Culture

The Last Time Sean Combs Was Puff Daddy, the World Was a Better Place

Well world, we lived long enough to see Sean Combs become Puff Daddy again. In a trailer for his new song "Big Homie," the artist known as Diddy identifies himself under his original moniker: Puff Daddy.

By Ben Cosman
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

Well world, we lived long enough to see Sean Combs become Puff Daddy again. In a trailer for his new song "Big Homie," the artist known as Diddy identifies himself under his original moniker: Puff Daddy.

After shedding the name in 2001, Puff Daddy is back.

What spurred the return to Puff Daddy? Nostalgia for simpler times? Has Combs simply grown tired of being called Diddy? Actually, according to Combs, this isn't a return at all.

So he's always been Puff Daddy? What about P. Diddy or just plain Diddy? Is he all of them, at once? We're not sure, but this sort of seems like a minor identity crisis:

See, even Combs doesn't seem to know what to call himself.

Regardless, the last time he went under the name Puff Daddy publicly, the world was an immensely different place. It was pre-9/11; George W. Bush was less than three months into his presidency and hadn't yet led us into two wars. The iPod wasn't even a thing yet. Shaggy had the most popular album in the country, and Beyoncé was still in Destiny's Child. Hell, the U.S. government was predicting a $5.6 trillion budget surplus. Simply put, it was a beautiful time to be alive.

So maybe the return of Puff Daddy means a return to those simpler, more honest times. Maybe it's a harbinger of the coming years that will find us all prosperous and content, like we used to be. Perhaps we should exalt Puff Daddy and let his name ring from our joyous tongues.

Or maybe Combs just wants to be Puff Daddy again.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.