HOUSTON-  You won’t find Sean “Diddy” Combs standing around the water cooler bemoaning “how bad the economy is.” Neither will you hear him embracing the usual excuses when it comes to why he can’t do something.
Instead, in order to overcome the reality of the recession that America is experiencing, we must believe as he stated some time ago, “God is on your side. We are already at the finish line. Anything you put your mind to, anything you want to accomplish, you put your faith in God’s hands you can do it.”
It’s not just church house rhetoric.  He used an electic mix of talent, determination and faith to build an elaborate store house of enterprises ranging from recording, music publishing, artist management, television and film production, recording facility, marketing and advertising, to apparel and restaurants. Annual sales are nearly $300 million, and he leads a 600-strong employee base.
Recently, the head of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group, stopped in Houston on a promotional tour for his latest album and tour, “Last Train to Paris,” sponsored by Cîroc Vodka.  The album, his sixth, features what the entertainment mogul calls electro-hip hop soul funk.
Combs who says he has been a “businessman” since his last release, “Press Play,” in 2007 decided it was time to return to his first love—being an artist again.  His televised search for a group this time focused on finding backup artists—musicians and background singers—who would round out the core of his new entity, Dirty Money.
The trio consists of Combs, former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard (Making the Band 4) and songwriter Kalenna. Earlier this year, Combs explained the meaning behind the moniker.
“Dirty Money is not about no drug money, illegal money, or anything negative. Dirty Money is a look, a sound, a movement, [and] a crew. For my new album Last Train to Paris, I wanted to do something refreshing, something unique, something forward for myself as an artist…I’m a team player. I wanted to tell a love story…I couldn’t just tell the male’s point of view.”
“‘Last Train to Paris’ is deeper than any of the other stuff I have ever made. It’s a profound love story. It’s me with my shades off. It’s the truth,” says Combs.
Although a recognized producer, solo artist and performer, he collaborated with producers The Dream, Tricky, The Neptunes, Mario Winans, T-Pain and Rodney Jerkins on this latest project.
In his suite at the Houstonian, Combs not only shared with African-American News&Issues the vision behind his band, but the directive that allowed him to  forever change the entertainment industry by catapulting the music and style of urban youth culture into American mainstream and creating what is considered by experts to be one of the most important forces in entertainment industry today.
The Broadway actor, marathon runner, and fragrance producer  who was named one of the most influential business people in the world by Time magazine and CNN stated, “The biggest motivation is learning through the times. Over the years, I had a certain level of passion and ambition that I think a lot of people didn’t have. That kind of gave me an edge. I didn’t come in knowing everything, but if you do something long enough you learn, and as you learn it becomes easier. You find out better ways to do it and that motivates you. When you first start doing something, you are probably doing it the hardest way.”
Having sold 75 million records around the world, one can surmise that Combs knows what he is talking about. Especially when it comes to his business acumen which  has left an indelible mark on pop culture.
“I tapped into an audience I think was under served. People felt they were unsophisticated. They made the mistake of looking at the community I represented as just a bunch of young people, who liked to wear baggy clothes and saw things one-dimensionally. I always knew they had the yearning for luxury and experience and big aspirations. I just wanted to tap into that. Even when we did the Cîroc campaign, we dressed up because we always wanted to dress up in a tuxedo. We wanted to look like old Hollywood stars because that’s the thing we aspired to do. We didn’t aspire to be in the hood playing rap music. We love that, but there are other things we want to do, other things we want to see and other places we want to go to. We’re not just one-dimensional.”
But in spite of his reputation and image of flying high and fast, Combs is also a realist who understands that sometimes you have to be flexible and learn to adapt with the times.
“Before the recession I had hit a little spot where there was some mismanagement at one of my companies. I had lost some money, but it was a blessing because it made me become conservative as a businessman. That has helped me during these times because I had experienced loss before it happened during the recession. I was already prepared. For whatever reason God had me experience loss before the recession and I think you become conscious of your consumers. We adjusted prices, adjusted the way we marketed things. We wanted to be sensitive to people’s feelings. You want to market things that they feel they can achieve and they feel are accessible and reachable even in these economic times.”
Looking back from the perch he has now, Combs is hesitant to call his journey the realization of a dream although he understands the effects of aiming high for whatever you want to accomplish in life and the importance of setting and reaching for goals.
“A dream is just a dream. That’s just some thoughts. I’m not undermining it. However, a dream can be very painful. Achieving a dream calls for a lot of sacrifice. If you are not ready to say no to going out sometimes, if you are not ready to stay up and read that book a little longer, if you are not ready to appear not to be the smartest person because you are asking questions, then I don’t think you are ready to achieve your dream.”

Sean “Diddy” Combs was in town recently to
promote the Last Train to Paris album and tour
sponsored by Cîroc Vodka. Here he poses with
Erica Davis and Marvin D. Cloud of
African-American News&Issues.