Rise to Fame
Getting fired from Uptown Records in 1993 was the best thing that happened to him. Combs founded Bad Boy Records immediately after, signing The Notorious B.I.G. and building a label that Billboard reportedly named the top hip-hop imprint of 1995. When Biggie was murdered in 1997, he turned grief into his debut album "No Way Out," which hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and sold 7 million copies in the US. The death of his most important artist happened to be the making of his solo career.
In the Spotlight
The fall is as documented as the rise. Indicted in September 2024 on federal charges including sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs was convicted in 2025 on two counts of transportation for purposes of prostitution and sentenced to roughly 4 years. Diageo had already terminated the Ciroc partnership in January 2024, and Howard University revoked his honorary doctorate in June of the same year. More than 70 civil complaints were filed against him. Rolling Stone declared him a billionaire in 2022. He spent the following years dismantling every part of that.
Side Notes
Before all of this, the business story alone was worth telling. The Ciroc partnership with Diageo took the vodka from 40,000 cases per year to over 2 million by 2014, reportedly earning him $60 million annually. His fashion label Sean John peaked at $450 million in annual sales. He launched Revolt TV, changed his name four different times (Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy, Brother Love), and kept insisting the next version would be the definitive one. That person and the one who ended up in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center are the same person.