“One of the mistakes I’ve made was doing reality TV,” confessed Sean Combs to a standing-room-only crowd. “When I was doing Making the Band, nobody understood that I’m an incredible actor. A lot of people think I yell at people and tell them to get cheesecake and that I’m an asshole. Well, I am an asshole sometimes.”
Plugging Revolt TV and offering insight, “You can’t get on Wikipedia,” the hip-hop mogul and self-proclaimed “curator of cool” held court with refreshing honesty as interviewed by Forbes editor Zack Greenburg.
“I’m a shy person, but I had this dream that was bubbling and over the years some of the whole things with Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, whatever the names are – that’s my fault too.”
There was plenty of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs: “Be disruptive. You can’t wait for someone to give you a chance. You can’t wait to be heard. You’ve got to stand up in that motherfucker and start screaming at the top of your lungs and refuse to not be listened to.”
On cue, a young rapper slid Diddy a CD and the audience Q&A devolved into a predictable, if highly entertaining, parade of personal pitches. A woman calling herself “She Diddy” scored the promise of a lunch date while a middle-aged DJ filmed himself getting Dr. Phil-like tough love from Diddy onstage.
Bottom line to young artists is that gatekeepers are a dying breed: “If it’s dope, it’s gonna spread like the bird flu.”
This article appears in March 7 • 2014.
