Daddy's in his house, but Sean "Puffy'' Combs is all business.He darts between two telephones, where behind each blinking white light is a radio disc jockey in a faraway city to sweet-talk.
The marketing director for Puffy's corporation, Bad Boy Entertainment, buttonholes his boss between calls. Two reporters and a camera crew wait.
When it's time to face "Entertainment Tonight,'' a photographer asks Combs to put a denim jacket over his white shirt. Without answering or smiling, Combs walks across the room for his jacket.
Breaking the mood, Combs' five-year-old son, Justin, bursts into the room with some playmates. Combs smiles broadly and hoists the laughing boy over his head.
Then it's back to work. Justin sits on a sofa playing with Monopoly money. Daddy continues his hunt for the real thing.
By any measure, it's a pivotal time for Puff Daddy, Inc. Two years ago, he was music's
reigning king.
For 25 straight weeks, he participated in each No. 1 song in the country, including his tribute to the Notorious B.I.G., "I'll Be Missing You.'' His 53 million dollars in earnings last
year made him a Forbes magazine cover subject.
Since then, he's been known more for his parties than his golden musical touch. Assault charges against a fellow music executive were an embarrassing blemish. With the
much-awaited follow-up to his multiplatinum "No Way Out'' in the stores, his longevity as a music luminary is being tested.
"I've been getting a lot of naysayers, you know,'' he said. "And I've been doing this for years. I've been working all day and all night. There's going to have to come a day when
they're going to have to give it all up.''
Before he sits down, his handlers warn that Puff doesn't want to talk about the beating he
and two others allegedly inflicted on record executive Steven Stoute on April 15. Combs was angered about his depiction in a video; Stoute wound up with a broken arm and jaw.
Combs has said the men have settled their differences, although it's not clear what that involves.
He certainly doesn't avoid the subject on his new disc, "Forever.'' The opening cut includes
a re-created news report about his arrest; Combs said that's the way he lets fans know about some of the events in his life.
The album ends with a Public Enemy tribute in which Puff Daddy declares himself "public
enemy number one.''
He warns listeners not to read too much into that sentiment, though it's hard to hear the song and not sense his frustration.
"I've spoken about the incident time and time again,'' he said. "It's a mistake in my life. I've made my bed, now I've got to lie in it. It's not the way I normally act.''
A cynic could suggest that an assault charge would harden the reputation of an artist in a field where toughness is glorified. Certainly, Puff Daddy's album is filled with the coarseness
and bravado of the streets city streets, not those around his summer home in Long Island's fashionable East Hampton.
Puff Daddy said he's neither sought, nor received, such benefits.
"No, it's not me,'' he said. "It's not like me. I don't make a hard-core, gangster album. I don't have a record. I didn't spend any time in jail. If anything, it's hurt me. It's hurt the way
certain people look at me.
It gave people the chance to have something to say, and I gave them that opportunity.''
He took heat from another direction when he posed for the cover of Forbes magazine.
It was a proud moment for Combs and his mother, who raised him in Mount Vernon, New York. At age 29, he was celebrated in the publication for his business acumen. Puff Daddy
has taken advantage of musical success to diversify, launching "Notorious'' magazine and entering the lucrative, and competitive, world of urban fashion with his "Sean John'' line.
"It turned out being a Catch-22,'' he said. "I felt like I had to do it for my race and my generation. But at the end of the day it brought me a whole lot of problems, because
everything became about the money, and that's not why I do what I do.''
Musically, Combs gets more respect as a producer than a performing artist. He's a
mediocre rapper, and seems to sense that. His album is filled with guest stars _ R. Kelly, Jay-Z, Redman, Lil' Kim, Busta Rhymes, Nas, Mario Winans and Bizzy Bone.
"I don't want to hear a whole album of Puff Daddy,'' he said. "I want to hear other people, the co-stars. The other artists give me a little bit more diversity and I bounce off them. As a
consumer, I don't know if I'd want to hear an entire album of anybody.''
Combs is interrupted by an aide whispering in his ear.
"Maryland?'' he asks.
Yes, Baltimore's on the agenda for the next day. So is Washington, D.C. And Miami, New Orleans, Memphis and Atlanta in the days to follow. He has a 4 a.m. plane reservation.
Time to go. Business calls.
