As part a feature story for Variety, Sean “Diddy” Combs spoke in detail about the issues currently plaguing the black community. During the conversation, the Hip Hop entrepreneur addressed the lack business investments, the impact gentrification and much more.
Having founded Bad Boy Records in 1993, Diddy demonstrated his expertise as he discussed exclusion at the hands record companies who make money f black culture.
“You have these record companies that are making so much money f our culture, our art form, but they’re not investing or even believing in us,” Diddy said. “For all the billions dollars that these black executives have been able to make them, there’s still hesitation] to put them in the top-level positions.”
He continued, “They’ll go and they’ll recruit cats from overseas. It makes sense to give executives color] a chance and embrace the evolution, instead it being that we can only make it to president, senior VP … There’s no black CEO a major record company. That’s just as bad as the fact that there are no black] majority owners in the NFL. That’s what really motivates me.”
Diddy later touched on the downside gentrification and its aftermath, specifically in New York City.
“Gentrification is heartbreaking,” he said. “When I go back to New York, the energy doesn’t feel the same — the nightlife, the excitement, the provocativeness. In Harlem you still feel that, even though the community has gotten displaced and shrunk.”
Check out Diddy’s entire discussion with Variety here.