Dull moments and Diddy – aka Puffy, aka Love – could never rightfully go in the same sentence. If there’s one thing that the iconic hip-hop executive and producer consistently provides, it’s pure entertainment. He’s entertaining when giving heartfelt, motivational gems. He’s entertaining when describing his daily mood. He’s even more entertaining when he crops people out of his photos.
In his recent cover story for GQ, Diddy maintained that quality as he touched on helping mould his sons into successful businessmen, the future of his Sean John clothing line, and his mental health. But while writer John Jeremiah Sullivan followed him around his LA compound, there were moments in which Love, his newest moniker, got even more candid than many of us are used to.
The intergenerational hip-hop conversation is an infinite one in which fans from previous decades become more rigid as young artists continue to reshape the genre. Diddy has been one of the more open-minded elder statesmen on the subject. He touched on whether or not a younger version of him would be as excited in 2018 as he was when he first discovered Biggie:
“Kendrick Lamar. But Kendrick’s already made.” His shortlist of favourite new artists was “Drake, SZA, Jay-Z, Nas, Migos, Lil Baby, Future…”
Diddy’s run at the top of hip-hop is unprecedented. As pointed out in the cover story, he managed to be the highest-paid American musician in 2017 without releasing any original music. He spoke on his motivation to keep at it:
“My culture. I want to be an authentic, unapologetic warrior for black culture and the culture of the street and how it moves. My thing is most importantly to change the narrative of the black race. I can’t relate to anything that isn’t about that.”
Last year, Diddy released his Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop documentary which followed him on the days leading up to his Bad Boy reunion tour. The most gripping elements of the film were moments in which the late Biggie Smalls was memorialised. When asked if he’d ever seen a therapist to reckon with the pain of losing his best friend, Diddy answered:
“Nah. I haven’t dealt with any of that yet. I try to get into it, but… that’s something that just hurts so bad. That’s a time that’s still suppressed.”
