Diddy Speaks To Howard University’s Graduating Class Of 2014

On Saturday music mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs returned to his alma mater, Howard University in Washington DC to give a commencement speech to the graduating class of 2014. When he did that he also added yet another name to his many aliases. That name is “Dr. Combs,” as he was given an honorary doctorate for making this moving speech. In that speech he discussed his challenges when he physically broke down when running the New York City marathon, as well as telling the students how afraid he was hen he was famously fired from his first job at Uptown Records. He described how at that time he wished he completed his schooling at Howard to have a back up plan. At that time he made it a goal to make it back to the Howard University stage no matter where his life would take him.

Much of Diddy’s speech was full of some stories about his life that could have been heard in an interview at any point in his career on MTV, but the biggest thing he emphasized in that speech that he may not have been in a random music interview is not being afraid to fail. He went on to explain how some of his biggest successes came from some of his biggest failures. A great example of this was when he founded Bad Boy Entertainment in 1993. He did this after getting a call from Clive Davis from Arista Records, shortly after being fired from Uptown. Even though Diddy only completed only two years at Howard before leaving for Uptown/MCA Records, Howard’s community had a major impact on his company, Bad Boy’s development. Some of the most influential members of Bod Boy’s staff came directly from the community he was a part of at Howard. Some of these people include, Harve Pierre, (The President of Bad Boy Entertainment),Deric “D-Dot” Angelettie (Former Director of A&R for Bad Boy, and Leader of Bad Boy’s production Group, “The Hitmen”) and Ron Laurence (Producer and Member of “The Himen) among others.

You can tell by listening to Diddy speak with such passion that going to Howard University has meant a lot to him. It was a very sincere speech and we would like to share it with everyone below!

Sean Combs’ Commencement Speech For Howard University’s Graduating Class

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