p diddy biography

Sean Combs was born in 1970 in Harlem, the first of Melvin and Janice Combs' two children. Janice was an aspiring model, while Melvin was a notorious street hustler whose lifestyle caught up with him when he was shot dead in Central Park—Sean was only three at the time. For the next ten years, the family continued to live in Harlem, where Sean witnessed firsthand the prime years of hip-hop's explosive evolution. From block parties to b-boy battles in the park, the seeds of his dream of becoming an entertainer were being sown.In 1988, Puffy entered Howard University, where his entrepreneurial drive immediately kicked into high gear. He started out promoting house parties and campus concerts; he also reportedly nurtured a lucrative side business selling term papers and old exams. Two years at Howard were enough for Puffy to realize that it was time to move on to something bigger and better. He dropped out, but quickly succeeded in convincing Andre Harrell, the head of Uptown Records in New York, to give him an internship. Harrell was himself an aspiring musician—he was the Mr. Jeckyll half of the mid-eighties rap duo Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde—and he saw in Puffy the same burning desire to get ahead that he had when he was a young man.