“Diddy” Topic Of NYU Course

With more accolades than one can count, Harlemite and mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs comfortably boasts a masters in Hustlenomincs and much more success to come. That said, it makes perfect sense that his life story, business acumen, and the like have become the basis of the Sean Combs & Urban Culture class at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute.

Per the course description:

No single personality dominated the landscape of urban mainstream popular culture in the 1990s (and since) more than producer, rapper and entrepreneur Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs. By 2014, hip-hop and black culture have become globally mainstream; the immense popularity that hip-hop enjoys today is directly rooted in the profound cultural changes that Combs and his peers instigated. Combs emerged from his humble professional beginnings in the early 1990s as an A&R man at Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records to fashion himself as a profoundly versatile and wildly successful performer, actor, reality-TV star, producer, songwriter, fashion and restaurant entrepreneur and philanthropist. His current net worth estimated at $650 million makes him the richest man in hip-hop and one of the wealthiest artists in the history of popular music. He is a multiple Grammy-winner and won an Oscar in 2012 for his work as a film producer.

Though sometimes not treated with seriousness he deserves, Combs has had a profound effect on global culture of the last twenty years. Through the success of his Bad Boy Records label, which distributed genre-defining artists like the Notorious B.I.G., Combs helped forever alter and change the sound and visuals of hip hop and R&B. Combs drew on Russell Simmons’ early business success to redefine the image of the hip-hop entrepreneur as aggressive, brash and full of self-assured swagger. He also helped redefine the concept of celebrity branded entertainment and he mainstreamed innovative marketing techniques (like street teams) in the music industry.

This class will investigate the social and cultural and political changes of the 1990s and how Sean Combs was catapulted to success by those changes. Through critical readings, viewings and listening assignments, the brilliance, strategy and serial entrepreneurship of Sean Combs will be interpreted, discussed and dissected.

Hip-Hop plays can be found throughout NYU’s music curriculum, including a course taught by The Roots drummer and music historian Questlove.

[Spotted at The Stashed]