Sean Combs has come a long way from his humble beginnings as a child in New York to his current position of international mogul with a net worth of well over a half-billion dollars.
NYU's Clive Davis Institute will be exploring Puff Daddy's phenomenal achievements and rise to fame with a course dedicated to the 44-year-old superstar this upcoming semester.
The course will be taught by Jayson Jackson, former Director of Marketing for Urban Music for Elektra.
You can read the course description below:
"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."
Source: thestashed.com
