How Did Diddy Make His Money?

Diddy has received a lot of negative media attention in recent years. The music mogul, however, has a career that includes some of the most influential performers from the 1990s and 2000s. He is widely credited with shaping the sounds of rap, hip hop, and pop music via his record label, Bad Boy Records.

Diddy, born Sean Combs, has also built a business empire that earns millions of dollars per year. So, how did P Diddy get so wealthy and why does he faces serious legal challenges today?

How Did Diddy Get His Start?

Diddy got his start in the music business shortly after dropping out of Howard University during his second year. He got an internship at Uptown Records in 1990.

Uptown Records was a prominent label headed by rapper Andre Harrell. Harrell fostered Combs’s talent for identifying up-and-coming artists.

While at Uptown Records, Diddy helped develop Mary J. Blige and the quartet Jodeci. Indeed, Combs is credited as an executive producer on the Mary J. Blige albums What’s the 411? and My Life.

Harrell fired Combs from Uptown Records in 1993. Interviews suggest that both men had large egos that prevented them from working together. Combs used the opportunity to found Bad Boy Records. Some speculate this is with the help of financing from Clive Davis, who previously had backed Andre Harrell.

Combs convinced The Notorious B.I.G. to join his new label and helped to produce Biggie’s first album, Ready to Die (1994).

Combs also reached out to prominent producers, songwriters, and rappers to join his company. He called the roster The Hitmen. Members of the The Hitmen included:

• Kanye West (now known as Ye)
• Rashad Smith
• Sean C (Deleno Matthews)
• Stevie J (Steven Jordan)
• Kelly Price
• 3rd Eye (Jesse West)
• Anthony Dent

Bad Boy Records released several top-selling and critically acclaimed albums.

Some highlights from Bad Boy include:

• Faith by Faith Evans (1995)
• Life After Death by The Notorious B.I.G. (1997)
• No Way Out by Puff Daddy & the Family (1997)
• Keep the Faith by Faith Evans (1998)
• Born Again by The Notorious B.I.G. (1999)
• Boyz in da Hood by Boyz n da Hood (2005)

Combs has released several popular albums under his various stage names.

In 1992, Combs made his acting debut on the sketch comedy show In Living Color. His other acting credits include roles in:

• Monster’s Ball (2001)
• CSI: Miami (2009)
• Entourage (2010)
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2012)
• Black-ish (2015)

How Did P Diddy Get His Name?

Sean Combs has gone by several names throughout his career, but P Diddy might be the producer’s most popular moniker.

According to Combs, kids started calling him “Puffy” because he would “huff and puffy” when he got angry. He adopted the name Puffy on early albums released in the early 1990s. By the end of the decade, he started using “Puff Daddy.”

Combs sees a distinction between the Puffy and Puff Daddy characters, but he hasn’t made the differences clear to fans.

Combs started using “P Diddy” in the early 2000s in homage to his friend The Notorious B.I.G., who started using the P Diddy name before his death in 1997.

When he announced his new name, Combs said he wouldn’t answer to Puffy or Puff Daddy any longer. He also said he didn’t take the name change as seriously as Prince had taken his change to “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.” (Combs later dropped the “P” in “P Diddy,” saying that it made the change easier on fans.)

Although Sean Combs has changed his stage name several times, he has only changed his legal name once. In 2020, he shared a photo of his Florida driver’s license showing his new name “Sean Love Combs.”

How Did Diddy Get Famous?

Diddy got famous by producing hit songs for himself and other artists, primarily in the pop and rap genres. His label, Bad Boy Records, released all albums by The Notorious B.I.G., including his posthumous albums.

Well before P Diddy became a professional producer, he showed a talent for hyping events and drawing large crowds.

While attending Howard University, he threw parties that attracted hundreds of people. He brought that energy to Bad Boy Records, which helped him and his label mates stand out from the crowd of emerging rappers.

Diddy helped pioneer sampling in popular music. For example, his hit song Been Around the World prominently features samples from David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. It’s All About the Benjamins uses samples from the Jackson 5 song It’s Great to Be Here.

These catchy songs made P Diddy a popular musician in the 1990s and early 2000s.

How Did Diddy Make His Money?

Diddy made his money by starting Bad Boy Records and nurturing the talent of other musicians, including The Notorious B.I.G., Usher, and Mary J Blige.

He used money from his label’s popular singles and albums to fund other business ventures.

Today, he owns businesses in diverse industries, including entertainment, fashion, and dining.

Diddy’s Net Worth

Most analysts following Diddy’s career believe he has a net worth of about $800 million. Others estimate his net worth to be as high as $1 billion.

Combs started his business empire by forming Bad Boy Records in 1993. The label has released albums featuring The Notorious B.I.G., Boyz n da Hood, Machine Gun Kelly, and many more popular artists.

Diddy used the money from Bad Boy Records to fund other ventures, including:

• Sean John, a clothing and fragrance brand
• Justin’s, a small restaurant chain
• Ciroc, a vodka brand now owned by beverage conglomerate Diageo

It’s been reported that some of those deals have been terminated in the recent past, however.

Was Diddy Married To Jennifer Lopez?

Diddy and Jennifer Lopez were in a relationship from 1999 to 2001. Lopez says she broke up with Combs because of his infidelity.

Combs has never been married, but he has children with at least four women. He had his first child with fashion designer Misa Hylton.

He had an on-again, off-again 13-year relationship with model Kimberly Porter. Combs adopted her child from a previous relationship. The couple had one son and twin daughters. Porter died of pneumonia in 2018.

Combs has a daughter with Sarah Chapman. She was born shortly before his twins with Porter.

He was in an 11-year relationship with singer Cassie Ventura, but they didn’t have any kids together.

Combs had a daughter with Dana Tran in 2022.

The Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs and Tupac Scandal

Puff Daddy and Tupac were involved in a West Coast-East Coast rivalry that led to Tupac’s death.

According to a suspect, Duane Davis, potentially involved in Tupac’s death, P Diddy had hired him to shoot the popular rapper. The suspect says Combs wanted to kill Tupac to eliminate his competition in the music industry.

Tupac Shakur died in Las Vegas in 1996 after attending a boxing match. While en route to a club, a car pulled up next to Shakur and someone fired several rounds. Shakur was struck four times. He died from internal bleeding.

Diddy’s involvement hasn’t been confirmed.

What Is the Story With Diddy?

Recently, Sean Combs has been accused of rape, sexual misconduct, and sex trafficking.

Cassie Ventura sued him in 2023 for sex trafficking, abuse, and rape. She also accused him of blowing up the car of her boyfriend, rapper Kid Cudi.

Also in 2023, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones sued Combs, accusing the rapper of sexual assault and forcing him to have sex with sex workers. Jones also accused Combs of drugging him.

These and other accusations led to the Department of Homeland Security raiding Combs’s properties in New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles. Reports say that federal authorities seized electronic devices, including computers, from the homes.

Diddy denies all accusations. It’s been reported that Federal authorities allowed him to leave the country for a vacation in Antigua and Barbuda.

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The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Financhill has a disclosure policy. This post may contain affiliate links or links from our sponsors.