Sean “Diddy” Combs first entered the music world in the late 1980s as an intern for Uptown Records, eventually launching his own label, Bad Boy Records, in 1993. In the late ’90s, after the death of his friend The Notorious B.I.G., Diddy became a rapper himself, quickly earning a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And although Diddy’s catalog of hits dates back over two decades, the music mogul has no plans to sell his music for a big payday.
Diddy started Bad Boy Records in the early ’90s and eventually became a rapper
Diddy founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and signed his first artist, The Notorious B.I.G., who released his smash debut album Ready to Die that following year. Diddy worked to make Biggie the star that he was during his life, and the legend that he became after his death. Biggie’s sudden death in March 1997, just two weeks before the release of his sophomore album Life After Death, rocked the music industry, and Diddy especially.
Two months later, in May 1997, Diddy teamed up with Biggie’s wife Faith Evans and R&B group 112 for “I’ll Be Missing You,” a heartfelt song dedicated to Biggie and his memory. The song rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained at No. 1 for 11 weeks, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Diddy released his debut album No Way Out in July 1997.
Diddy continued to release music throughout the ’90s and ’00s, from his 1999 album Forever to 2001’s The Saga Continues… and 2006’s Press Play, his most recent album to date.
Diddy doesn’t want to sell his music catalog
Artists from Bob Dylan to Justin Bieber have made a pretty penny selling the rights to their music catalogs in recent years, often netting a payday of several hundred million dollars. Diddy, however, isn’t interested in doing the same.
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Tarik Brooks, the president of Combs Enterprises, stopped by the Trapital podcast to discuss business and more, including Diddy’s various business ventures, from Cîroc vodka to Sean John clothing. Brooks revealed that Diddy isn’t interested in throwing himself into a deal to sell off his music at the moment.
“For us, we’re in no rush to get rid of a portfolio that could be a part of [music’s evolution],” Brooks said. “Who knows how you think about those assets in the future?” He also admitted that Diddy and his team have already been approached with offers to buy his catalog.
“We have the benefit of being able to go slow and kinda take our time and basically run experiments at our own pace to figure out what we want to do,” he continued. “And so from that perspective, people have continually come through with offers, opportunities, and things. And we’ve purposely taken our time as we’ve thought about what Puff’s experience of music is gonna be over the next years as he climbs what he talks about as his second mountain.”
Diddy has been releasing new music in the past year
Diddy has appeared on other artists’ songs over the years, and in 2022, he made a grand return to music with two new songs as the lead artist: “Gotta Move On” and “Sex in the Porsche.” Diddy has hinted that a new album is coming in 2023, which would mark his first new album in 17 years.
