He’s changed his name nearly a half dozen times, but when his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame was unveiled today, it read, simply, Sean “Diddy” Combs. His mom wouldn’t have it any other way. “My mother sat down with me and said, “You’ve got to act like your grandmother is still here, so we’re not going to do the whole ‘P. Diddy’ thing,” he says laughing.
Strategically located at Hollywood & Highland across the way from a billboard bearing his likeness, the multi-platinum, Grammy winner’s star commemorates his two-decades long grind in the music business. “Getting this star is a blessing,” Combs adds. “If I can go from Harlem to Hollywood, then maybe [the next kid] can get to the White House, see the world and change the world.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the man who invented ‘the remix.’ There’s the fashion, the fragrance, the vodka and his newfound passion– acting–which was sparked when he took to the Broadway stage and later, the small screen, for the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.
Along with keeping the next generation of Bad Boy Entertainment artists (think Danity Kane and Day 26 ) at the top of the charts, he’s got his sights set on the movies. Having scored a film credit for his turn in Monster’s Ball, Combs, who is on board as an executive producer of the upcoming biopic, Notorious, is currently reading about six scripts. “When I look at people like Oprah and Madonna, it makes me want to do better, every day. I want to keep challenging and reinventing,” he says. “It’ll feel good to come down to Hollywood Boulevard, at four in the morning, with my boys from Harlem, like, ‘Yo, we really did it!’”