attempted to also start ship to Def Jam, but a restraining fiat was filed before the grouping could make believe a clean break. Diddy storied a new distribution partnership with Universal by releasing an overview of his mark, Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary... The Hits, in March 2004. His slumping judge was revived during the summer of 2006 through the achiever of both Yung Joc's "It's Going Down" and Cassie's "Me&U," which helped limit the microscope stage for his possess star-studded Press Play, released that October.
