Sean Combs: Man Behind The Monikers

(CBS)  You could say that actor, entrepreneur and rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs is somewhat of a chameleon.

The hip hop mogul always seems to be taking on new challenges - such as appearing in the 2004 Broadway revival of "A Raisin in the Sun," and the ABC television adaptation of the book, which aired in February of 2008.

And with new the endeavors it seems, comes the creation of new monikers.

Combs, aka "Puff Daddy," "P. Diddy," "Diddy" and "Puffy" says the nicknames really embrace his different personality traits.

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"The evolution of my name has really just been many sides of me," Combs told THR.com.

"One of the things about being an artist is you have different personalities that you channel artistically, and my name changes have been just fun. It hasn't been anything serious. It's just saying things growing up in the neighborhood, and different people call you nicknames. But then you're famous and things get blown out of proportion," Combs said.

Growing up in the streets of New York, Combs created rhymes in its boroughs that would later carry him and his partner, the late Christopher George Latore Wallace a.k.a "Biggie Smalls" ("Notorious B.I.G."), to super-stardom.

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Fast forward to today and images of Combs are plastered throughout those same streets.

The successful entrepreneur, who has an eye for finding talent as well as the fashion sense of a clothing designer, has even put his blood, sweat and tears into running the New York City Marathon.

By dabbling in a multitude of enterprises and now rigorously pursuing an acting career, many wonder what the next moniker will be or why it constantly changes.

"It has been a description of how I've evolved," Combs said. "Right now my focus has been on myself as an actor, and I've preserved the right of using my birth name from my mother, my most vulnerable name, to go by as an actor. So when you go see my movies you won't see P. Diddy. You'll see Sean Combs. That would be the honest representation of who I am."

Whether or not his acting career ultimately takes off like his previous pursuits, Combs certainly has a supportive cushion to fall back on.

But, playing it safe and staying put in the background is not Combs' style. He'd rather be front and center.

"Anything is possible. I wake up in the morning and I just go with the flow. I just make the best of it, and I'm just having fun. But at the same time it's a very serious time for me because I'm evolving as an artist; I'm evolving as a person," Combs said.

"I don't want to stop. I've had a great career and a huge amount of success and I want to keep on going; I want to do things that people don't expect me to do. I want to surprise people, I want to keep on entertaining, and I think the best way to do that is through the art of storytelling and exploring different characters."

By Melissa Castellanos
By Melissa Castellanos