Sean Combs
Rapper P Diddy tells us why his hip-hop business empire is smelling good
The man who would be king
WHETHER YOU KNOW HIM AS PUFFY, DIDDY OR JUST PLAIN SEAN COMBS, THE BOSS OF HIP HOP HAS AS MANY NAMES AS HE HAS BUSINESSES. HE TELLS US ABOUT HIS NEW FRAGRANCE AND FASHION LINES AND WANTING TO BE THE FIRST BLACK BOND
INTERVIEW | JOSHSIMS
“I CHANGE MY NAME with the different phases in my life, as my personality and interests evolve,” the man who was christened Sean Combs tells me. “It’s always me, just different extensions or variations of myself.”
That may not prove the best branding policy for a man who, depending on what era you’re thinking of, has variously been known as Puff Daddy, Puffy, P Diddy and then merely Diddy. But the identity crisis does not seem to have done him any harm. In fact, his many names reflect his many business interests. Combs may be a template for the business style of our times: fully flexible, instinctual, devolved from the teachings of management schools; moreover, a figurehead for the celebrity age, who embodies many brands without being fixed to any one of them.
Combs, indeed, is the electron of the entertainment business: never at stand-still and unable to be observed without that observation changing its nature. Try and pin the entrepreneur down to any one project – his clothing line, Sean John, for example, or record production under his Bad Boy label – and he’s on to another: the launch of his latest fragrance, producing the recent movie Notorious, or furthering his burgeoning acting career.
Traditional business models would regard this as unfocused – and small wonder that a recent US reality TV series was called I Want to Work for Diddy, because he needs an army behind him. But then traditional business models might like to take note that it has given Combs, who turns 40 this year, an estimated net worth in excess of $350m.
“First and foremost I consider myself an entertainer,” he explains during gaps in a schedule so tight that to breath once too often would throw it out of kilter. “I have so many interests that I needed a business for each to really see them succeed. Over the course of the day I’ll spend time on each line – fashion, TV, fragrance – and at night I’ll be in the recording studio. But I wouldn’t be doing any of this if I didn’t have a passion for it. It’s my life – it’s what excites me, what keeps me growing both as a person and as a businessman.”
Hip hop has allowed several of its lead players to turn entrepreneur – Russell Simmons, Pharrell Williams, Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter and Damon Dash are among those who have similar business interests. Graduating, as many have, from the school of hard knocks to attain a luxury lifestyle that, at times, has been the stuff of self-parody – Combs himself recently complained that the price of oil was forcing him to cut back on trips in his private jet – has given them a credibility among younger consumers for whom ‘urban’ remains the ultimate badge of cool.
In this world, it can seem that the bigger the ego, the bigger the business punch too. Following the success of his debut fragrance Unforgivable, developed by the cosmetics behemoth Estée Lauder – it made a reported $150m worldwide in its first year – comes the follow up. Launched this month, I Am King has hints of key lime pie, orange and, fittingly, the kir royal champagne cocktail. It may be named so to be empowering to its wearer, but it also hints at Combs’s own jet-setting, yacht-sailing, party-throwing blingyverse.
THE FRAGRANCE’S ADVERTISING has him lounging on the Cote d’Azur, at the tables of Monte Carlo’s casinos, descending from a helicopter crewed by swimsuit clad lovelies, wearing black tie and shades. The look is very James Bond – and how. If multiple business interests has taught Combs one thing, it is the power of cross-promotion: he has stated his desire to be the first black James Bond, and this is a handy reminder of how that might work. That each of his products nod to Combs’s own lifestyle makes for a large part of their appeal. Whatever you do, “you always have to do it with swagger,” as he puts it, and Combs swaggers better than most. But he is adamant that this is not a case of puff over pith.
“I’ll admit that I’m also a bit of a micro-manager because if a product’s got my name on it, I want to have a say in its design and to believe in it 100 percent,” he declares. “But I’m all about the merits of a good product. No matter how you brand something, if it’s not a good product, you’ll lose your credibility, be that as an artist or as a designer. My brand and its products are my reputation. That being said, I have a truly amazing team. I trust these people greatly and consider some of them to be a kind of extension of myself.”
Combs’s own upbringing was, despite the myth-making, not entirely of the streets: admittedly his father, an associate of a Harlem drug lord, was murdered, while his mother’s work ethic and commitment to doing three jobs to keep the family afloat meant that the young Sean was close to his grandmother. And he has since been arrested and acquitted on gun possession and bribery charges, as well as ones for assault and driving without a license. So far, so gritty. “Hip hop is about real life – if anything, it allows for people to have an open forum to express themselves, and in reality, it’s not always going to be pretty. But it’s crucial these voices and ideas are heard,” he explains.
But he also attended a private school and a respectable university in Washington, shuttling down the coast to work as an intern at New York’s Uptown Records. He quit studies and quickly proved he was more marketing maestro than mock mobster. When he was only 19 he was the director of A&R and signed Mary J Blige among others.
Although fired in 1993, he was determined to rise relentlessly.
“My internship was my first taste of the industry and gave me an idea of what I wanted to do with my life. But in the end [getting fired] turned out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Combs says. “I still have great relationships with the team over there. But it definitely put a fire in me to create my own business. You learn something from everything, even adverse experiences. Over the years I’ve definitely made a few missteps, but the key is to quickly understand when you’ve made a mistake and correct it as soon as possible.”
Indeed, Combs almost immediately set up Bad Boy Entertainment from his apartment and, within three years, was a power broker in the increasingly commercial hip hop and R&B markets – working with the likes of TLC and Mariah Carey, launching himself as an artist, Puff Daddy, and in 1997 picking up a Grammy for the best rap album. Subsequent years saw both a growing roster of stars and an ever-expanding circle of business interests – not to mention the bad boy image somewhat diluted by his seeing Chicago launch an annual ‘Diddy Day’ in honour of his charity work, and his campaign to encourage urban youth to use their vote.
PRESENTLY COMBS HAS TWO REALITY TV SERIES
in the works and a deal with MTV, arguably the most direct voice to his core consumer short of the internet, that gives him first refusal production rights on any new programme concepts. And then there is his fashion namesake. A little over a decade ago saw the launch of the Sean John collection, which, after near misses, finally won the industry Oscar, the CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award, in 2004. Fashion, with its many spin-offs, has become the mainstay of Combs’s business world, and in a big way.
With annual sales in the US alone of $525m, Sean John is fast becoming something akin to the first black Ralph Lauren, with a third crack at women’s apparel in the pipeline.
Combs is leading hip hop style out of the ghetto before the ghetto loses its edgy allure. The recent shift in style from baggy-bummed, logo-centric streetwear to more grown-up, slick menswear with an urban bent not only talks to a long-ignored consumer but is indicative of Combs’s awareness that any product that stands still is going to fall foul of trends, technology, copyists or all three.
“You have to keep things new and keep reinventing,” he explains. “You have to pay attention to all the details. I like to think, for example, that we’ve always been a leader in the fashion industry in our speciality market. We’ve got young men to dress up, to wear more fitted clothing, to learn that when it comes to fashion it’s all about the details too. Understanding your customers is crucial to the success of any business. And although I’ve been blessed with much success in my life, I can still relate to my customers. I’ve never forgotten my roots.”
Whether his audience remembers them just as well, and so continue to believe in the authenticity of a man who now lives a life of almost cartoon excess, is another question. Combs, the CEO of corporate hip hop, clearly remains central to his business operations – his talent for marketing, for example, recently saw the drinks giant Diageo sign a pioneering deal that will leave him making all brand management decisions for its Ciroc vodka in return for a 50/50 profit split that is predicted to net Combs in the region of $100m.
But, while he is still a celebrity of high camp glamour, frequently spotted with a diamond mine hanging off one arm and model girlfriend off the other, his brands are now beginning to transcend his public image. Unable to be both street and Fifth Avenue, Combs is wisely now letting his creations do most of the talking.
I am King eau de toilette is launched this month
