Diddy, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Puffy, Sean John, Sean "Puffy" Combs. It doesn't matter what you call him, as long as you're calling, or buying his suits, or the booze he promotes, or eating at his restaurant, or wearing his cologne ... you get the picture. We never heard how that whole search for an assistant thing panned out, but at this point you have to suspect that Combs has got at least one full-time staffer whose job it is to update his resume and order new business cards every six months or so when the Bad Boy battalion leader decides to switch up his signature.
If you've ever gone down to your local Social Security Administration office, you know it's a hassle to change your name just once, not to mention once a year. So, after he famously put the Puff Daddy moniker to rest years ago, we were surprised recently when SJC (that's what we call him, we just decided, so add it to the list) says, on the remix of O'Neal McKnight's "Check Your Coat": "They call me Puff Daddy ... he's back. Yeah, you heard me right, too. I said Puff Daddy. I’m about to be back on that Puff Daddy sh--." And he even posted a message about the track on his MySpace page that began "This is your boy Puff Daddy!!! Yes Puff Daddy."
Leave it to Diddy/Daddy, though, to hype a name change, only to deny his own hype just days later. No sooner had the McKnight remix — and the name-changing rumors — started gaining traction, than Diddy unleashed the latest installment of his globe-hopping, bleary eyed MySpace blog on Monday, "Diddy Blog 4: Diddy Did Not Change His Name!"
In it, he explained, "It's your boy Diddy comin' to you live to straighten out a rumor that's out there on the Internet. It's being blogged all over the world. Check this out. Your boy has not changed his name. I did not change my name. I have not changed my name. I have not changed my name. I want to stress and kind of ask the people in the power positions — the bloggers and the outlets, the reporters — let's utilize our time with something more important than if I changed my name. There are millions of Americans out there that are not registered to vote. Let's utilize our power through your blogs to get these guys registered to vote and let's make sure that they vote on my birthday, November 4. That's my birthday present that I want from all you guys."
Despite what he said in the remix and in the original MySpace message about it — the text of which has since been changed to read "P. Diddy" — Puffy reiterated, "Once again, I did not change my name. I did not change my name. I did not change my motherf---in' name. But if I wanted to, I could call myself anything I want, because I have lived this life, so I have the right to wake up in the morning and say, 'Good morning, Puffy. Good morning, Puff Daddy. Good morning, Diddy. How are you this fine mornin'?' And I would say to myself, 'Oh, I am wonderful, 'cause I'm black and I'm proud. And I got beautiful kids, and I make hit records and great clothes. And by the way, I'm rich, b----!' I would say that to any of my various names. But that would be between me and myself. Get registered to vote. Don't worry about whether I changed my name, but I didn't change my name!"
We're not suggesting that he's messing with your heads, but it's pretty clear in the 4 a.m. "Diddy Blog #3" update from Montreal also posted on June 9 — in which he heaps praise on Lil Wayne and big-ups Nas, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Jeezy, T.I. and Busta Rhymes for bringing hip-hop back — that the name game is one of Puff's favorite. "That kid Puff Daddy is here somewhere. I saw him running around," SJC teases before running off.
Brace yourselves for an unpronounceable symbol this fall.