- The best thing about makin' it big
is making a lot of people happy.
That's why, like, I don't understand it, like,
when I hear artists say, you know,
something's too commercial,
or it reaches too wide of an audience.
I always thought that's why you made music,
to make a whole bunch of people happy.
So I'm proud to be a pop star.
I'm proud to have a label
that puts out pop and commercial music
that a wide audience can love.
I don't think my mind is limited
to the point where I could just produce.
I think my mind is so busy
and so thirsty for different knowledge
and different experiences,
that my mind would go crazy if I was just a producer.
Biggie just wasn't an artist to me, you know,
he was my friend, he was one of my best friends.
When I was back in '96 I was just like,
I was knowing '97 was gonna be the biggest year ever.
'Cause I knew all the records we had comin' out.
I knew all the plans me and Biggie had together
as far as going on tour,
and just, like, really puttin' it down for hip hop represent
for hip hop all over.
- [Interviewer] Is there any, like,
classic rock or pop song
that you really would never fool with, like,
and kinda redo or re-tweak?
- No there's none I really,
I really feel is sacred, that I couldn't.
I don't think that I couldn't make it more today.
Make people understand.
Like when I sample things,
it's to make people--
like, a lot of the young kids that listen to my music now,
younger kids,
they never heard, like, Cyndi Lauper or Sting
or, you know what I'm saying, or James Brown.
And I feel like it's a shame to hold all of that back.
- Can you stay this hungry though?
I mean after all the success,
after the things you want,
you wanna be a good father,
you wanna fall in love again,
can you stay as hungry as you were before?
Isn't something gonna be lost
if you wanna build your personal life?
- I mean, I think that, I think that
as long as I plant the seeds for my dreams,
it will flourish.
I think that other people
are gonna have to come and pick up the baton.
Because I'm definitely gonna make sure,
at the end of the day,
that no matter what, if I gotta lose it all,
that my sons love me
and that I'm able to fall in love with somebody
and I'm able to be happy.
- I wanted to ask you about this P.Diddy thing.
Now, are you supposed to be P.Diddy now?
Are we supposed to address you in that way?
- No, no nah. - That can't be serious,
right? - Nah, nah.
I mean you could address me--
- That's what the kids used to call him when he was young.
- Yeah.
- That's why they called you puffy.
- Puffy, yeah P.Diddy came from Biggie.
Everybody, a lot of,
just people real close to me
have called me P.Diddy for over the years.
That's what the album's entitled, P.Diddy and the family--
- Does the P stand for Puffy?
- Yeah. - Puffy Diddy?
- Yeah, no no, P it's like you'd have to ask,
I never even asked Biggie.
- Listen to the track Diddy, which is really cool.
- Yeah, listen to the track Diddy on the album.
I'm about to have my acting debut in a film.
It's a film called 'Made.'
It's directed and produced by John Favreau.
And Vince Vaughn is starring in it also.
And, um, I'm making my acting debut.
I wanted to sneak in a very quiet but big way.
Young America, man.
Show the whole world you can be diverse
and do a lot of different things.
A lot of times people say we doin' too many things.
But you never doin' too many things.
We making some records,
we're all over the airwaves right now,
Bad Boy we are all over.
We are all over, we are all--
- On the big screen now.
- Awh man, we've got the movies.
We got the clothes. - Fashion.
- What do you think about like, a lot of rap artists,
in the vein of you, are starting their clothing lines?
I know Busta Rhymes has Bushi, Jay-Z got Rocawear.
Ya know, why is that?
Is that like the natural progression for artists?
- I mean I think that we have such an impact
on fashion and lifestyle,
that rap artists and you know, record executives and moguls,
are tryna like figure out a way
to connect the dots with everything
and give their own style and point of view.
When I decided to do Making the Band,
I wanted to make sure it was different,
that it was real.
I felt that once you got 12 to 16 kids
living in one house,
crammed into one house, all from the inner city communities
havin' a hip hop background,
being apart of the hip hop culture and lifestyle,
that you have--
anything could basically happen.
- [Interviewer] Are there other mountains to climb?
- I mean to be honest, I'm really startin' over.
I had a nice long run
and I feel blessed and extremely fortunate
but I'm really-- I'm just startin' over.
I'm back in the studio more.
The criteria of making a Bad Boy record
is really paying attention to the details.
Making sure it's the best that we could give.
And we put out, from the mix to the vocals,
the lyrical content to the melody.
But most importantly we always representin' music
that gave you a feeling.
We represent music that makes you dance,
makes you feel good.
Being politically conscious, politically aware
don't just thing that politics is a situation that's boring
and that doesn't need your attention,
that's somethin' you can't effect a change.
Introduce yourself again for me, sir.
- I'm Barack Obama,
I'm the US Senate Candidate from the state of Illinois.
- And you becoming a black democratic senator,
this is big deal.
This is a big deal.
- Well absolutely,
we've got 100 US Senators from across the country,
and right now not one is African American.
- The name has changed.
We made it simpler.
We removed the P, the P was getting in between us.
You know, this is the day we enter in the age of Diddy.
It's five letters, one word.
We making it clear and concise.
A lot of my peeps in music they've been calling me Diddy,
so it's not drastic change for them.
But you know, different people all over the world
they didn't really know what to call me,
so we made it simple.
I think I used to chase No Way Out.
I used to chase previous success,
but not no more, ya know?
I was able to sit back
and realize how blessed and successful I've been.
And ready for the next phase, the next experience, you know?
Ten years for Bad Boy was,
that was like my dream come true.
Ten years for Sean John was something that I never really--
I didn't have that in the dream plan.
That came and then you know as I was dreaming about it,
I was like, I want it to be big.
But it's huge accomplishment, to have a record label
and a clothing line last so long.
When I started it
a lot of people didn't respect me as a designer,
they didn't know how involved that I was.
Think that time has gone on after winning the CFDA award,
which is the Oscars of fashion,
people really started to stand up and respect it.
I'm just focused with music all around me.
And focused with the great ones.
It's like playing basketball.
You could be all right,
but if you go out on that court everyday,
I don't care who you are, and you start playing
with Jordan, Dwayne Wade, Kobe, and Shaq,
and they playing pick up games on your block,
you gon' be somethin'.
If you just playin' with scrubs, you gon' be a scrub.
I define power in a couple of different ways.
I couldn't really answer it in one way.
I define it in impact.
The impact you have,
is it positive, is it negative?
There's two ways your power could go.
The impact your power has.
Does it evoke emotion?
Does it change?
Can you walk in a room and make it a better place?
Can you enter somebody's life
and make their life a better world?
Can you change somebody's life for the better?
To me that's power, if you can do that.
Number two is longevity.
Power for like a year, that ain't no power.
You know what I'm saying?
Being in a gang, being around.
Impacting a culture for decades,
that's power.
And one of the things I'll have to say is
relationships.
Relationships are key.
In power, how many relationships you have
where you've done things for people,
where you've helped people out.
Your relationships are strong.
Now also I base power, finally, as far as love.
The love you have,
for whatever your craft is and whatever you doin'
and I think that comes back.
The hip hop has always been
just a strictly young,
you know, quick game.
Four or five years and that person's broke.
They've never experienced, nobody gettin' finer with time.
Nobody gettin' better with time,
nobody experiencing longevity.
So it's just gonna take a minute for them to have--
they gon' have to accept it, just to be honest,
because it's like, with me and Jay,
you gon' have to get down to lay down anyway though.
Because there's other rules to this game
that you gon' have to abide by
that at the end of the day we-- that we understand.
And we understand the importance of telling the truth.
And that's somethings that, you know,
if you just gettin' into the game,
you probably tellin' a lie anyway
'cause you talkin' somebody else's game.
So if we still here,
we here because we tellin' the truth, we on that.
That's number one.
Number two is we have certain relationships.
Number three is we know how to make hit records.
And at the end of the day, that's what this thing is about.
You can be five years old, you can be 70 years old,
you make a hit record it's gonna stand the test of time.
So it's something that the game has to get used to.
I think that as long as you still lookin' pretty doin' it,
and you still graceful,
you should be able to stay.