Sean John Combs, also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, Diddy, and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, media executive, musician, actor, and entrepreneur. In 2012 Forbes estimated Combs' net worth at $550 million, making him the richest figure in hip-hop.
The strengths of Sean John Combs that I have managed to identify are that he always has a good team of people around him. He was good friends with the departed Notorious (AKA Biggie Smalls), A rapper who was very well know for his music and his feud with West coast rapper 2 Pac Shakur, which resulted in the tragic loss of both of their lives.
Notorious was also signed to Sean Combs’s record label, Bad Boy records. Although the outcome of Notorious’ death was tragic, his success in his rap career attracted a lot of attention by the media and the general public. As his success in his career grew, so did Sean Combs’s record label, Bad Boy Records – who had eventually signed many successful major artists in the Hip Hop and RnB community such as Faith Evans, Usher, Lil Kim & Mariah Carey. Therefore a lot of artists trust Sean Comb’s because of his reputation in the industry.
Another strength Sean has is his he is very creative. Although he has signed many major artists to his label, he has managed to attract the attention of more artists from other labels for his skills as a rapper and a record producer. He has done this by getting them to feature on his songs and by also getting his work over the radio – therefore giving artists the opportunity to hear his work and ask him if he would help them by featuring on theirs songs. He has also been involved in acting and directing which would also draw more attention to artists who may want him in their music videos or may need help creating them. His acting career would also intrigue his fans and would also lead to people who haven’t heard of him being interesting in finding out more about him.
He also clearly has very good entrepreneurial skills and has a lot of ambition. He also owns his own clothing line, perfume & 2 restaurants. In an interview on CNN, he plans to open a business school in New York. His exact words were ‘I want it to be known for building leaders’.
All of these strengths make Sean Combs an idol for the youths that follow the Rap and Hip hop industry. The fact that he is also on twitter also increases reputation in the younger general public.
One weakness that stands out for Sean Combs is that his music and his label are known for only Hip-hop, Rap and RnB. This is a weakness because it limits him to these very few urban genres.
Another weakness for Sean Combs, is that he has too many businesses. Although having businesses in a number of different sectors is very successful, having little control over them is a problem.
One incident that Sean Combs was criticized for were factories for his clothing line in which the workers were being treated badly. in 2003 it was revealed that the factories in Honduras were violating Honduran labor laws. Among the accusations were that workers were subjected to body searches and involuntary pregnancy tests. Bathrooms were locked and access tightly controlled. Employees were forced to work overtime and were paid sweatshop wages. However, Sean responded with an extensive investigation and made massive improvements by February 2004.
Failures
There are three minor failures that Sean Combs has made over the years that I can identify.
Firstly, he created a show called ‘making the band,’ a talent show created by Sean to put together the next big boy band and girl band. The show itself lasted 3 seasons. However, the 2 bands that Sean had created didn’t last long at all, and just like X Factor, they disappeared after a short period of time.
Sean’s second failure was the release of this most recent studio album entitled ‘The last train to Paris’ which featured 2 members of a band that he had put together called ‘Dirty Money’. Compared to his previous albums, it seems like Sean Combs attempted to take his usual genre into a different direction and experiment with new sounds. All though the album wasn’t a total failure, it still only reached number 7 in the American Album charts in 2010/2011 – compared to his previous albums which always charted in the top 3 of the album charts.
His final failure involved the clothing side of his many businesses. Two of his clothing stores selling his brand ‘Sean John’ had closed due to a fall in sales, and the damage from the Recession. The original New York location closed in September 2007 the Atlanta location closed in June 2012. There are still however 7 stores open across America.
Sean Combs has created a number of successful businesses in a number of industries.
Successes
His most recognized success is his record label, Bad boy records (originally Bad Boy Entertainment) which he founded in 1993. Today, it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Interscope Records. He has signed artists such as Biggie Smalls, Mario Winans and Cassie throughout the years. The label is 50% owned by Universal Music Group's Interscope Geffen A&M label and is recognized worldwide.
His clothing line, ‘Sean John’ which made its debut in 1999 specializes in menswear. It has since expended by launching 3 different fragrences, called Unforgivable, I AM KING and Unforgivable for women. Along with securing a deal with Macys which offers Sean Combs clothing products both online and in 400 Macy stores, he has also opened 7 ‘Sean John’ retail stores (10 originally) in key locations across America (such as Las Vegas, Florida etc). Sean John was honored by the Council of fasion designers of America as Men’s wear designer of the year in 2004. His annual retail sales across the USA are worth over $525 million.
He is also the designer of the Dallas Mavericks alternate jersey. In October 2007 Combs agreed to help develop the Ciroc vodka brand for a 50% share of the profits. Sean also acquired the Enyce clothing line from Liz Claiborne for $20 million on October 21, 2008.
The final and most important successful reason, which makes Sean Combs and his other business ventures a global success, is this recognition for his rap career. In 1997, under the name "Puff Daddy", Combs recorded his first commercial vocal work as a rapper. His debut single, "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down", spent 28 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number one. His debut album, No Way Out, was released on July 1, 1997, through Bad Boy Records. It reached number one and sold 561,000 copies. He has since released 5 albums (6 including No Way out). The success from these albums have won him 3 Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album (No way out – 1998) and Best Rap Performance by a duo or group (Il be missing you – 1998, Shake ya tailfeather – 2004), along with 2 MTV Music Video Awards for best R&B video (Ill be missing you – 1997) and viewers choice (its all about the benjamins rock remix – 1998)
Unique Talents
As unique talents go, Sean Combs, clearly sees, eats, sleeps raps and wears money. He is clearly very business driven and is always looking for new ways to make money. He is dominating a wide range of industries from music, to film, fashion and fragence.
Forbes Magazine estimates that for the year ending May 2012, Combs earned $45 million, ranking him fifteenth among musicians. In 2012 his estimated net worth was $550 million, making him the richest person in the hip hop entertainment business.
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