PUFF DADDY, LIVING HIS LARGE DREAMS

PUFF DADDY, LIVING HIS LARGE DREAMS (Buffalo News; 03/15/98)

Lots of performers have gone on to become record producers and even own their own record companies. But that would have been too easy for Sean "Puffy" Combs, who started out as a dancer in other performers' music videos. On the road to becoming hip-hop's hottest producer, as well as president and chief executive of the Bad Boy Entertainment conglomerate that's responsible for a major portion of today's rap music, the man known to the world as Puff Daddy also has become one of his label's best-selling artists and, recently, the winner of two Grammy awards and a Sammy Davis Jr. Entertainer of the Year Award. Only 26 years old, Puff Daddy is the Man. Combs is a mogul who sees himself as the next Berry Gordy. He envisions his company as a Fortune 500 operation that will go down in history as one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates of all time........(Puffy history)...... Now his musical horizons seem endless, an odd turn of events given his own musical limitations. Combs is not a trained musician. He can't play an instrument. His singing range is limited. His biggest hits are remakes of other people's hits: the Grammy-winning "I'll Be Missing You," his tribute to B.I.G. (based on the Police's "Every Breath You Take") and the danceable "Let's Dance" -- a remake of the David Bowie hit.