Sean “Diddy” Combs: Things Done Changed
AllHipHop.com did a nice interview with Diddy, here’s the full interview:
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been many things to many people. He’s a father to two boys and a pair of twin girls in his girlfriend’s belly. He’s an entertainer. Businessman. Producer. Fashion icon. Activist. Diddy puts on all his hats and talks to AllHipHop.com in part two of Sean “Diddy” Combs: Things Done Changed.
AllHipHop: You don’t have any other Bad Boy acts on this album. Why not?
Diddy: I didn’t go at this album like the CEO of Bad Boy. I went at this as an artist. I been there and I’ve done that. To be honest, a lot of these songs were to the level that they needed more experience. A lot of the artists I have now are very young. If you listen to the lyrical content, the sophistication, it had to be cats there were really doing this thing. I didn’t want to put my artists in a position where they had to force something. This is like the all-stars of all-stars on this thing here. From the producers to the artists. As an artist, I just wanted to make the right decision.
AllHipHop: I can appreciate the album from a number of perspectives. You have the Kanye joint, which is crazy, the ‘80s Prince-like song, and other stuff. And, above all, it's a seamless album with no breaks…
Diddy: That was one of the hardest things to do. I wanted to show an evolution of the sound. So, when you make that turn and I bring you to the brand new sound that has a more electronica, ‘80s funk, live type of Hip-Hop sound, I had to do it very carefully. I had to do it with emotions. On “Special Feeling”, I had used the kick-n-snare that was made famous by Prince, but everybody else that’s Black knows that it came from [the sounds in] church. That when they giving out the offering [in church], so I told them to that emotional [place] and I kept riding out from there.
AllHipHop: We see your kids more prominent in things, a lot of your oldest son Justin. Are you training him to succeed you in the business?
Diddy: My youngest son, he wants to be a rap artist. Justin, he wants to be in sports and things like that. Most importantly, whatever they want to do, [they can do it]. They don’t have any pressure to be in the music industry.
AllHipHop: Do you ever feel the need to isolate your kids from the evils of the game or business?
Diddy: No, they’re up on everything. My kids ask me, “Dad, what’s up with you and 50? What’s really good?” I gotta answer all types of questions [like], “I saw you doing this. What’s that about?” It also keeps me on point to watch what I say and helps me with my decisions. It also helps you see how big you are. We are their leaders, not just my kids, but all kids. 50’s son was probably the same way, “What’s really good? I thought that was Uncle Puff, what’s good?” You just get to a point, we all that’s in the game, its bigger than us. We gotta be laying down the foundation for everybody that’s got to come after us.
AllHipHop: You’re having twin girls. Did you buy a shotgun for future use?
Diddy: [Laughs] Nah, I’m just praying for a healthy delivery. I’m just in shock about being able to have twins, its an amazing thing.
AllHipHop: At one point, you did Citizen Change and you seemed to dive into the political arena. What went right for you and what went wrong?
Diddy: With Citizen Change, it went way better than I expected. You got to understand young people, Black people, me – we had decided we’re not going to vote at all. That t-shirt [Vote or Die] that people make a joke about, it engaged people. It's a slogan that will go down in history. Do you know how hard it is to get something politically relevant out there? And the statistics that they try to hold back of 18 – 35, the increased voting was tremendous and far beyond what they thought it would be. The sad part about it is, the slogan was the truth. A lot of people ain’t vote, and a lot of people are dying. It holds more relevance now and its going to hold more relevance in the upcoming election.
AllHipHop: Do you plan to do Citizen Change going forward?
Diddy: Yes. Citizen Change is something that we will be doing going forward to the presidential election.
AllHipHop: On the album, you rap about being the first Black president. Do you have any real aspirations to be do that?
Diddy: No, I have no aspirations to be a politician. I’d rather stay in the lines of being a revolutionary. You know, supporting the revolution in my way. It's just that when you go to school and they ask you want you want to be, there are only two people [to choose from]. It just, I want to be this, I want to be that. But we all have potential. It's just the potential.
AllHipHop: What’s on deck in the business world?
Diddy: We got a women’s line of [Sean John] that’s about to drop. But It's just about focusing in on my foundation, which is music. I’m going to be one the road and touring and showcasing it to everybody.
AllHipHop: Is the “Making The Band” phenomenon a new way of A&Ring albums now, or mostly for TV?
Diddy: The way you see it on TV, that’s the way it is at Daddy’s House [Bad Boy’s studio]. They ain’t gotta go get cheesecake or nothing. Some of that is for TV. The way we are in the studio and being hard on our artists, and hard on myself is the way it is at Daddy’s House. And that’s the reason why we’ve been able to be around. We’re the last ones standing. We take pride in that. We ain’t never close our doors. We the last ones that haven’t sold our way into the system. Not saying that we won’t one day, because that’s another misconception. People don’t know when to flip their company. To go all that we’ve been through, to take all our knocks and bruise to have one of our best years…and we’re still here, its a true testament.
AllHipHop: The 10th Anniversary of Biggie’s death is coming up. Do you have any plans?
Diddy: We’re working on plans now; we’re working on something very special.
AllHipHop: How important has the internet been in promoting your album?
Diddy: One thing I did differently this time around was utilizing the internet to have direct contact with the fans. I think we’ve had a huge impact of people seeing a different side of me. They see a serious side, and its important to be able to speak to kids directly.
